32115

Post-Classical Theory

Frank Kelleter

Comments

This seminar serves as “Hauptseminar” of Culture-Module C in the Master's degree program. We will study different types of cultural theory that have emerged after the “classical” paradigms of psychoanalysis, phenomenology, orthodox Marxism, and their poststructuralist inflections. Our introductory sessions will survey different developments from the 1970s-2000s (revisionary Marxism, field theory, actor-network-theory, systems theory). Additional topics (to be chosen and prepared by students) can include, but are not limited to, later or other paradigms such as poststructuralism (e.g., Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida), affect theory (e.g., Lauren Berlant, Kathleen Stewart, Sara Ahmed, Margaret Wetherell), post-critique and new formalism (e.g., Rita Felski, Caroline Levine), new queer theories (e.g., José Esteban Muñoz), trans theories (e.g. Jack Halberstam, Paul Preciado), media archaeology and media ecology (e.g., Lisa Gitelman, Katherine Hayles, Jay Bolter, Richard Grusin), post-cinema theories (e.g., Shane Denson), seriality studies (the JFKI’s own Popular Seriality Research Unit, e.g., Kathleen Loock, Maria Sulimma, Daniel Stein, Ruth Mayer, Frank Kelleter), contemporary aesthetic theories (e.g., Sianne Ngai), critiques of postfeminism (e.g., the Judith Butler-Nancy Fraser debate, Catherine Rottenberg), black feminism and intersectionality (e.g., Combahee River Collective, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw), theories of neoliberalism (e.g., David Harvey, Wendy Brown), critical university studies (e.g., Christopher Newfield), critical whiteness studies (e.g., Claudia Rankine, David Roediger), Afropessimism and philosophies of blackness (e.g., Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Fred Moten), black Marxism (e.g., Angela Davis, Cedric Robinson, Karen and Barbara Fields), or any other new publication or trend you would like to discuss.

Unlike Prof. Kelleter’s lecture course, this seminar will be largely student-driven; more than half of our sessions will be designed and moderated by the participants. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with potential course material (theoretical paradigms and texts) before the first meeting, when all participants will be asked to propose and sign up for one session topic (theoretical paradigm and/or set of texts; compare Syllabus). Registration: All participants need to be registered via Blackboard and Campus Management by the first session. If you cannot register online or cannot attend the first session, please contact Prof. Kelleter before the beginning of the term (no later than October 7). Before our first meeting, all communication about and within this class will be channeled through the course’s Blackboard site, so make sure you are registered there. Organization: Please download the Syllabus and Course Description (with a description of all course requirements) from the “Teaching” section of Prof. Kelleter’s JFKI website or from Blackboard (go to “Kursmaterial”; you may have to click on “open Syllabus here” to download it; if this doesn’t work, try a different browser: students have reported problems with the Chrome browser). Please read the Syllabus/Course Description carefully! It contains detailed information on the seminar’s structure and suggestions for preparing “your” session. Note that we will finalize our class schedule in the first two meetings. This means that everyone who wants to attend this course needs to be present in the first session in order to sign up for a topic (student-run session) or have contacted Prof. Kelleter beforehand by e-mail (no later than October 7). There is no auditing this class. First session: October 14.