LITS3303 MODERN CRITICAL THEORY

MODULE ONE: PHENOMENOLOGY / EXISTENTIALISM / HERMENEUTICS
 

WEEK NINE: TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY
(Week of March 22)
 

• Edmund Husserl, Phenomenology [1927] (pp. 658-664 in Adams and Searle)

• 09A Husserl, "Phenomenology"

• Georges Poulet, "Criticism and the Experience of Interiority" [1966] (repub. as "Phenomenology of Reading," pp. 1147-1154 in Adams; pp. 1320-1332 in Leitch)

• Wolfgang Iser, "The Reading Process: a Phenomenological Approach" [1972] (pp. 274-294 in The Implied Reader)

• 09B Iser, "The Reading Process"

• Kearney, Richard.  "Edmund Husserl."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994. 12-27.
• Freund, Elizabeth.  The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism.  London: Methuen, 1987.
• Holub, Robert C.  Reception Theory: a Critical Introduction.  London: Methuen, 1984.

• Phenomenology / Existentialism / Hermeneutics:
  • Husserl
  • Poulet
  • Iser

• Note that I have removed the Poulet essay from the required readings listed for this week.  You can focus on the Husserl and the Iser alone.

WEEK TEN: EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY (EXISTENTIALISM)
(Week of March 29)
 

• Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness [1943]: Selections (pp. 280-317 in Mark C. Taylor, ed. Deconstruction in Context)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism [1946]

• 10A Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism

• Jean-Paul Sartre, "Why Write?" [1948] (pp. 984-992 in Adams; also pp. 1136-1349 in Leitch)

• 10B Sartre, "Why Write?"

• Kearney, Richard.  "Jean-Paul Sartre."  Modern Movements in European Philosophy: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Structuralism.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1994.  51-72.
• Freund, Elizabeth.  The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism.  London: Methuen, 1987.
• Holub, Robert C.  Reception Theory: a Critical Introduction.  London: Methuen, 1984.

• Sartre

• Note that I have made some changes / corrections to the version of 10A (on Sartre's Existentialism and Humanism) distributed in class.

WEEK ELEVEN: HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY
(Week of April 5)
 

• Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method [1960]: Selections (pp. 840-854 in Adams and Searle)12BFanon,SelectionsfromTheWretchedoftheEarth.pdf

• 11A Gadamer, Truth and Method

• Hans Robert Jauss, "Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory" [1967] (pp. 1550-1564 in Leitch; pp. 164-184 in Adams and Searle)

• 11B Jauss, "Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory"

• Palmer, Richard E.  "Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics" and "Gadamer's Critique of Modern Aesthetic and Historical Consciousness."  Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer.  Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1979.  194-217 and 162-193.
• Freund, Elizabeth.  The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism.  London: Methuen, 1987.
• Holub, Robert C.  Reception Theory: a Critical Introduction.  London: Methuen, 1984.

• Gadamer

• Jauss

WEEK TWELVE: PHENOMENOLOGICAL / EXISTENTIALIST / HERMENEUTICAL POST-COLONIAL THEORY
(Week of April 12)
 

• Frantz Fanon
  • Black Skin White Masks [1952]:
    • Ch. 1: "The Negro and Language"
    • Ch. 5: "The Fact of Blackness"
    • Ch. 7: "The Negro and Recognition"
  • The Wretched of the Earth [1961]: 
    • Ch. 1: "Concerning Violence"
    • Ch. 4: "On National Culture" (pp. 1587-1593 in Leitch)

• 12A Fanon, Selections from Black Skin White Masks
• 12B Selections from Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

• George Lamming, "The Negro Writer and his World" [1956] (pp. 35-44 in his Essays, Addresses and Interviews, ed. Andaiye and Richard Drayton, et al.)

• 12C Lamming, "The Negro Writer and his World"

• Gordon, Lewis, ed.  Existence in Black: an Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy.  London: Routledge, 1997.

• Henry, Paget.  "African and Afro-Caribbean Existential Philosophies."  Existence in Black: an Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy.  Ed. Lewis Gordon.  London: Routledge, 1997.  13-36.

• Post-colonial Theory: Phenomenological Post-colonial Theory:
  • Fanon
  • Lamming