Graduate Courses, Summer 2002
Times and locations of class meetings are subject to change. Consult the UF Schedule of Courses for an explanation of the class period abbreviations.
Summer Session B
| Course no. | Time(s) | Course title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
 ENG
6075 |
T/R 5–6 | Theory: Issues: The Pictorial Turn in Critical Theory | Ulmer |
| LIT
6856 |
T/R 5–6 | Approaches to American Cultural Studies | S. Smith |
ENG 6075
Theory: Issues: The Pictorial Turn in Critical Theory
Greg Ulmer
Tuesdays & Thursdays, per. 5–6
Arguing for the need to adapt method to the emerging culture of the image, Walter Benjamin observed that what was important was not a moving red neon sign said, but the fiery pool of its reflection in the asphalt. The disappearance of critical distance is just one feature of the Society of the Spectacle, in which reality and the image merge into simulacra. It is not clear whether or in what way visualization technologies support theoretical reason. Our seminar takes up this issue in the setting of the Networked Writing Environment. The project for the semester is to explore the resources of website image-text authoring in the service of theory. Proposed readings: W. J. T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays On Verbal And Visual Representation; Tony Godfrey, Conceptual Art; Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community. Assignments: two websites, plus in-class presentations and email. No previous experience with website authoring required.
LIT 6856
Approaches to American Cultural Studies
Stephanie Smith
Tuesdays & Thursdays, per. 5–6
American “Cultural” Studies and American Studies – what precisely is meant by these terms? As Janice Radway, president of the American Studies Association asked in 1998, “What’s in a name?” This course is designed to be an exploration of various ways in which scholars have answered, and continue to answers Radway’s question. Therefore, the course will present these dynamic fields not as stable, absolute entities, but rather as a set of shifting practices that have been produced through multiple interdisciplinary conversations involving history, critical race studies, feminism, sociology, ethnic studies, queer theory, etc.
The readings will be divided into a series of thematic sets, TBA. These divisions represent a loose organization, and are in no way meant to limit our understanding of how categories of cultural experience are always in simultaneous operation.
Students will be required to do one in-class presentation, one response paper and one final paper.