CLS4300

Theorising culture

Don Miller

12 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should be able to demonstrate substantial familiarity with recent debates in cultural and social theory; articulate the analytical skills, theoretical vocabularies and conceptual apparatuses studied in the subject; demonstrate a sense of their own personal and cultural reflexivity; write clear, grammatically and syntactically appropriate, independent essays on the topics chosen for assessment.

Synopsis This subject aims to establish the theoretical foundations for the analysis of culture, society and of specific social and cultural forms. These will be examined from a range of, often competing, theoretical perspectives. Discussion will centre on theories associated with French structuralism and post-structuralism; German sociology and critical theory; and British social theory and cultural studies. Each of these will be examined for its respective treatment of the relationship between individual creativity, culture and society.

Assessment One seminar paper (3000 words): 40% Long essay (6000 words): 60%

Preliminary reading

Culler J Literary theory: A very short introduction Oxford University Press
Milner A Contemporary cultural theory; An introduction Allen and Unwin
Nugent S and Shore C (eds) Anthropology and cultural studies Pluto Press

Prescribed texts

Beilharz P (ed.) Social theory: A guide to central thinkers Allen and Unwin
Bourdieu P and Wacquant L J D An invitation to reflexive sociology University of Chicago Press
Weedon C Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory Blackwell

Recommended texts

Bourdieu P In other words: Essays towards a reflexive sociology Stanford University Press
Bourdieu P Language and symbolic power Polity Press
Dumont L Homo hierarchicus University of Chicago Press
Habermas J The philosophical discourse of modernity Polity Press
Jameson F Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism New Left Books
Levi-Strauss C The view from afar Basic Books
Spivak G In other worlds: Essays in cultural politics Methuen

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