6 Credits| Prof. Daniel VUKOVICH
This course surveys texts and problems within the fields of Marxist and critical theory broadly defined. In the final section of the course it then examines cultural studies (in the Williams-Hall or Birmingham tradition) not as a substitute for critical theory but arguably the best way to use it via the analysis of culture and society. Texts will vary by instructor and term offered. Marxism will be studied not as a specific political program or blueprint, but as a method as well as a theoretically-driven analysis of capitalism, modernity, and globalization. Critical theory (e.g. the Frankfurt School, Foucault, Bourdieu, Baudrillard, select philosophers) will be studied as an interlocutor, or even a challenge to Marxism’s explanatory powers. Cultural studies, via representative examples within the field, will be presented as a way to combine textual with contextual and social criticism via the “detour through theory.” The aim is less to produce new theory, or to prove/disprove current theory, than to produce what Richard Johnson referred to as “really useful knowledge”.
Assessment: 100% coursework.