Monday, August 28, 2006

Syllabus for Critical Theory A, Fall 2006

Critical Theory A

“The Point Is to Change It”

Fall 2006


Tuesdays, 9.00-11.45
Instructor: Dale Carrico, dalec@berkeley.edu; dcarrico@sfai.edu
Office Hours: Before and after class and by appointment.
Course Blog: http://arguere.blogspot.com

Course Description

What is theory good for? Marx famously complained that while philosophers have only interpreted the world, “the point is to change it.” Just what are the relations of theory and practice? How does theory illuminate and invigorate human agency?

Course Requirements

Required Texts Include:

Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology

Roland Barthes, Mythologies

John Carpenter (dir.), They Live

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 1

Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Paul Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancholia

Judith Butler, Undoing Gender


Essays Available Online or Distributed In-Class:

Donna Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” from Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature

William Burroughs, “Immortality,” from The Adding Machine

Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto

Carol Adams, “On Beastliness and a Politics of Solidarity,” from Neither Man Nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals


Your final grade will be based on the following:

Attendance/Participation/Quizzes: 25%
Five 2-3pp Blog Posts: 50%
Final Examination: 25%

Schedule of Meetings

Week One, August 29

Administrative Introduction
Personal Introductions

Week Two, September 5

Course Introduction
Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs”

Week Three, September 12

Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

Week Four, September 19

Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
Marx and Engels, The German Ideology

First Blog Post Must Be Published by Now

Week Five, September 26

Marx and Engels, The German Ideology

Week Six, October 3

Barthes, Mythologies

Week Seven, October 10

They Live (Screening)
Barthes, Mythologies

Second Blog Post Must Be Published By Now

Week Eight, October 17

They Live (discussion)

Week Nine, October 24

Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Week Ten, October 31

Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 1

Third Blog Post Must Be Published By Now

Week Twelve, November 7

Burroughs, “Immortality”

Week Thirteen, November 14

Solanas, “SCUM Manifesto”

Week Fourteen, November 21

Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Fourth Blog Post Must Be Published By Now

Week Fifteen, November 28

Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks
Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancholia

Week Sixteen, December 5

Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancholia
Adams, “On Beastliness and a Politics of Solidarity”

Week Seventeen, December 12

Butler, Undoing Gender
Concluding Remarks

Take-Home Final Examination Due In-Class
Fifth Blog Post Must Be Published By Now