A course in critical theory that doubles as the mandatory introduction to graduate study in English, 506 suggests a number of broad priorities: to sample some of the defining critical conversations in literary and cultural studies; to begin to situate these conversations within the longer historical arc of transformations in the discipline of literary studies, and the emergence of interdisciplinary cultural studies; relatedly, to reflect on the theory and practice of disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship, and how they are situated within contemporary configurations of the Humanities; and along the way, to read and engage some of the foundational figures of “modern and contemporary critical theory.” As ambitious as this may sound, we will, in fact, attempt to honor these priorities, bearing in mind that the course is best understood, not as a survey, or overview, but rather as an effort to orient class members to a very large, complex, and variegated critical terrain – to establish a few vital critical reference points, rather than to fill out the map.

As we navigate this encompassing agenda, we will aim to hold front and center a set of questions about the relation between critical theory, cultural “objects,” and analytic practice. How and to what ends do we “theorize” an archive or object? What is the relation between the (animating) critical question and the ground (the literary or cultural archive) where we situate that question? Or in other words, how do “theory” and “object” indicate and inform each other? In selecting a theoretical and a literary (or cultural) focus, what is our obligation to the longer history of allied critical reflection and literary scholarship? How do we know what is relevant – that is, how do we figure out what we need to know in order to make a particular kind of theorized argument about a particular object or archive? In brief, our explorations in critical theory will be keyed to the question of how we conceive and elaborate a critical project.

The reading list (and the sequence of readings) is still very much under construction. It will almost certainly include Catherine Belsey’s Critical Practice, Derrida’s “Signature, Event, Context,” Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, and Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle. It will also likely include work by Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Spivak, Philip Brian Harper, Stuart Hall, Lawrence Grossberg, and Anne McClintock. I am still considering what forms of writing would be most productive in relation to the agenda and materials of the class. Prospective students are welcome to contact me closer to the start of the term for more detailed information about the readings and assignments.