Art and Aesthetics

Ethics and Politics

Literature and Rhetoric

This course examines some of the most influential and disruptive intellectual developments of the last century: the emergence and application of psychoanalytic theory (most notably in the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan); a rethinking of ideology and culture in the wake of Marxism (seen in the Frankfurt School, Louis Althusser, and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri); the rise of structuralism (synthesized from the contributions of Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, and Claude Lévi-Strauss); and the turn to post-structuralism (Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze), deconstruction (Jacques Derrida), post-colonial theory (Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak), and gender and queer theory (Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Susan Stryker). The trajectory traced in this course is sometimes invoked by the one-word appellation, Theory, but is drawn from philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, political economy, psychology, and history. Despite the multidisciplinary origins, the epicenter of each of these approaches has been, and remains, the study of literature. This course will therefore attempt to answer an urgent question: What is it about literature that encourages and amplifies radical theorizing? 

Theorizations of human relationships often rely on fundamentally visual vocabulary. Consider, for example, the notion of the “male gaze”, which has become mainstream while it has also prompted the mobilization of the term “gaze” to analyze and critique other forms of social and political wrongs and to consider possible forms of resistance. This course explores a range of ways in which tropes of seeing and being seen—along with refusing to see and invisibility—have been used to understand our encounters with each other, with society at large, and with our own selves. We examine how thinkers have articulated the stakes in seeing and being seen in terms of recognition and the desire or need for recognition, objectification, and the Other or Othering. Works include works of philosophy, cultural criticism, feminist theory, psychoanalysis, visual art, and fiction. Authors include Hegel, Lacan, Sartre, Beauvoir, Fanon, Mulvey, hooks, and Lugones. 

The concept of a “Zine” (pronounced ‘zeen') refers to small-circulation (typically an edition of 100 or less), self-published works of original or appropriated images and texts, often reproduced using a copy machine / printer / duplicator. Zines, or ‘fanzines' can be traced back to the 1940s. They emerged from science fiction literature initially, created by fans who generated small self-published magazines about the stories they loved. Zines famously played a significant role in the punk movement of the 1970s and continue to be found in many subcultures. They often embrace a "do-it-yourself" ethos, challenging established norms of professional design and publishing. Zines offer an alternative, confident, and self-aware mode of expression. Photography is an essential component of most Zines. The Zine functions as a space for visual storytelling, but can also be used to create a preview of an ongoing photographic project. Historically, the kind of photography used in Zines is highly diverse, ranging from personal photographs made specifically for the Zine, to found images from any source. This class will work with printers, copy machines and a RISO duplicator to create Photo Zines and explore the joys of the limited-edition Photo Zine and how it can become an important mode of self-expression. We will work with image and text, using found images and also found text to create photographs and text specific to the formats we will explore. The class will visit Schikkimikki - a Zine library with Zines from all over the world in its collection. At the end of this class, each student will have created a small library consisting of their own Photo Zines and those made by the other students.