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
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