CRT6010

Critical theory: an approach

Kevin Hart

8 points -2 hours per week -First semester -Clayton

Objectives On the successful completion of this subject students should have gained a close familiarity with the major works of Maurice Blanchot and Franz Kafka, and should be conversant with the criticism and theory relevant to reading their works.

Synopsis This subject will provide a detailed exploration of the internal logic of a particular approach or a particular set of related problems in contemporary critical theory. Negativity has been a durable theme of modern thought and writing, and in recent years it has become of considerable structural interest. The notion is variously defined, usually with reference to one or more of philosophy, psychoanalysis and theology. When brought into litereary studies it assumes a wide range of guises: difference, interpretation, nothingness, reading, repression, the unsayable and writing. This seminar seeks to analyse 'negativity' in the work of two modern writers, Franz Kafka and Maurice Blanchot, and it will do so with the help of critical theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Harold Bloom, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva.

Assessment Two 3000-word essays: 50% each

Prescribed texts

Blanchot M The work of fire Stanford U P, 1995
Blanchot M The one who was standing apart from me Station Hill, 1993
Blanchot M Thomas the obscure Station Hill, 1988
Blanchot M The infinite conversation U Minnesota P, 1993
Blanchot M The space of literature U Nebraska P, 1982
Kafka F The trial Schocken, 1946
Kafka F The complete stories Schocken, 1971
Holland M (ed.) The Blanchot reader Blackwell, 1995

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