Criticism and Marxism
ENGL 359
Spring 2023 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
GRST 259 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
This course introduces students to the Marxist (or historical-materialist) tradition, with an accent on its centrality to interpretative methods in literary studies and to related fields in the human sciences. We will study foundations, beginning with Marx and Engels, and our reading will carry us through the range of Marxisms that inform contemporary critical practice. We will focus on historical materialism as a style of dialectical thought, uniquely equipped to grasp both our immediate objects of study (literary texts and other cultural productions) and the social forces through which those objects are determined. In the same dialectical mode, we will reflect often on the relation between our work in the classroom and our contemporary social and historical situation. Students with an interest in literary and social theory will benefit from the course, as will students who know a little bit about Marxism but want to understand the logic of this crucial body of thought. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL)(HRAD-MN) |
Major Readings:
Robert Tucker, ed. THE MARX-ENGELS READER, second edition (W.W. Norton)
A course reader including additional works by Marx and Engels and pointed selections by Georg Lukács, Cedric Robinson, Nikhil Pal Singh, Silvia Federici, Kathi Weeks, Kevin Floyd, Marcial González, Roland Barthes, Frantz Fanon, Leon Trotsky, Sianne Ngai, Joshua Clover, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly (2-3pp.) memos; four short (2-4pp.) reading exercises; one medium-length essay (5-7pp.); and one longer essay (12-15pp.). Writing assignments will deal variously with the theoretical texts and the application of historical-materialist methods of reading and critique. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Students wishing to fulfill the research-paper requirement for writing an Honors Thesis will complete memos and reading exercises, but will write a 20-25pp. research essay instead of the two essays.
Contributes to fulfillment of ENGL major requirements:
Class of 22: Theory, elective.
Class of 23 and beyond: Theory, elective.
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