110B - Introduction to Modern Literary and Critical Theory

Nathan Brown

This course will offer an introduction to major theoretical concepts and traditions that have influenced approaches to literary studies and inquiry in the humanities more broadly. In the first half of the course we will focus on the manner in which a postwar generation of French thinkers (Fanon, Althusser, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida) transformed the major concepts and problems at stake in the work of their German precursors (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud). In the latter half of the course we will turn to contemporary theoretical approaches that emerge from and transform the traditions we have been studying, focusing on postcolonial theory, gender/sexuality studies, and media/technology studies.

Grading

Texts