Introduction to Graduate Study (410-0-20)
Instructors
Justin L Mann
Meeting Info
University Hall 418: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This course will prepare students for a successful career in graduate studies. Surveying both foundational and cutting-edge methods and theories in literary studies, this course asks students to grapple with the key questions and debates at play in the field(s) and discipline. The course begins with an inquiry into the history of the institution, the field(s) of literary studies, broadly conceived, and the questions of center and periphery that remain central to our work. We will then shift to an investigation of contemporary keywords guiding literary studies in the present.
Foregrounding the disorienting effects of the literary, the course begins by examining the history of the discipline and its institutions, including shifting definitions of our objects of study; the histories of exclusion and inclusion that accompany these shifts; and, issues of canonicity, especially as they relate to empire building both within and outside the academy. Then, we will explore the methods of literary critique, thinking about what is at stake in the objects we study and the ways we choose to read them. Finally, we will engage with challenges to the traditional organizing principles of our field, including its archives, geographies, periodization, theoretical interventions, and political stakes. In addition to our seminar session, we will have sessions that address the professional stakes of postgraduate life, including workshops in pedagogy, publishing, and navigating graduate studies.
Teaching Method
Seminar.
Evaluation Method
Weekly assignments, presentation, papers.
Class Materials (Required)
Judith Butler, The Psychic Life of Power
Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark,
Autumn Womack, The Matter of Black Living
Erica R. Edwards, "The Other Side of Terror"
Kevin Quashie, Black Aliveness
Yogita Goyal, Runaway Genres
Ramzi Fawaz, Queer Forms
Steven Swarbrick, The Environmental Unconscious
Course Reader
Texts will be available at: TBA
Associated Classes
DIS - Meets in Non-General PurposeRm: Fri 12:00PM - 1:20PM