French and Critical Studies Program - Paris, France. Theory and Method in Critical Studies: Liberty, Otherness, Creativity

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1 French and Critical Studies Program - Paris, France FALL 2017 Course number and name: FRST 3001 PCCS Theory and Method in Critical Studies Language of Instruction: French Course Meeting Times and Place: TBD CPEC Professor: Brent Keever Recommended Credit: 3 semester credits / 4.5 quarter credits Theory and Method in Critical Studies: Liberty, Otherness, Creativity Course Description In this course, we will attempt to describe the comings and goings of diverse movements in contemporary French thought, from the end of the 1940s to today, with particular accent on the movements following the events of May 1968, which attempt to construct an alternative history of the modern world. In analyzing excerpts from theoretical, literary, and philosophical works, we attempt to bring to life French thought from the end of the 20 th century to the beginning of ours. Reflecting on thought in terms of invention, art, science, and political strategy, we will be faced with questions regarding the self and the Other, liberty and control, mystification and demystification, technology of life and techniques of definition. We will focus, above all, on the power of language and representation with regard to knowledge seen as fact. How can a text construct this brand of knowledge? Can we, rather, portray a text as a machine that simply makes sense of life? To do so, we must question stable boundaries, fixed identities, accepted ideas, power, desire, politics, and ethics. We must also explore potential places where critical thought and artistic experimentation can blossom, here, in Paris. Art, after all, is a living, breathing entity. Often considered a living museum, Paris is a dynamic city where creative forces meet and exchange, from cinema and fine arts to literature and other forms of intellectual engagement. Like a laboratory of contemporary French thought, this course invites students to experiments with texts, discourses, images, and gestures, feeding an energetic reflection that is sometimes contestable, sometimes paradoxical, and always passionate. Drawing on the arenas of the Parisian intellectual universe philosophical and academic institutes as places of exposition, projection, and artistic representation you will equip yourselves with the theoretical tools to construct, deconstruct, and demonstrate the inner-workings of these movements in thought, which never cease to be built up and re-demolished. Course Objectives The goal of this course is to provide students with key notions, terms, and passwords into French thought, which will allow them to carry out their projects of study during their time in Paris, as well as later on. Rather than assigning a heavy weekly reading load, I have chosen samples of important texts you can take more time to digest. That said, you will still have between pages of difficult reading each week, so be diligent!

2 I ask that you always start with the bibliographic texts that present the life and work of our chosen thinker of the week. Methods of Instruction During our class sessions, we will first have a presentation on the context and diverse interpretations of that week s reading, followed by a group discussion. Before the presentation, 3 students will give a brief definition of an important term relating to one of the proposed thinkers. Course Requirements Class attendance is mandatory. If a student has more than one unjustified absence, his or her final grade will be lowered on point per additional absence (e.g. a 14/20 will become a 13/20, a 13/20 will become a 12/20). Additionally, if a student misses more than 25% of class hours, he or she will receive a Fail (0/20). Assessment and Final Grade Participation: 3 explanations in class of a text studied, the outline for which will be turned in after the presentation 30% 2 response papers (4 pages) 60% A reflection paper (3 pages), to be turned in at the 10% end of the semester Required Texts See detailed course outline. Course Outline Week 1: The Collapse of Progress/Liberty at War Presentation of class. Discussion of La République du silence by Jean-Paul Sartre. Introduction to La Dialectique de la Raison, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Thèses sur la philosophie de l histoire, N IX, Walter Benjamin. Week 2: Structuring the relationship between Same and Other Discussion of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Sartre. Passage from the reading, Le Deuxième Sexe, by Simone de Beauvoir. Introduction to the ethnography of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes tropiques, and the critique of Jacques Derrida, La structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines in L écriture et la différence. Outing to the Musée du Quai Branly. 2

3 Week 3: Liberating the sign from itself: Deconstruction of language and identity Reflections on the Musée de Quai Branly, Lévi-Strauss, and Derrida. Excerpt from Langage et pouvoir symbolique, by Pierre Bourdieu. Presentation of Deconstruction. Signature, événement, context, excerpts from Monolinguisme de l Autre by Jacques Derrida. Identité : fragments, franchises by Jean-Luc Nancy. Outing to the Cité nationale de l histoire de l immigration. Week 4: Subject, desire, the Other, the unconscious. Discussion of Derrida, Nancy, and the CNHI. Presentation of the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan. L aliénation in Quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse. Extraits from Mon enseignement by Jacques Lacan. Screening of Jacques Lacan : la psychanalyse réinventée and Conférence de Louvain. Passage from the text by Louis Althusser, Idéologies et appareils idéologiques d Etat. Week 5: The codes to a critical life, power and free thought Discussion of Lacanian psychoanalysis and ideological subjectivization. Excerpts from Surveiller et punir by Michel Foucault. Introduction to Foucaultian biopolitics. Reflections on the surveillance of life, liberty, and discourses of power. Week 6: The power of listening: control and creation Discussion of Foucault. Discussion of the text, Ecoute, by Roland Barthes. Excerpts from Sur écoute: l esthétique de l espionnage et Ecouter : une histoire de nos oreilles by Peter Szendy. TURN IN FIRST RESPONSE PAPER Week 7: Changing life, transforming the world: Theoretical and practical liberation of May 1968 Discussion of Barthes and Szendy. Return to Marxist critique, different interpretations, derivatives. Papers on May Screening of La Société du spectacle, Guy Debord. Playtime by Jacques Tati. Week 8: Desire, creation, life Reflections on May 1968 and Debord. Presentation of desire according to Deleuze: D comme Désir, E comme Enfance, and V comme 3

4 Voyage from L abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze, as well as Les intercesseurs in Pourparlers. La littérature et la vie by Gilles Deleuze in Critique et clinique. Excerpts from L Anti-Oedipe plateaux, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Introduction to Théâtre et son Double, Antonin Artaud. Week 9: Sexual battle / Discourse on gender Discussion of Deleuze, Artaud, and Grossman. Analysis of Parties by Hélène Cixous. Ce sexe qui n en est pas un by Luce Irigaray. La fatigue au feminin by Julia Kristeva in La haine et le pardon. Excerpts from La Vie psychique du pouvoir, Judith Butler. Presentation of Ni Putes, Ni Soumises, and the Femen movement. Week 10: Subjects of colonization / becoming postcolonial Discussion of feminism. Critique of Frantz Fanon, Peau noire/masques blancs. Discussion of errant creation of Edouard Glissant, Poétique de la Relation Rhizomatic thought of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Outing: Musée Dapper Week 11: Art and its critical capacities: consensus, dissensus, emancipation Discussion of postcolonial thought. Presentation of the text, Les mésaventures de la pensée critique, by Jacques Rancière in Le spectateur émancipé. Outing: Palais de Tokyo Week 12: Take care and quickly! : Technology, technique, control Discussion of Rancière and the Palais de Tokyo exhibit. Excerpts from Paul Virilio : Penser la vitesse and L université du désastre. Introduction to the thought of Bernard Stiegler and Ars Industrialis: Contrôle et culture des individus and excerpts from Prendre soin and Les Etats du choc. Outing: Gaité Lyrique SECOND RESPONSE PAPER DUE Week 13: The end? Never! Conclusions and reflections. FINAL REFLECTION PAPER TO BE TURNED IN BY 4

5 THANK YOU! 5