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LITS3304 CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL
THEORY:
POST-STRUCTURALISMS AND POST-COLONIALISMS
EXAM ADVICE 2009-2010
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The exam has SIX questions. You are required to answer TWO questions in
all, each from a different section, in TWO hours.
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The exam is divided into TWO sections
devoted, respectively, to Modules 2 (Structuralist Psychoanalysis) and
3 (Deconstruction). Though the focus of the exam is on
these two schools of thought, you may, as you see fit, draw on material covered in Module
1 (Structuralism) in support of your answers.
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In each section, there are THREE questions,
each of a comparative nature. In some questions, the theorists to
be compared are named while in others they are not specified.
In each section, there is one question devoted to Postcolonial theory
which, notwithstanding the theorist specifically named, you may use the
work of any Postcolonial theorist studied.
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Each question will address a topic
addressed in the module in question. You might recall that in each
module,
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We began by examining the broader
theoretical premises of the school in question:
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Module 2: we first tried to develop an
overview of Freud's conception of the psyche and the child's development
before moving on to Lacan's rewriting of Freud in the light of the
Structuralist views of language advanced
by Sausssure and co.;
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Module 3: we tried to grasp Derrida's notion of 'différance'
as an important rewriting of Saussure's notion of 'difference';
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We tried to situate the school in question in
relation to important precursors:
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Module 2: we linked Structuralist
Psychoanalysis to both Structuralism and Psychoanalysis;
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Module 3: we
linked Deconstruction to Phenomenology (studied in another course,
LITS3303, and thus not familiar to us) and to Structuralism;
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We examined the use made by literary
theorists of some of the key concepts discussed above, tried to familiarise ourselves with the views of such theorists on as many of of
the following sub-topics as possible (The Author,
Literary Form and Genre,
Literary History (the Tradition) / Intertextuality / Canonicity,
The Reader,
and
Representation),
and strove to identify some of the characteristic features of the
approach to criticism in question:
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Module 2: though we did not focus on literary theory per se
in this module, many of the
theorists discussed in Module 3, not least Barthes and Bloom, are also influenced
at least to some degree by Lacan;
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Module 3: we discussed how literary
theorists like Barthes and De Man seek to apply Derrida's non-concept of
'différance' to the study of literature and explored what one might
understand by a specifically deconstructive approach to
criticism;
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We explored the use made by particular
Postcolonial theorists of key concepts of the school in question to
explore the nature of colonial and postcolonial culture in general and
Caribbean culture in particular:
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Module 2: we examined Bhabha's thinking in
the light of Structuralist Psychoanalysis;
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Module 3: we examined Hall
and Bhabha in the light of Deconstruction;
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Last but not least, a common theme which we
noted in several of these thinkers is a critique or at least
suspicion of scientism and what I have called elsewhere 'philosophy' (e.g. Freud, notwithstanding his scientific
aspirations, was deeply indebted to literature for many of his most
profound insights) and a
contrasting turn towards 'rhetoric,' the literary, and discourse analysis.
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You should, in each of your answers, carefully analyse the arguments of the theorists
in question with a view to answering the specific question asked.
Please access the past exam
papers from this course here.
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