Critical Cultural Theory I

Tama campus, spring, Friday, 3:00~4:30

This second-year seminar intends to build upon theoretical understandings established in the Contemporary Problems and Discovering Others I seminars of 2003-04. Students who did not participate in either of those will be encouraged to work with students who did to ensure a smooth transition to the work of this course, the aim of which will be to acquaint students with further theoretical constructions that have been of importance to recent work in interdisciplinary cross cultural studies, both in the social sciences and the humanities.

We shall begin by turning to the work of Michel Foucault, and follow upon this with an examination of other writers who have been of central importance in the development of the topic of the course, Critical Cultural Theory. These may include, for example, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Jean Baudrillard, and Judith Butler.

Evaluation will be based upon active participation in all seminar matters, individual and group presentations, and written reactions to the texts under discussion, which will be provided by the instructor.