ENGL 7120-01: Introduction to Critical Theory

Section Description: “Introduction to Critical Theory” surveys the major intellectual movements that most directly influenced literary, cultural, and critical theory across the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. These movements, broadly construed, include cultural Marxism, psychoanalysis, and (linguistic) structuralism, and the course will trace both their establishment and growth from 1900 on, as well as the processes of development, conflict, and exchange among them that extended past mid-century, and that eventually underwent foundational retheorization with the “post-structural turn.” The course concludes by tracing the influence of these movements on the schools of theoretically enlivened interdisciplinary study that emerged at the end of the 1900’s and into the 2000’s: race and ethnic studies, decolonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, disability studies, and environmental studies. Students will work closely with each other and with the instructor to select “primary” texts of literary, cultural, performance, and media work to test out what they’re learning about (and with) theory. In addition to Marx, Freud, and Saussure, the course will cover work by Fanon and Barthes, Derrida and Lacan, Butler and Wynter. The instructor will make all readings available in PDF.