Postgraduate - UnitAPG6725 - Critical theory: An approach

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2012 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

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Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	Not offered in 2012
Coordinator(s)	Professor Andrew Benjamin

Notes

Previously coded CRT6010

Synopsis

This unit will provide a detailed exploration of the internal logic of a particular approach or a 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, ususally with reference to one or more of philosophy, psychoanalysis and theology. This seminar seeks to analyse 'negativity' in the work of Franz Kafka and Maurice Blanchot, and it will do so with the help of critical theorists.

Outcomes

To gain a close and full knowledge of two central writers of prose fiction in the twentieth century, Franz Kafka and Maurice Blanchot.
To gain an awareness of the main lines of critical debate surrounding these works.
To master the basic arguments pertaining to the problematic of negativity (roughly: Hegel, Kojeve, Adorno, Bataille).
To develop skills in evaluating different readings of these writers, especially Blanchot's account of Kafka.
To write coherently, economically and rigorously on both the literary and critical texts.

Assessment

Two essays (4500 words each): 100%

Chief examiner(s)

Andrew Benjamin

Contact hours

2 hours (1 x 2 hour seminar) per week