The seminar will proceed through close reading of,key texts of philosophy in relation to competing,readings of literary works – for example,,Beckett’s Endgame as interpreted by Cavell and,Adorno. The course will also pay attention to,the role of film in the development of,avant-garde and feminist critical theory -,Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle and,Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman.(There will be,screenings of Endgame and The Society of the,Spectacle in class, and In girum nocte et,consumimur igni, and Jeanne Dielman will be,outside class at MOCAD.) The course is not a,survey, but an introduction, and so seeks to,provide students with a vocabulary historically,situated to enable independent work; to this end,the emphasis will be upon close attention to,texts and works.,,DEI: Critical Theory is a post-philosophical style,of thinking developed in Germany between the two,World Wars. Critical Theory, begun in the,Frankfurt School, is the use of psycho-analytic,concepts (Freud) with the politics of the Young,Marx to develop a theory of society, art,,literature, and modernity.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: DEN 102