LITS3303 / LITS6001 MODERN CRITICAL THEORY 2007-2008

MODULE ONE: MARXISM

The Term Paper is now online.  Please go to the 2007-2008 homepage and click on the appropriate link.
 

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• What is Theory?  (What is Continental philosophy?)
• What is Literary Theory?

• Immanuel Kant Critique of Pure Reason [1781] (see extract entitled "Experience and Understanding," pp. 41-45 in Cottingham)

RECOMMENDED READINGS

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Philosophy / Theory:
  • Being or Reality
  • Human Being (inc. the Mind, the Self)
  • Knowledge (inc. Reasoning)
  • Language
  • Morality
  • Social and Political Formation
• Literary Theory:
  • The Audience
  • The Author
  • Form and Genre
  • Historicism
  • Literary History, Intertextuality, Canonicity
  • Representation (Realism)

WEEK TWO: HEGEL AND GERMAN IDEALISM
 

• G. W. F. Hegel The Philosophy of History [1805-1806; 1830-31] (see the extract entitled "History as the Self-Realisation of Spirit."  The Modern Tradition: Backgrounds of Modern Literature.  Ed. Richard Ellmann and Charles Feidelson.  Oxford: OUP, 1965.  457-464.) [FOLDER]¹

• 02A Hegel The Philosophy of History

• G. W. F. Hegel The Phenomenology of Spirit [1807]:
  • "The Master / Slave Dialectic" (pp. 630-636 in Leitch)

• 02B Hegel The Phenomenology of Spirit [see the section on the so-called master-slave dialectic]

• Singer, Peter.  Hegel.  Oxford: OUP, 1983.  Rpt. as Hegel: a Very Short Introduction.  Oxford: OUP, 2001.²

• Hegel

WEEK THREE: MARXIST THEORY
 

• Karl Marx
  • Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy [1858-59] (pp. 625-627 in Adams; pp. 774-776 in Leitch)
  • The German Ideology [1845-46] (pp. 625-626 in Adams; pp. 767-769 in Leitch)

• 03A Marx Overview

• Georg Lukács "Class Consciousness" [1920] (pp. 46-82 in his History and Class Consciousness) [FOLDER]
• Antonio Gramsci "The Formation of the Intellectuals" [1929-1935] (pp. 1135-1143 in Leitch)

• 03B Lukacs Overview
• 03C Gramsci "The Formation of the Intellectuals"

• Kellner, Douglas.  "Karl Marx."  Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy.  Ed. Robert Solomon and David L. Sherman.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.  62-89.
• Kearney, Richard.  "Georg Lukács."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994.  136-150.
• Kearney, Richard.  "Antonio Gramsci."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994.  169-189.

• Marxism:
  • Marx
  • Lukács
  • Gramsci

WEEK FOUR: MARXIST THEORY CONTINUED / MARXIST LITERARY THEORY
 

• We will continue our discussion of Lukacs and Gramsci from last time.

• see above

• Walter Benjamin
  • "The Author as Producer" [1927] (pp. 220-238 in his Reflections) [FOLDER]
  • "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" [1936] (pp. 217-252 in his Illuminations; also pp. 1163-1185 in Leitch)

• 04A Benjamin "The Author as Producer"
• 04B Benjamin "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

• Kearney, Richard.  "Walter Benjamin."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994.  151-168.

• Marxist Literary Theory:
  • Benjamin

WEEK FIVE: MARXIST LITERARY THEORY CONTINUED
 

• Georg Lukacs "Art and Objective Truth" [1954] (pp. 25-61 in his Writer and Critic, and Other Essays; also pp. 791-807 in Adams and Searle)

• 05A Lukacs "Art and Objective Truth"

• Lucien Goldmann "The Genetic Structuralist Method in the History of Literature" [1963] (pp. 156-171 in Towards a Sociology of the Novel) [FOLDER]³

• 05B Goldmann "The Genetic Structuralist Method in the History of Literature"

• Kearney, Richard.  "Georg Lukács."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994.  136-150.

• Williams, Raymond.  "Literature and Sociology: in Memory of Lucien Goldmann."  Problems in Materialism and Culture.  London: Verso, 1980.  11-30.

• Lukács
• Goldmann

WEEK SIX: MARXIST POST-COLONIAL THEORY
 

• C. L. R. James
  • "Dialectical Materialism and the Fate of Humanity" [1947] (pp. 153-181 in The C. L. R James Reader) [FOLDER]
  • "From Toussaint L'Ouverture to Fidel Castro" [1963] (pp. 297-314 in The C. L. R James Reader) [FOLDER]
• Aimé Césaire "From Discourse on Colonialism" [1950] (pp. 172-180 in Williams and Chrisman) [FOLDER]

• 06A James "Dialectical Materialism and the Fate of Humanity" (Deane, Gordon and Moise)
• 06B James "From Toussaint L'Ouverture to Fidel Castro" (Frederick, George & Noel)
• 06C Cesaire Discourse on Colonialism (Belgrave & Hurdle)

• C. L. R. James
  • "Preface to Criticism" [1955] (pp. 254-260 in The C. L. R. James Reader) [FOLDER]
  • "The Artist in the Caribbean" [1959] (p. 183-190 in The Future in the Present: Selected Writings) [FOLDER]
• Chidi Amuta The Theory of African Literature [1989]: "A Dialectical Theory of African Literature: Categories and Springboards" [FOLDER]
• Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth [1961]:
  • Ch. 1: "Concerning Violence" [FOLDER] NB I have added this

• 06D James "Preface to Criticism" (Boyce)
• 06E James "The Artist in the Caribbean" (Blackett)
• 06F Amuta A Dialectical Theory of African Literature (Griffith, Louis & Marshall):
  • Summary
• 06G Fanon The Wretched of the Earth: Ch. 1 "Concerning Violence"

• Marxist Post-colonial Theory:
  • James
  • Cesaire
  • Fanon
  • Amuta

FOOTNOTES
 

1. This article is an extract from Sibree's translation of The Philosophy of History.  Go to my PhilWeb Hegel page for other translations (e.g. see Reason in History).

2. Singer's introduction to Hegel is a useful, brief summary of Hegel's key ideas.  See the Hegel page for a variety of other secondary sources.

3. Please note that I have replaced the Williams article with a more important one by Goldmann.