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Instructors: Dr. Damien Schlarb
Event type:
Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
05.008.510
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Requirements / organisational issues:
To successfully complete this course, you will need
- Internet access (weekly)
- Online access to JGU’s university library servers via VPN. Please refer to the ZDV help site for details.
- Proficiency in academic writing in English
- Proficiency in academic research methods
- Familiarity with methodologies and research questions of the humanities
Active Particiaption Requirements
You must complete all of these in order to get aktive Teilnahme.
- online reading responses (6 over the course of the semester)
- expert group assignment
- midterm examination
Final Grade
- Final exam (100% of grade)
Readings
all readings will be provided through our learning platform (ILIAS). However, I do recommend reviewing and maybe purchasing books from the list of recommended texts below, as they will be valuable resources for your graduate work.
Contents:
In this course, we survey selected methods and critical theories relevant to literary and cultural studies. Literary scholars and many who work in Cultural Studies employ hermeneutic methods to engage their analytical objects: We analyze and critically discuss—we “read”—cultural texts and objects to determine their overt and covert meanings. Our objects inevitably vary, ranging from novels to video games. They may even hold multiple, contradictory meanings. Determining meanings requires that we master critical reading strategies and learn different techniques for attending to our objects. We may read critically, analytically, symptomatically, reparatively, and we may do so attending to particular matters of concern, such as form, structure, history, gender, class, or ethnicity. Our goal for this course will be to understand why we read, what we do when we read, and why this type of critical engagement matters. We will talk about how certain reading techniques can help us produce particular meanings, and we will discuss how critical theories help us deepen our thinking, how they supply us with expert vocabularies, and how they allow us to articulate more salient and relevant insights.
We may consider critical theory a distinct textual genre with specific functions and properties. Theoretical language helps us attend to complex matters of concern that we could not access or describe accurately were we to use everyday language. If everyday language is a cudgel, theoretical language is a scalpel. Some argue that the intrinsic value of critical theory lies in its linguistic inaccessibility. Theory should unsettle our preconceptions about seemingly natural concepts and thus allow us to turn a critical eye to the world, its objects, and their meanings. Form, style, literature, identity, and culture are all in the purview of this critical gaze.
Our initial task will therefore be to establish a report with theoretical language and develop reading strategies for accessing it. On the flipside, many of the texts we encounter will teach us how to read in new ways. The texts we will survey originate from a variety of academic disciplines: literary and cultural studies, psychology, sociology, history, and philosophy. Readings will regularly require multiple close readings. Please plan extra time in your schedules for dissecting dense materials.
Recommended reading list:
Anker, Elizabeth S., and Rita Felski, eds. Critique and Postcritique. Duke University Press, 2017.
Rivkin, Julie, and Michael Ryan, eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
*Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 9th ed., University of Chicago Press, 2018.
* Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 3rd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Digital teaching:
Learning Platform
We will use ILIAS as our learning platform. Here you will find readings, assignments and other course materials.
Online Meetings
Depending on the policies in effect at the beginning of the semester, parts or even all of this course may be conducted online. If so, we will use MS Teams to meet for weekly online sessions.
Registered students will receive links to both platforms via email the first week of classes.
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