CLS3750

Deconstruction and feminism

Proposed to be offered next in 2000

Claire Colebrook

12 points - 3 hours per week - Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of the subject students should be able to provide careful and detailed readings of key relevant materials; provide incisive analysis and criticism to these reading materials; be able to use these and other reading materials to develop his or her own clear and concise arguments, claims, position or view; provide reasons why these arguments, positions or views should be regarded as plausible or accepted as true, or rejected as problematic; be able to read all sorts of material not raised directly in the course but of relevance to it; in particular, to be able to read, analyse and evaluate the writings of and on the work of Jacques Derrida and the debates to which it has given rise.

Synopsis This is an introductory subject on the writings of Jacques Derrida and their connections and relevance to issues in contemporary feminist theory. The subject is divided into three parts: in the first, his earliest deconstructive concepts (the trace, writing, dissemination, the sign) are outlined and assessed; in the second, we will focus on those of his texts where he deals with the concept or metaphor of woman (woman as truth, woman as metaphor, sexual difference), primarily through his readings of Nietzsche, Levinas and feminist issues. And in the final section, we will explore the ways in which his work has been utilised and criticised in contemporary feminist and political theory (eg through the work of Gayatri Spivak, Vicki Kirby, Dianne Elam and others).

Assessment Essays (6000 words): 100%

Prescribed texts

A collection of readings is available from the Department of Philosophy.

Recommended texts

Derrida J Of grammatology
Derrida J Spurs
Elam D Feminism and deconstruction
Holland N (ed.)Derrida and feminism
Spivak G C In other worlds

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