CLIT2105: Marxism, critical theory, and cultural studies

 Spring 2024 

Prof.  Daniel Vukovich

Venue:   CPD-124, Mondays, 2:30-5:20   *No separate tutorials.

Phone: 3917- 7934

Office: 934 RR Shaw Arts Bldg, Centennial Campus

Office Hours: Mondays, 1.30-2.30 and by appointment, in person or zoom, usually Thursdays

Email: vukovich@hku.hk  

Description:

This course surveys texts, concepts, and problems within the closely related fields of Marxist and critical theory. In the final section of the course it then examines cultural studies (in the Williams-Hall or 'Birmingham' tradition) not as a substitute for critical or Marxist theory but as the best way to use it via the analysis of culture and society. Though it is logically, and certainly was historically connected to socialism and communism, Marxism here will not be studied as a specific or as a universal political blueprint, nor in terms of contemporary activism. For our purposes, Marxism is best understood as a discourse in the Foucauldian sense (we will unpack this term in due course). Critical theory is either simply a part of this discourse or exists as an intellectual commentary and argument alongside and, at times, against it. 

We will  study Marxist and critical theory as a diverse and sometimes contentious set of texts, concepts, interlocutors, and critics that turn upon the analysis of capitalism, modernity, class, inequality and power in society, and globalization. We want to understand the very considerable explanatory power of Marxist and critical theory; but also its limits or gaps. We will read some of its notable ‘challengers’ or rivals in explanatory power and semantic richness. In this term, these will be psychonalysis and, time permitting, anti-liberal conservatism.  We’ll read Marx (and Engels), the Frankfurt School (Adorno and Horkheimer), Michel Foucault, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Sigmund Freud (with Louis Althusser), as well as Stuart Hall and Raymond Williams and Fredric Jameson. Cultural studies, via classic works within the field, will be presented as a way to combine textual with contextual criticism via the “detour through theory.” The aim of cultural studies is not to produce new theory or merely to illustrate the Truth of X or Y thinker or concept. Cultural studies is not simply 'applied theory' (though it does put theory to work).  It aims instead to produce knowledge (perhaps useful, perhaps Utopian) about significant problems and dynamics in a real, actually existing culture and society, after Marx.  

Assessment: 100% coursework.

Learning Outcomes:

·       The course will develop your skills in textual, contextual, and global analysis. 

·       The immersion in classic texts and debates will  develop your knowledge of Marxist and critical theory aka intellectual history.  

·       You should be better able to articulate and argue your own views in writing as well as speech

Texts:

1.              All readings will be uploaded or linked here:  https://sites.google.com/view/classwebprofvukovichhku/clit2105-marxism-critical-theory-and-real-cultural-studies [Folder link at bottom of this page].

* You are responsible for printing and reading them.  If you can’t find them on the cloud,  let me know.

Grading:

100% Continuous Assessment:  

*Instructions and a prompt for each essay will be given in class 1-2 weeks before the due date. They will range from  1k to 2+k per paper.   * To do well in this class you simply must read and re-read the texts; put some thought into them before class and again when you work on your essays. I have been teaching and reading papers a long time,  and can pretty much tell whenever people aren't really trying. 

30   % Participation

70   % Written Essays (3 in total).  I’ll provide a detailed handout for each one, 1-2 weeks in advance.

20% Paper 1. Due Date:  FEB 28 4 PM.  TO MOODLE...

20% Paper 2. Due Date: TBA

30% Paper 3. Due Date: May, Finals week.

Late Work Policy: 

1.   Late work is NOT accepted, except under verified medical or other emergencies. If you need a brief extension for an assignment, see me a week in advance and commit to a new due date.

2.    You must complete ALL major assignments to pass the course. Don’t skip a paper.

Plagiarism:

A writer who presents the ideas or words of another as if they were the writer’s own commits plagiarism. This is a disciplinary offense that can result in failure or expulsion. Consult http://www.hku.hk/plagiarism. Do not offer quotes or paraphrases of others’ work without providing proper citation. If you use AI for research purposes, you likewise have to acknowledge or cite it, and – crucially – you must rewrite and use the AI derived info properly. If you have any question about how or when to do this,  see me before you hand in  your paper. Improperly using AI (e.g. copy and paste jobs) will result in you either failing the paper or being docked one or more letter grades. 

SCHEDULE (Mondays)

Subject to change. If you miss class it is your responsibility to find out what you missed.  

Week 1, Jan 20: Syllabus Review. Some Keywords & Questions. 

Q's:  Capitalism?  Class?  Modernity? Power?  History? Universality?

A's: Struggle.   Dialectics.   Power.  Money. 

Week 2, Jan 27: Marx, Engels, and an Interpretation that Changed the World  

Readings:

1. Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto  [1848]  [read all of it,  but in te interest of time, you can skip the Intro from Prof David Harvey though it it is also good] 

2. Marx, “Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.” [PAGES 1-5 ONLY]

* "political economy" definition here https://www.britannica.com/money/political-economy/Historical-development 

*   This video is also a very good explnation of the Preface (takes 30 minutes ;-) ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJQp3cL1tI 

Week 3, Feb 3:  Lunar Holiday.   No-Class. * Read ahead, LOTS coming up! 

Week 4, Feb 10: Marx & Reading Capital, vol. 1

1.       Extracts from Ernst Fischer (and Marx), How to Read Karl Marx.

a.     Pages: Chapters 3, 4, 7, 8: “Division of Labor and Alienation,” “The Fetish Character of the Commodity,” “Value and Surplus Value,” and “Profit and Capital” [pp: 55-73, 100-118]. 

2. Selections from Capital:  “Chapter 1: The Commodity”

a.      [read 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 [first two pages only],  and then 1.4  [pages 125-139]

b.      chapt. 27 and chapt 31 (pages 877-895 & 914-926] 

Below two short vids on commodity fetishism: 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVQsEbuN09A

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UAbbfzO2zc 

Week 5, Feb 17:  Base/Superstructure/Materialism (Raymond Williams)

1. “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory” (essay, New Left Review)

  a. key phrase: "the 'base' exerts pressures and sets limits..." 

b. "the most important thing a worker ever produces is himself, himself in the fact of that kind of labour, or the broader historical emphasis of men producing themselves, themselves and their history. "

c. "we are talking of a process and not a state "

2. from Marxism and Literature:  “Culture” (I.1), “Ideology” (I.4), “Hegemony” (II.6), and “Structures of Feeling” (II.9)  >>>  Of these, "Ideology" and "Hegemony" are of primary importance

Week 6,  Feb 24:   Reification ; Ideology; Commodity Form [Lukacs]  

1.     “ Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” History and Class Consciousness, pps 85-222. 

a. This is very long so if you need to, first read: 85-149. 

2.     https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lukacs/#HistClasCons  [secondary/backgorund text] 

3.   Recommended: Joseph Gabel, False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification, 1962. Excerpts at https://isr.press/Gabel_Excerpts/index.html

ESSAY 1 DUE FRIDAY FEB 28  {details t.b.a.}

 Week 7, March 3: Rationality/Modernity/Power/The Iron Cage/  [Adorno and Horkheimer, Weber]

Readings:

1.               Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments

a.     Prefaces, Chapters 1 and 4 (“The Concept of Enlightenment” and “The Culture Industry”

§ If you like you can swap in a different chapt in place of 4, on popular culture. (check out the TOC). We will focus on the Prefaces and first chapter. 

2.               Recommended: extracts from Karl Lowith : Max Weber & Karl Marx: pp 51-80.

a. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/  

§  the point here is that Max Weber is not only a major critical theorist or source of later theory, but his critique of modernity and rationalization, like Lukacs's, is both brilliant and influential, and also coming from a more "conservative" political frame.  

https://www.thecollector.com/adorno-horkheimer-dialectic-of-enlightenment/

https://writing.upenn.edu/bernstein/syllabi/readings/Adorno-Horkheimer_Sirens-passage.html

https://www.othervoices.org/1.1/cubowman/siren.php

KNOWLEDGE  AND/OR IDEOLOGY AND POWER

REASON AND ENLIGHTENMENT

MYTH AND ENLIGHTENMENT/REASON

REIFICATION : EXCHANGE; EQUIVALENCE; ABSTRACTION; HOMEGENITY VS HETEROGENEITY

Week 8, March 10: Reading Week. No Class.  

Week 9, March 17: Freud/Althusser/Ideology Redux

Readings:

1. Louis Althusser, “On Ideology” in On the Reproduction of Capitalism.

2. Recommended: Althusser, “Appendix 2: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” in On the Reproduction of Capitalism.

3. Recommended: Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (excerpts)

a. https://www.sigmundfreud.net/the-future-of-an-illusion.jsp

b.  https://freudquotes.blogspot.com/2014/01/sigmund-freud-future-of-illusion-quotes.html 

Week 10, March 24:   From Ideology to Discourse [Foucault] 

1.  Foucualt:   “The Order of Discourse.” 1981 translation of the 1970 lecture.

2.  Recommended: The Order of Things and The Archeology of Knowledge (pages: simply read the Forewards, Prefaces, and brief Introduction  chapters if you want a taste of this 'early period' of Foucault) 

 Week 11, March 31 : Cultural Studies:  Discourse and Power and "Culture" 

Readings:

1.     Stuart Hall. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power”. Read esp 155-168 (can skim the rest if needed)

2.     Hall, "The Meaning of New Times."  Selected Political Writings. p.248--

3.  Recommended:  "The Great Moving Right Show."  Selected Political Writings. p.172--

Week 12, April 7:  Cultural Studies II: Marxism, Class, Opposition, and Reproduction 

Readings: Paul Willis, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs

1. Read : Introduction (Chapt 1: The Hammertown Case Study), Chapter 2 (Elements of a Culture) and Chapter 7, (The Role of Ideology).  

2.   Recommended: Chapter 8 (Notes Towards a Theory of Cultural Norms and Social Reproduction) 

Week 13, April 14: Cultural Studies III

Readings: Excerpts from:Hall et al., Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. 

1. Read from the Preface (x-xviii) and then 1-32. [Intro and "The Social History of a Moral Panic." ] 

2.      Recommended: Chapt 10, "The Politics of Mugging," 321-390 

Week 14, April 21: No Class [Easter Holiday]

FIRST STEP DUE DATE OF PAPER #3: WEDNESDAY AT 12 nOON VIA EMAIL (to vukovich @ hku.hk)

*See paper prompt/handout for details

Week 15, April 28: Cultural Studies III.  An alternative critical theory example: Roland Barthes, Mythologies

Readings:

1.  Read a handful of the little essays in Barthes's Mythologies, ppg 1-109. All are fine but I like th first two myself, on 'wrestling' and 'Romans.' 

ESSAY 3 DUE May 12,  HANDED OUT April 7th

Cloud Drive for 2105... Marxism Crit Thry CS (link below):