This class will seek to explain and exemplify various theoretical approaches
to literature and culture by way of popular entertainment. Following the lead
of Slavoj Zizek, who published the essay collection, Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know about Lacan but Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock , the class will
function as a thorough and rigorous analysis of some of the most perplexing
and pervasive issues in and ideological contradictions of our contemporary postmodern
world, examined through the lens of pop culture. The course will also clarify
some of the major theories currently influencing cultural criticism today, even
as we implement the tools of cultural critique throughout the semester. Each
theoretical approach will be paired with an example in pop culture: Narratology
through the X-Files; Psychoanalysis through Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; Postmodernism
through Bladerunner , the Matrix , and Brazil ; and a final
wrap-up of all the theories through Fight Club (along with some Marxism).
Books will be available
at Von's Books:
Guide
to Theory
Modules:
Slavoj Zizek, Looking Awry
Click Here for Options
Barthes:
Plot
Barthes:
the Five Codes
Brooks:
Plot
Brooks:
Narrative Desire
Brooks:
Transference
Freud:
Development
Freud:
the Unconscious
Freud:
Repression
Freud:
Neuroses
Freud:
Transference/Trauma
Lacan:
Development
Lacan:
Structure of the Psyche
Lacan:
Desire
Lacan:
the Gaze
Kristeva:
Development
Kristeva:
the Abject
Butler:
Gender and Sex
Butler:
Performativity
Hutcheon:
Postmodernity
Hutcheon:
Parody
Jameson:
Postmodernity
Jameson:
Pastiche
Jameson:
Ideology
Jameson:
Late Capitalism
Baudrillard:
Postmodernity
Baudrillard:
Simulation
Althusser:
Ideology
Althusser:
ISAs
Foucault:
Panoptic/ Carceral
Foucault:
Power
Definitions:
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot
Click Here for Options
Story
and Discourse
Proairetic/Hermeneutic
Codes
Frame
Narrative
The
Real (Lacan)
Between
the Two Deaths (Lacan)
Suture
Kitsch
Camp
Introductions:
Click Here for Options
Introduction
to Gender and Sex
Introduction
to the Postmodern
The Reader will
be available at CopyMat
Class
Web Site
Primers:
Click Here for Options
Star Trek, "Cause and Effect"
X-Files, "Clyde Bruckman"
X-Files, "Jose Chung"
Buffy, "Restless"
Buffy, "Hush"
Buffy, "The Body"
Buffy, "Once More, with Feeling"
Jump to
Date:
Click Here for Options
June 14: "Cause & Effect"
June 16: _La jetée_
June 21: Class canceled
June 23: "Clyde Bruckman"
June 28: "Jose Chung"
June 30: "Restless"
July 5: "Hush"
July 7: "The Body"
July 12: "Once More"
July 14: _Blade Runner_
July 19: _The Matrix_
July 21: _Brazil_
July 26: _Fight Club_
July 28: _Fight Club_
NARRATOLOGY
DAY
ONE :
The End is in the Beginning
VIEWING
Star Trek, "Cause and Effect"
Robert Enrico, "Occurrence at Owl Creek
Bridge"
READING
Terms
applied to the analysis of film (eg. POV shot, etc.)
Definition
of "story and discourse"
Definition
of "proairetic and hermeneutic codes"
Barthes
Module on Plot
Barthes
Module on the Five Codes
Primer on Star Trek: The Next Generation
DAY
TWO :
L'age été
VIEWING
Chris Marker, La Jetée
READING
Constance Penley, The Future of an Illusion
(Reader)
Garrett Stewart, Between Film and Screen
(Reader)
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot , Chapters
1 and 2
Brooks
Module on Plot
Brooks
Module on Narrative Desire
OPTIONAL
The Script of Chris Marker's
La Jetée
DAY THREE :
Class Canceled
DAY
FOUR :
Beyond the Leisure Principle
VIEWING
X-Files, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"
READING
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot , Chapter
4
Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Reader)
"Clyde Bruckman's" Primer
OPTIONAL
X-Files
Scrapbook : check out the Season 1 "Promotional
Feature"
DAY
FIVE :
I Want to Believe the Truth is Out
There
VIEWING
X-Files, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space "
READING
Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot , Chapters
8, 10, and pp. 319-23
Freud
Module 5 on Transference and Trauma
Brooks
Module on Transference
Definition
of "frame narrative"
"Jose Chung's" Primer
NARRATOLOGY
PSYCHOANALYSIS
DAY SIX :
Trauma and Narrative
VIEWING
Buffy, "Restless"
READING
Sigmund Freud, "An Outline of Psycho-Analysis"
(Reader)
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny" (Reader)
Sigmund Freud, "Fetishism" (Reader)
Freud
Module on Psychosexual Development
Freud
Module on the Unconscious
Freud
Module on Repression
Freud
Module on Neuroses
"Restless" Primer
OPTIONAL
<http://www.buffyguide.com/ >:
full episode guide and other extras
DAY SEVEN :
Lacan 101
VIEWING
Buffy, "Hush"
READING
Slavoj Zizek, Looking Awry, Parts I and
II
Lacan
Module on Psycho-Sexual Development
Lacan
Module on the Structure of the Psyche
Lacan
Module on Desire
Definition
of "the Real" (Lacan)
"Hush" Primer
DAY EIGHT :
The Gift of Death
VIEWING
Buffy, "The Body"
READING
Slavoj Zizek, Looking Awry , Part III
Lacan
Module on "the Gaze"
Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage" (Reader)
Julia Kristeva ,
Powers of Horror (Reader)
Kristeva
Module on Psychosexual Development
Kristeva
Module on the Abject
"Body" Primer
DAY NINE :
Feminist Lacan
VIEWING
Buffy, "Once More, With Feeling"
READING
Introduction
to Theories of Gender and Sex
Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema"
Kaja Silverman, "Suture" (Reader) The Acoustic Mirror (Reader)
Judith Butler, "Performative Acts
Butler
Module on Gender and Sex
Butler
Module on Performativity
"Once More, with Feeling" Primer
PSYCHOANALYSIS
POSTMODERNISM
PROSPECTUS IS DUE TODAY
DAY TEN :
I, Cyborg
VIEWING :
Ridley Scott, Bladerunner
READING :
Introduction
to the Postmodern
Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, (Reader)
Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative
Jameson
Module on Postmodernity
Jameson
Module on Pastiche
Jameson
Module on Ideology
Jameson
Module on Late Capitalism
OPTIONAL
The
Script of Bladerunner (7-24-1980 version)
The
Script of Bladerunner (2-23-1981 version)
Script of the Hollywood release of Bladerunner (including images)
The
Bladerunner FAQ page: a helpful compendium of information
DAY ELEVEN :
Like, Really
VIEWING :
Andy and Larry Wachowski,
The Matrix
READING :
Jean Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra"
Baudrillard
Module on Postmodernity
Baudrillard
Module on Simulation
Dino Felluga, “The Matrix: Paradigm of
Post-Modernism or Intellectual Poseur? (Part I)” (Reader)
Andrew Gordon, “The Matrix: Paradigm of
Post-Modernism or Intellectual Poseur? (Part II)” (Reader)
OPTIONAL
<http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/ >.
Check out the philosophy link.
DAY TWELVE :
The Laughter in the Prison Cell
VIEWING :
Terry Gilliam , Brazil
READING :
Linda Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism
(Reader)
Hutcheon
Module on Postmodernity
Hutcheon
Module on Parody
Definition
of "kitsch"
Definition
of "camp"
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
3-8, 200-209, 213-217, 223-304 (Reader)
Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power" 218-224
(Reader)
Foucault
Module on Panoptic and Carceral Culture
Foucault
Module on Power
OPTIONAL
Modernity
and mise-en-scene in Brazil
POSTMODERNISM
PSYCHOANALYSIS
POSTMODERNISM
MARXISM
and REVIEW