ENCR8610 (Schedule # 19063)
University of Virginia
Fall 2009
MW 3:30-4:45pm :: 2007 McLeod Hall
Mr. David Golumbia
Office: 449 New Cabell Hall
Fall 2009 Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:45pm

Literary and Critical Theory

This course provides an introductory survey of issues and topics in contemporary literary and critical theory, with particular attention paid to topics that are of current interest to literary scholars. Topics to be covered include structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism, gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory, postcolonialism, cultural studies, and historicism, among others. We will read texts by writers including some or all of Derrida, Spivak, Butler, Foucault, Deleuze & Guattari, Spillers, Hardt and Negri, Jameson, Said, and Zizek, among others. Students will prepare discussion questions ahead of time, and write two short papers (one using literature and one on a theoreitcal work not on the syllabus but related to it), and write a final paper that deploys theoretical material in the service of interpreting literary and/or cultural texts of the student's choice. This course assumes some (but not extensive) familiarity with the terms and concerns of critical theory, such as taking an undergraduate course in theory or another graduate course of which theory was an important part.

Texts in Collab

• Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author." In Image-Music-Text. New York: Hill & Wang, 1978. 142-148.
• Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." In Diana Fuss, ed., Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories. New York: Routledge, 1991. 13-31.
• Margreta de Grazia and Peter Stallybrass, "The Materiality of the Shakespearian Text." Shakespeare Quarterly 44:3 (Autumn 1993). 255-283.
• Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, selections from A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1987. The complete text of this book is available as an eText through the UVa library system.
• Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." In Writing and Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. 278-294.
• ---, "For the Love of Lacan," from Resistances: Of Psychoanalysis. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1998. 39-69.
• ---, selections from Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2005.
• Michel Foucault, "What Is an Author?" In Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. 101-120. (note: must be this version of essay; other versions are shorter and omit important text)
• ---, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History." In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1980. 139-164.
• ---, Lecture One from The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-79. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008.
• ---, "Preface to Anti-Oedipus." In Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983. xi-xiv.
• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, selections from Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.
• Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism." New Left Review 146 (July-August 1984). 53-92.
• Jacques Lacan, "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter.'" In Écrits:The First Complete Edition in English. New York: Norton. 6-30 (first part of essay only--that is, the original seminar and not the later commentary that begins on page 30).
• Edward Said, Chapter One of Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993.
• Hortense Spillers, "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book." diacritics 17:2 (1987). 65-81.
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism." Critical Inquiry 12:1 (Autumn 1985). 243-261.
• ---, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 271-313.
• Peter Stallybrass, "Shakespeare, the Individual, and the Text." In Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler, eds. Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1992. 593-612.
• Rei Terada, selections from Feeling in Theory: Emotion after the "Death of the Subject." Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.
• Paolo Virno, "Virtuosity and the Revolution: The Political Theory of Exodus." In Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt, eds., Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics. Minneapolis, MN: U Minnesota P, 2006. 189-212.
• Slavoj Zizek, selections from The Plague of Fantasies. New York: Verso, 1997.

Assignments and Evaluation

Evaluation will be based on written exercises and course participation as follows:

• 5-7 pp. papers (2): 20% each (total 40%). The first short paper asks you to examine a literary work of your choosing through the lens of one of the critical works we'll read. The second asks you to read and respond to a reading not on our syllabus but referenced by it. We will go over both assignments in detail in class and have paper meetings outside class to make sure the assignments are clear.
• Final 12-15 pp. paper: 40%. The final paper will be on a topic of your choosing that relates to the course subject matter. The default will be to write a paper on a literary topic with theoretical writings as methodological guide; you may also write directly on a theoretical topic. Final paper topics must be discussed with the instructor prior to being handed in.
• Participation, including all in-class work, your attendance and participation in discussion and in solo and group projects: 20%. This includes posting two substantial discussion questions to the Collab forum for the class for two of the readings over the course of the term, at least one day before the class meets.
  

Policies

• This course is taught primarily via discussion. Your attendance and participation are vital to its success. A significant portion of your grade (20%) depends on your class participation. More than 2 unexcused absences will count against your final course grade. More than 4 unexcused absences results in automatic failure of the course, in accordance with College guidelines. Letter grades are not assigned for individual participation activities (presentations, reading responses, etc.); you are assigned a single letter grade for participation at the end of the term.
• No late work is accepted in this class. Work handed in late is automatically marked down one-third grade (e.g., a B becomes a B-) for each day it is late, and after one week becomes a failing grade for the assignment.
• You are expected to have done the primary reading and any other primary course assignments before the beginning of course each week. Wikipedia readings are intended for background only, but their content will often be directly relevant to class discussions.
• All work in this course is subject to the University's Honor Code. You may work in teams for some assignments, but all written work must be solely your own, and any reliance on published work must be properly cited.
• Final grades for the course will not be released until the entire class has submitted online course evaluations.

Week-by-Week Syllabus

Week 1. Introduction

• Weds. Aug 26. No reading assignment.

Week 2. The Subject

• Mon. Aug 31. Foucault, "What Is an Author?"; Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
  
• Weds. Sep 2. Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination"

Week 3. Questioning Texts

• Mon. Sep 7. Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences"
  
• Weds. Sep 9. Spivak, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism"

Week 4. Subjects and Texts

• Mon. Sep 14. Poe, "The Purloined Letter"; Lacan, "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'"
  
• Weds. Sep 16. Derrida, "For the Love of Lacan"
  

Week 5. Texts in History

• Mon. Sep 21. de Grazia and Stallybrass, "The Materiality of the Shakespearian Text"
  
• Weds. Sep 23. Stallybrass, "Shakespeare, the Individual, and the Text." First paper due at beginning of class.

Week 6. Subjects in/and Culture

• Mon. Sep 28. Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" pp 271-291
  
• Weds. Sep 30. Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?" pp. 291-end

Week 7. Reading Period

• Mon. Oct 5. No class
  
• Weds. Oct 7. No class (paper prep/meetings)

Week 8. Rereading for the Subject

• Mon. Oct 12. Spillers, "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book"
  
• Weds. Oct 14. Terada, selections from Feeling in Theory

Week 9. Empires

• Mon. Oct 19. Edward Said, Chapter One of Culture and Imperialism
  
• Weds. Oct 21. Hardt & Negri, selections from Empire

Week 10. Geneaology and Biopolitics

• Mon. Oct 26. Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History"
• Weds. Oct 28. Foucault, lecture 1 from The Birth of Biopolitics.

Week 11. Schizoanalysis

• Mon. Nov 2. Foucault, "Preface to Anti-Oedipus"; Deleuze and Guattari, "Rhizome" (from A Thousand Plateaus)
  
• Weds. Nov 4. Deleuze and Guattari, "November 20, 1923: Postulates of Linguistics" and "1440: The Smooth and the Striated" (both from A Thousand Plateaus)

Week 12. Postmodernity

• Mon. Nov 9. Jameson, "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism." Second paper due at beginning of class.
  
• Weds. Nov 11. No class (instructor away)

Week 13. Rogues

• Mon. Nov 16. Derrida, selections from Rogues (pt 1)
  
• Weds. Nov 18. Derrida, selections from Rogues (pt 2)

Week 14. Thanksgiving

• Mon. Nov 23. No class (paper prep/conferences)
  
• Weds. Nov 25. No class (Thanksgiving)
  

Week 15. Virtuosity and the Virtual

• Mon. Nov 30. Virno, "Virtuosity and the Revolution"
• Weds. Dec 2. Zizek, selections from The Plague of Fantasies

Week 16. Final Class

• Mon. Dec 7. Open discussion.

Final paper due in my English Dept mailbox (Faculty Lounge, 2nd floor, Bryan Hall) by the end of exam period for the course: 5pm, Tues Dec 15. There is no final exam for the course.

Last updated October 19, 2009.