Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis The subject introduces students to a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of the relationship between culture and society, drawing on literary-critical, socio-historical and anthropological discourse. The subject begins with English literary-critical conceptions of culture; proceeds to the French structuralist tradition, especially as exemplified in anthropology and in semiotics; and to that mainly German tradition of theorising about culture which arises from the encounter between sociology, psychoanalysis and Marxism. The subject then moves to a discussion of current theoretical debates concerning the sociology of culture, the cultural politics of sexual difference, cultural nationalism and multiculturalism, postcolonialism and postmodernism.
Assessment Tutorial paper (1000 words): 10% + Essay (3000 words): 50% + Examination (2 hours): 40%