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Winter 2003
This information effective for Winter 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Modern Literary Studies
[LTMO-231] [LTMO-280]
231.
Seminar: Marx and the Marxists
Instructor: Dick Terdiman
Course Description:
This seminar
will read Marx and a series of theorists inspired by Marx's construction
of social and cultural life. The emphasis will be on three aspects of
the material: close reading of important theoretical texts, clarity concerning
the main concepts of the Marxian model, and its implications for cultural
and literary understanding.
The seminar
will be divided about half-and-half between reading Marx himself (Capital,
volume 1; some of the historical works; portions of German Ideology,
and the Grundrisse) and reading important figures from the tradition
of Marxian literary and cultural theory. Among the latter would likely
figure Lukács, Benjamin, Althusser, Jameson, and Spivak. If there
is interest, we could also include Derrida's Specters of Marx.
Some discussion
and adjustment of the reading list will be possible once the seminar begins.
That will give participants an opportunity to help determine the readings
for the second half of the seminar, in particular.
Tentative
Reading List
| Karl Marx: |
Capital, volume 1 German Ideology (selections) The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Grundrisse (Preface, Introduction, selected portions of main text) |
| Georg Lukács: |
History and Class Consciousness (selected essays) Studies in European Realism (selected essays) |
| Walter Benjamin: |
Arcades Project (selections) "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire" "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" |
| Louis Althusser: | "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" |
| Fredric Jameson: |
Prison-House of Language (selections) Political Unconscious (selections) Postmodernism (selections) |
| Gayatri Spivak: | "Scattered
Speculations on the Question of Value" "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Outside in the Teaching Machine (selections) A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (selections) |
280. Latin American Critical Theory
Instructor:
Juan Poblete
E-mail: jpoblete@ucsc.edu
Office hours: at 151 Merrill Faculty Annex
Bibliography:
- Communication,
Culture and Hegemony / De los Medios a las mediaciones, Jesús
Martín Barbero
- No
apocalypse, no integration: modernism and postmodernism in LatinAmerica
/ Ni Apocalípticos ni integrados, Martín Hopenhayn
- Scenes
from Postmodern Life / Escenas de la vida posmoderna, Beatriz Sarlo
- Hybrid
Cultures / Culturas híbridas, Néstor García
Canclini
- Consumer
and Citizens / Consumidores y ciudadanos, Néstor García
Canclini
- Latinos
Inc, Arlene Davila.
- Deep
Rivers / Los Rios Profundos, José María Arguedas
- E.
Luminata / Lumpérica, Diamela Eltit
- Coursepack
(CP): (at the Bay Tree Bookstore)
Course Description:
The course offers an overview of contemporary theoretical issues in Latin/o
American Cultural Critique. It will be a class taught in English with
readings available both in English and Spanish depending on the students'
preference. It focuses on, on the one hand, the relationships between
Latin American popular, mass, and elite cultures and modernization as
a social process and, on the other, new forms of cultural analyses in
the context of global scholarship.
Objectives: The goals of the class are
- to better understand the connections between national communities, mass oriented cultures, and transnational processes;
- to familiarize students with the specific forms of cultural analyses recently developed in Latin/o America; and
- to understand
the limits and possibilities of Latin/o American Cultural Studies and
of globalization theories.
Evaluation:
| Oral report (8–10 minutes) | 20% |
| Written reports (see below) | 25% |
| Class participation | 25% |
| Final paper (13–20 pages) | 30% |
The
oral report will be a short (20 to 25 minutes) presentation on a particular
text. The written reports (one every week) will be typewritten, doublespaced,
2-3 pages of critical response to the readings. The final paper will be
an original and comprehensive critical assessment of one of the texts
read in class.
Note:
Students with disabilities who may need accommodations, please see
me as soon as possible during office hours or make an appointment.
Weekly
Schedule
Week
1. Introduction. Memory and Modernity. Popular Culture in Latin America.
A historical overview.
Week
2. Communication, Culture and Hegemony / De los medios a las mediaciones,
Jesús Martín Barbero. On the historical relationship between
folklore, popular, and mass culture in Latin America.
Week
3. Transculturation (Angel Rama) and Heterogeneity (Antonio Cornejo Polar):
An overview of theoretical positions. Deep Rivers / Los Rios Profundos,
José María Arguedas.
Week
4. Hybrid Cultures / Culturas híbridas, Nestor Garcia Canclini.
On new social subjects and the state as constructors of social memory.
Week
5. No apocalypse, no integration: modernism and postmodernism in Latin
America / Ni Apocalípticos ni integrados, Martín Hopenhayn.
On the crisis of modern reason, the rethinking of the State, and the reimaginings
of collective futures.
Week
6. Scenes from Postmodern Life / Escenas de la vida posmoderna,
Beatriz Sarlo. The return to Aesthetics and the limitations of Cultural
Studies. A critique of technology.
Week
7. Selected essays from Masculino/Femenino, La Estratificación
de los márgenes and Residuos y metáforas: ensayos de critica
cultural sobre el Chile de la transición / Untitled manuscript
of translation for Duke University Press, Nelly Richard. On gender, memory,
and avant-garde as critical categories. E. Luminata / Lumpérica,
Diamela Eltit.
Week
8. Consumer and Citizens / Consumidores y ciudadanos, Néstor
García Canclini. The case for consumption as a democratizing cultural
and political space.
Week
9. Latinos Inc, Arlene Davila: on Latinos in a globalized context
as reflected/produced by the marketing industry.
Final Class: Students' presentation on their final paper projects.