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Academic Year 2001/2002

Literary Studies and Oppositional Critique
ENGL 312 SP

This seminar will investigate efforts to conceptualize literary studies as oppositional cultural and social critique, concentrating on the postwar period to the present. We will read (and criticize) the work of several British cultural studies and British Left critics (Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, Stuart Hall, Terry Eagleton), some progressive American literary and cultural critics (Edward Said, Frederic Jameson, Richard Ohmann, Paul Lauter), and a few French theorists (Michael Foucault, Pierre Boudrieu, Jean-Paul Sartre). Emphasis will be placed on performance studies and what might be termed "passing studies" (Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick). Attention will also be paid to the historical conditions within which certain kinds of linka ges between literary studies and oppositional critique were produced. In addition, we will read numerous literary texts--mainly, but not exclusively, American--that endeavor to be "oppositional" (the Beats, Jean Genet, Arthur Kopit). Throughout we will reevaluate the politics--and performances--of constructions of "oppositionality" in modern literary studies.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2002

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