GER 570: Modern Critical Theory

Course Description

Comprehensive introduction to the foundational thinkers, texts, and schools that orient contemporary work in the humanities, from German Idealism to Cultural Studies, Queer Theory, and Postcolonial Theory, among others. The course is intended primarily for beginning graduate students, but also for those who feel they have not covered the development of critical theory in a systematic way. The course will include significant discussion of figures including: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Adorno, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Said, Spivak. Among the topics we will address are: history, the subject, aesthetics, value, power, language, ideology, materiality, gender, sexuality, race, and technology/media studies. 4 graduate hours. No professional credit.