ENG 625 B/E (001): Theories and Methods of Literary Studies: Literary Studies with and against Cultural Studies
FOCUS LSE/CSAP
Fall 2021
Online (asynchronous with Zoom meeting on the first Friday of each month): 3.15-5.45 pm
Nandini Chandra
nc8@hawaii.edu
This course examines the complementary fields of literary studies and cultural studies. Within a Kantian theory of aesthetics, the literary object is autonomous, giving pleasure in a disinterested way (purposeless purpose); in Adorno’s elaboration of autonomy, this very resistance to being subsumed by the commodity constitutes its politics. It need not avow moral positions to be political. Cultural studies in contrast, is all about “interested” pleasures like the ones we find in the many somatic genres that proliferate in today’s cultural marketplace, such as bath & bodyworks, or the affectively charged forms of genre literature, comics, tv shows, video games, hip hop, franchise movies etc. Here bodily and affective power might force us to take positions. Everyday cultural artefacts are so profoundly grounded in the desires of the market that they sometimes bypass the integrity of the work, laying bare the social and political unconscious they feed upon. From formal issues that define the limits and possibilities of a work of art, we proceed to a sea of cultural signifiers, navigating beyond the text and through the “context in the text.” The simplistic divide between art forms as inherently critical and cultural commodities as reconciliatory—translating into a split between low and high art—is self-limiting, and does not allow us to savor the complex and shared reading strategies we often bring to both. This course will introduce you to some of the meeting points and cross-fertilizations of literary theory and cultural critique—via their confluences and contradictions—to build an awareness of their distinct objectives and methods. We seek to historicize both disciplines, as well as the objects they constitute. In addition to landmark literary and cultural objects, we read a range of theoretical essays by Kant, Schiller, Adorno, Benjamin, Auerbach, Lukacs, Greenberg, Barthes, Jameson, Freud, Noys, Power, Brown, Rose, Sedgewick and others.
Student Learning Objectives:
- You will gain a better understanding of theories and methods of literary theory and cultural critique;
- You will be able to identify and describe key concepts in critical theory;
- You will develop the ability to place your own scholarly work within broader critical conversations and to contribute to these conversations by conducting independent research;
- You will gain experience delivering concise, informed, focused, and thought-provoking oral presentations to peers in the field;
- You will gain experience formulating historically- and theoretically-informed argument-based essays; you will also gain experience documenting sources accurately and responsibly, using a standard academic style.
Possible Assignments
One online oral presentation that includes participating in google doc discussions (15 minutes) 20 points
One keyword entry (1000 words) 20 points
Argument Based Analytical Essay (4000 words) 40%
Primary Readings/Viewings:
Bertolt Brecht (1980). Poems 1913-56, pdf
Samuel Beckett. “Fizzles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8” (1972-75) (224-246) pdf.
Sadat Hassan Manto (2011). Tr. Aatish Taseer. Manto: Selected Stories. Pdf
Patricia Highsmith (1977). Little Tales of Misogyny (UHM Bookstore)
Banana Yoshimoto (1988). Kitchen (UHM Bookstore)
Lee Chang Dong (2007). Secret Sunshine 142 mins.
Kristiana Kahakauwila (2013). “This is Paradise” pdf