Introducing Critical Theory I: Approaches in Literary and Cultural Studies

The first part of the lecture series introduces relevant theoretical approaches, critical thinkers and schools in the field of literary and cultural studies: the Frankfurt School, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism, Psychoanalytic Theory, Material Culture and Technology Studies, (Post-) Marxist Criticism, New Historicism, Postcolonial Theory and Diaspora Studies, Reader-Response Criticism, Gender and Queer Studies, Theories of Race and Ethnicity, and Systems Theory.
Theorists include but are not restricted to Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Homi Bhabha, Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Linda Hutcheon, Wolfgang Iser, Frederic Jameson, Jacques Lacan, Bruno Latour, Niklas Luhmann, Julia Kristeva, and Raymond Williams. Single lectures will focus on either a particular theoretical approach or school or a major theorist.