MCST 273 - German-French Dialogues in Critical Theory: Marx-Freud-Sartre-Lacan

Cross-Listed as GERM 273

All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. This course focuses on the dialogue and mutual influence between the German- and French-speaking traditions of political economy and philosophical and theoretical thought, as it becomes evident in the relations among German Idealism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, (post-)Structuralism, and their productive interconnections in the development of Critical and Political Theory. While becoming familiar with the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacque Lacan, as well as the work of relevant thinkers who influenced their thought, we shall be examining the structural and conceptual homologies and differences among political economy, abstract thought, and human subjectivity. The dialogue will include the voices of race and feminist theory (e.g., Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Julia Kristeva, Jacqueline Rose). The last part of the course will focus on the relation between these interconnections (among economy, ideas, culture, and the constitution of identities) and the exercise of power in the era of global capitalism, as theorized by thinkers who draw on this German-French-speaking line of thought. French majors and minors may read the French texts in the original and do some writing in French. Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)