MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia

Caution Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

Comparative literature, cultural studies and critical theory

Objectives

The Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies aims to develop in students a cumulative knowledge of three interconnected areas of work: comparative literature, cultural studies and critical theory. All three extend and develop students' appreciation of the nature of texts and of `textuality'. The distinctiveness of the program consists in the way students are encouraged to analyse literature both as an international rather than national phenomenon and as one aspect among many of a wider `culture'. The stress on `world' literature is unique to Monash - no other university in Australia teaches a full major sequence in comparative literature. The stress on the connection between literary and cultural studies is also distinctive - elsewhere cultural studies have more commonly been defined in opposition to literary studies.

The completion of a major sequence in this program should enable students to:

+ develop skills in reading and interpretation to a point where they can analyse quite demanding texts in a variety of genres and, where relevant, in languages other than English (the centre teaches its undergraduate courses using texts in English translation, but fourth-year honours theses in comparative literature are required to deal with literary texts in their original languages);

+ come to understand, feel comfortable with and be able to articulate the analytical skills, theoretical vocabularies and conceptual apparatuses studied;

+ establish and assess criteria by which to distinguish current intellectual fashion from potentially more enduring contributions to the `human sciences';

+ develop a sense of their own personal and cultural reflexivity as they observe and interpret the linguistic and cultural forms and productions analysed in the various subjects they undertake.

Courses

Comparative literature

A first-year sequence consists of CLS1010 followed by CLS1020.

Minor sequence

A minor sequence in comparative literature consists of either (a) CLS1010 and CLS1020 and two second-year level subjects in comparative literature or critical theory or (b) two second-year level subjects and third-year level subjects totalling at least twelve points in comparative literature or critical theory.

Major sequence

A major sequence in comparative literature consists of (i) CLS1010 and CLS1020 or an appropriate first-year sequence in English or French or German, followed by (ii) a minimum of two second-year level subjects in comparative literature or critical theory, followed by (iii) a minimum of two third-year level eight- point subjects in comparative literature or critical theory, and (iv) a minimum of an additional eight points at second or third-year level in comparative literature or critical theory.

Honours

Coordinator: Walter Veit

The honours sequence consists of CLS4080, CLS4000 and any further combination of fourth-year level subjects in comparative literature or critical theory with a combined value of twenty-four points.

Combined honours

Combined honours may be taken in comparative literature and another discipline provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and subject to the approval of the heads of both departments/centres. Mid-year entry is offered by this centre.

Comparative literature subjects

First-year level

+ CLS1010 Text and context I

+ CLS1020 Text and context II

Second-year level

+ CLS2090 Comparative literary criticism

+ CLS2150 Belief and perception

+ CLS2160 Chinese literature and modernity

+ CLS2230 Greek-Australian writing

+ CLS2370 Literature and society

+ CLS2530 Modernism in European literature

+ CLS2550 Romanticism and revolution

+ CLS2570 Writing women

+ CLS2750 Contemporary women's fiction and theory

+ CLS2790 Postmodernism and the novel

+ CLS2830 Structuralism and semiotics: Bakhtin, Lotman

+ CLS2910 The novel in Eastern Europe

Third-year level

+ CLS3090 Comparative literary criticism

+ CLS3150 Belief and perception

+ CLS3160 Chinese literature and modernity

+ CLS3220 Literature and society in Indonesia

+ CLS3230 Greek-Australian writing

+ CLS3310 Gender and its representation in Indonesian societies

+ CLS3320 Paris, Berlin, Vienna - the city and modernity 1870-1918

+ CLS3360 Indonesian theatrical traditions

+ CLS3370 Literature and society

+ CLS3420 Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: discourse of experience and alterity

+ CLS3430 European cultural history: the Spanish Civil War

+ CLS3530 Modernism in European literature

+ CLS3550 Romanticism and revolution

+ CLS3570 Writing women

+ CLS3750 Contemporary women's fiction and theory

+ CLS3780 Women's writing in Latin America today

+ CLS3790 Postmodernism and the novel

+ CLS3810 Comparative drama of the twentieth century

+ CLS3830 Structuralism and semiotics: Bakhtin, Lotman

+ CLS3910 The novel in Eastern Europe

Fourth-year level

+ CLS4000 Literary theory

+ CLS4080 Minor thesis

+ CLS4220 The utopian tradition in European literature

Cultural studies

A first-year sequence in cultural studies consists of CLS1040 followed by CLS1050.

Minor sequence

A minor sequence in cultural studies consists of either (a) CLS1040 and CLS1050 and two second-year level subjects in cultural studies or critical theory, or (b) two second-year level subjects and third-year level subjects totalling at least twelve points in cultural studies or critical theory.

Major sequence

A major sequence in cultural studies consists of (a) CLS1040 and CLS1050, followed by (b) a minimum of two second-year level subjects in cultural studies or critical theory, followed by (c) a minimum of two third-year level eight-point subjects in cultural studies or critical theory, and (d) a minimum of an additional eight points at second or third-year level in cultural studies or critical theory.

Honours

Coordinator: Denise Cuthbert

The honours sequence consists of CLS4080, CLS4300 and any further combination of fourth-year level subjects in cultural studies or critical theory. The combined value of the fourth-year program must equal forty-eight points.

Combined honours

Combined honours may be taken in cultural studies and another discipline provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and subject to the approval of the heads of both departments/centres. Mid-year entry is offered by this centre.

Cultural studies subjects

First-year level

+ CLS1040 Introduction to cultural studies I

+ CLS1050 Introduction to cultural studies II

Second-year level

+ CLS2040 Image and appearance: the construction of values in the twentieth century

+ CLS2050 Reading narrative texts

+ CLS2070 Popular fiction and popular culture

+ CLS2130 Culture and society: introduction to cultural theory

+ CLS2190 Forms of narrative cinema

+ CLS2260 Sexing the text: constructions of female sexuality

+ CLS2410 Women in Roman society

+ CLS2510 Wit and humour in literature, film and cartoon

+ CLS2670 Gender representation in classical literature

+ CLS2710 Alternatives in documentary film: an Australian focus

+ CLS2770 Television studies

+ CLS2800 In other worlds: post-colonial fiction

Third-year level

+ CLS3007 Gender and genre: masculinity in film

+ CLS3010 Sexed media, media-ted sex

+ CLS3040 Image and appearance: the construction of values in the twentieth century

+ CLS3050 Reading narrative texts

+ CLS3070 Popular fiction and popular culture

+ CLS3110 Cultural studies: the consumer society

+ CLS3130 Culture and society: introduction to cultural theory

+ CLS3190 Forms of narrative cinema

+ CLS3260 Sexing the text: constructions of female sexuality

+ CLS3410 Women in Roman society

+ CLS3470 Structuralism and poststructuralism

+ CLS3510 Wit and humour in literature, film and cartoon

+ CLS3520 Reading the past: European cinema, history and national identity

+ CLS3670 Gender representation in classical literature

+ CLS3710 Alternatives in documentary film: an Australian focus

+ CLS3770 Television studies

+ CLS3800 In other worlds: post-colonial fiction

Fourth-year level

+ CLS4010 On culture and inequality

+ CLS4040 Film theory and film criticism I

+ CLS4050 Film theory and film criticism II

+ CLS4080 Minor thesis

+ CLS4240 Culture and society in English studies

+ CLS4270 Cultural theory and visuality

+ CLS4300 Theorising culture

+ CLS4340 Culture and the modern self

+ CLS4600 Film, culture, class

Critical theory

Minor sequence

A minor sequence in critical theory consists of two second-year level subjects and third-year level subjects totalling at least twelve points in critical theory.

Critical theory subjects

Second-year level

+ CRT2010 Introduction to critical theory

+ CRT2020 Rethinking bodies

+ CRT2030 Reading Freud and Jung

+ CRT2050 Freud and feminism

+ CRT2060 Freudian fable

+ CRT2240 Contemporary feminist theory

Third-year level

+ CRT3010 Introduction to critical theory

+ CRT3020 Rethinking bodies

+ CRT3030 Reading Freud and Jung

+ CRT3050 Freud and feminism

+ CRT3060 Freudian fable

+ CRT3240 Contemporary feminist theory

Fourth-year level

+ CRT4030 Poetics

+ CRT4070 Lacan and subjectivity

+ CRT4090 The authority of the text: the hermeneutical question

+ CRT4100 Deleuze and Foucault

+ CRT4160 Contemporary issues in feminist theory

+ CRT4200 Structuralism and semiotics

+ CRT4220 Hermeneutics

+ CRT4230 Rhetoric

+ CRT4250 Marxist critical theory

+ CRT4290 Reading Irigaray

+ CRT4310 Theories of discourse: poststructuralism, feminism and sociolinguistics

+ CRT4750 Deconstruction and feminism

+ CRT4920 Literature and negativity

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