Culture and Critique

What is culture? How is it known, studied and analyzed? What explanatory force does it lend to the analysis of texts? Our ten-week course will trace key essays and debates on theories of culture—from Louis Althusser’s reflections on ideology to Bruno Latour’s notion of network. Each week will focus on a key term in culture studies (sign, mythology, culture, ideology, discourse, context, identity, network and ontology) and will provide an introduction to the Frankfurt school, post-structuralism and speculative realism. In our discussions, we will combine philosophy, anthropology and literature as we consider both the potentials and limitations of cultural explanation. Our discussions will focus on the literary dimensions of these theoretical essays, and we will blur the lines between literature and theory in the process. This reading and writing intensive course is designed as a survey of a field and an opportunity to engage with methods in cultural analysis and attention to the essay as form. Authors include Louis Althusser, Theodor Adorno, Judith Butler, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, Jacques Derrida, and Quentin Meillassoux.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

• Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
• Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)