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The course examines French thought after the 1968 protests known as May '68, focusing on intellectuals like Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze who developed new conceptual models, as well as later thinkers who were critical of these approaches. Students will read foundational texts from May '68 and those analyzing its limitations, and complete three short papers on topics related to structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, the state, religion, and the legacy of May '68.

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43 views

68 Fra

The course examines French thought after the 1968 protests known as May '68, focusing on intellectuals like Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze who developed new conceptual models, as well as later thinkers who were critical of these approaches. Students will read foundational texts from May '68 and those analyzing its limitations, and complete three short papers on topics related to structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, the state, religion, and the legacy of May '68.

Uploaded by

clara312
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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French Thought After May 68

HISTORY 2331 GOVT 2626 / COML 2331 Spring 2009 T & R 2:55 4:10 Room: : Rockefeller B16 Professor Camille Robcis Office: McGraw Hall 364 Phone: 607-255-5724 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: T & R 1 - 2

Course Description: The expression May 68 is often used as a synonym for what has come to be known as French Theory, encompassing the works of authors such as Derrida, Barthes, Foucault, Deleuze, Althusser, and Lacan, and generating new conceptual models to rethink power relations, gender, language, and subjectivity more generally. Less well-known perhaps, is the reaction on the part of many French intellectuals against this current of French Theory and its philosophical, social, and political implications. In this seminar, we will begin by reading some of the foundational texts that emerged out of the events of May 68, before turning to authors such as Lefort, Clastres, Gauchet, Furet, and Rosanvallon, who have all written about the limitations of the pense 68. Course Requirements: Students are expected to attend every class, do all the reading, and participate actively during discussion. Please come to class with specific questions and passages you would like to discuss. In addition, there will be three 5-7 page essays. Topics and guidelines for these papers will be handed out in class. Due dates are: Feb. 23, Mar. 30, and Apr.30. Papers are to be left in my mailbox at McGraw Hall, fourth floor, by noon on the due date. There will be no extensions and late papers will be marked accordingly. Please make sure to cite all sources carefully in your papers. Refer to the Code of Academic Integrity or further information (http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html). Any violation of the Code of Academic Integrity will be forwarded to the Office of Student Conduct and will result in a failing grade for the course. The grade breakdown is as follows: Class Attendance + Participation: 25% ; Papers: 25% each.

Required Books: Available for purchase at the Cornell Bookstore, or on reserve at Uris Library. Please note that you can also find many of these books used (on Amazon Marketplace, for example). All other texts are available online through the Blackboard course site. Please make sure that you come to class with a printed version of these texts so that we can refer to specific passages. Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy (Touchstone, 1997) Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus (University of Minnesota Press, 1983) Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Vintage, 1995) Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 (Vintage, 1990) Marcel Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World (Princeton University Press, 1999) Kristin Ross, May 68 and Its Afterlives (University of Chicago Press, 2004) Suggested Reference Books for Critical Theory: The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, ed. by Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi (Columbia UP, 1995). Dylan Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 1996) John Lechte, Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers (Routledge, 2007) David Macey, The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (Penguin, 2002)

Course Outline:
Tue. 01/20 Introduction The Background: Structuralism Thu. 01/22 Tue. 01/27 Thu. 01/29 Claude Lvi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (Part I) Claude Lvi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (Part II) Jacques Lacan, The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis (focus on Part II of the essay, pp.56 to 76)

Louis Althusser Tue. 02/03 Thu. 02/05 Lenin and Philosophy: Philosophy as a Revolutionary Weapon and Ideology and Ideological States Apparatus Lenin and Philosophy: Freud and Lacan and Preface to Capital Volume One

Jacques Derrida Tue. 02/10 Thu. 02/12 Of Grammatology, Part I, Chapters 1 and 2 (pp.1-73) Of Grammatology, Part II, Chapters 1 and 2 (pp.97-164) Michel Foucault Tue. 02/17 Thu. 02/19 Discipline and Punish, Parts 1 and 2 Discipline and Punish, Part 3 PAPER I DUE ON 02/23 Tue. 02/24 Thu. 02/26 The History of Sexuality, Volume I, parts 1 to 3 The History of Sexuality, Volume I, parts 4 and 5

Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari Tue. 03/03 Thu. 03/05 Tue. 03/10 Anti-Oedipus (excerpts) No Class Anti-Oedipus (excerpts)

Feminisms Thu. 03/12 Movie: A Question of Silence (we will watch it in class) SPRING BREAK Tue. 03/24 Thu. 03/26 Monique Wittig, excerpts from The Straight Mind Luce Irigaray, Questions in This Sex Which Is Not One

PAPER II DUE ON 03/30 3

The Legitimacy of the Liberal Age Tue. 03/31 Thu. 04/02 New French Thought (Introduction by Mark Lilla + excerpts) New French Thought (excerpts)

The Problem of the State Tue. 04/07 Thu. 04/09 Pierre Clastres, Society Against the State Samuel Moyn, Of Savagery and Civil Society Blandine Kriegel, The State and the Rule of Law (pp.1-50)

The Problem of Religion Tue. 04/14 Thu. 04/16 Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World, Part I Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World, Part II

The Return of the Political Tue. 04/21 Thu. 04/23 Franois Furet, The French Revolution is Over Pierre Rosanvallon, Inaugural Lecture at the Collge de France Claude Lefort, Politics and Human Rights

May 68 and Its Afterlives Tue. 04/28 Thu. 04/30 Kristin Ross, May 68 and Its Afterlives (excerpts) Conclusions

PAPER III DUE ON 04/30

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