OVERVIEW OF THE SYLLABUS

This course is designed as a survey, rather than an extensive treatment of particular movements and schools. It tends to scant feminism, not because I think feminism unimportant, but rather because feminist theory is already the subject of a fine course taught by my colleagues in the Gender Studies program.

The syllabus begins with writers who paved the way for contemporary theory, including Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, and Saussure. It then goes on to focus on three major figures from more recent times: Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Mikhail Bakhtin. And in the last few weeks, it turns to several very recent developments, including postcolonial theory, queer theory, and cultural studies.

Rather than dump you into a great big "syllabus page," I'll let you choose the subjects you'd like to explore. On the page for each week, the reading for particular sessions is listed and accompanied by links to relevant handouts and student responses.

• Weeks One and Two: Precursors (Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Saussure)
  
• Week Three: Derrida
  
• Weeks Four and Five: Derrida and Foucault
  
• Week Six: Bakhtin (with cameo appearances by Voloshinov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Rabelais)
  
• Week Seven: Postmodernism (Habermas vs. Lyotard, Jameson) and postcolonialism (Spivak, Clifford, Appiah)
• Week Eight: Queer theory (Butler, Sedgwick, Garber)
  
• Week Nine: African-American theorists--Gates, West, Baker, hooks
  
• Week Ten: Cultural studies (romance novels, porn mags, fanzines)
  

WHAT NEXT?

• Homepage for English 60A
  
• Overview of the entire ten-week syllabus
  
• Handouts for the course
  
• Students' responses to readings from the course