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Instructors: Dr. Damien Schlarb
Event type:
online: Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
05.008.510
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Requirements / organisational issues:
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)
- group assignment
Final Grade
Final exam (100% of grade)
Prior Knowledge
To successfully complete this course, you will need
- Internet access (weekly)
- Online access to JGU’s university library servers via VPN
- Proficiency in academic writing in English
- Proficiency in academic research methods
- Familiarity with methodologies and research questions of the humanities
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 functions to unsettle our preconceptions of seemingly impermeable concepts, such as form, style, literature, identity, and culture. 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:
I will provide the readings through our class website (details will follow). Below, I recommend several books that will prove helpful in your studies.
- Leitch, Vincent B., et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed., Norton, 2010. (anthology that contain major texts)
- Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan, eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. Print. (anthology that contain major texts)
- **Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 3rd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. (a very good introductory handbook)
- Anker, Elizabeth S., and Rita Felski, eds. Critique and Postcritique. Duke University Press, 2017. (a recent collection with essays on postcritical reading)
Digital teaching:
This class will be taught online. Please ensure that you have a working internet connection and can participate in live as well as asynchronous teaching sessions via MS Teams, Skype, etc. I will provide further details about the course's online components at the beginning of the semester.
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