CLS2130

Culture and society: introduction to cultural theory

Andrew Milner

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prohibitions: COS2130/SCY2130/ANY2230

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should be able to demonstrate some familiarity with recent debates in cultural 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 The subject aims to introduce 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%

Prescribed texts

Beilharz P Social theory: A guide to central thinkers Allen and Unwin, 1991
Eagleton T Literary theory: An introduction Blackwell, 1996
Milner A Contemporary cultural theory Allen and Unwin, 1991

Recommended texts

Arato A and Gebhardt E (eds) The essential Frankfurt school reader Blackwell, 1978
Barrett M Women's oppression today Verso, 1980
Barthes R Mythologies Paladin, 1973
Bhabha H K (ed.) Nation and narration Routledge, 1990
Bourdieu P Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste Routledge, 1984
Derrida J Writing and difference RKP, 1981
Foucault M Power/knowledge Harvester, 1980
Hall S and others (eds) Culture, media, language Hutchinson, 1980
Irigaray L This sex which is not one Cornell U P, 1985
Jameson F Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism Verso, 1991
Levi-Strauss C The savage mind Penguin, 1970
Marks E and de Courtivron (eds) New French feminisms Harvester, 1981
Moi T Sexual/textual politics Methuen, 1985
Moi T (ed.) The Kristeva reader Blackwell, 1986
Said E W Orientalism Pantheon, 1978
Showalter E (ed.) The new feminist criticism Pantheon, 1985
Williams R The long revolution Penguin, 1965