Introduction to Critical Theory - YBAJ243

• Anglický název: Introduction to Critical Theory
• Zajišťuje: Program Liberal Arts and Humanities (24-SHVAJ)
• Fakulta: Fakulta humanitních studií
• Platnost: od 2023
• Semestr: letní
• E-Kredity: 4
• Způsob provedení zkoušky: letní s.:
• Rozsah, examinace: letní s.:0/2, KZ [HT]
• Počet míst: neurčen / 20 (20)
• Minimální obsazenost: neomezen
• 4EU+: ne
• Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu: ne
• Stav předmětu: vyučován
• Jazyk výuky: angličtina
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Poznámka: předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán; povolen pro zápis po webu
• Garant: doc. Mgr. Aleš Novák, Ph.D.
• Vyučující: Brice Cantrell, M.A.; Shawn Christopher Vigil
• Třída: Courses available to incoming students

Anotace

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

Critique, in the most general sense, is a mode of investigation meant to challenge ideas and discover how they stand up to scrutiny. In a narrower sense, the ‘critical tradition’ is a specific modality that descends to us formally from the 18th century, beginning with figures in the Enlightenment, most notably Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), continuing through to modern and post-modern thought exemplified in movements like Critical Theory, semiotics, and literary theory. In this course, we will survey this tradition with a specific focus on ethics and aesthetics. What is the role of art, and what can it disclose to us about the human condition, society, and our ethical commitments? How does society structure our moral and aesthetic sensibilities? How are value systems related to faculties like reason and sentiment? What normative implications follow from our understanding thereof?

Cíl předmětu

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

· Identify and track movements within the critical tradition in western thought.

· Explicate and critically analyze themes regarding ethics, aesthetics and society.

· Synthesize and contextualize myriad and sometimes [seemingly] disparate ideas.

· Understand how to deconstruct and formulate philosophical arguments.

· Conduct sound academic research.

· Reflect upon the deeper meaning of texts and how they relate to subjects beyond

circumscribed fields.

Metody výuky

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

The course is taught by Shawn Christopher Vigil and Brice Cantrell under the supervision of Dr. Aleš Novák.

Contact:
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

Sylabus

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

Week I: General Introduction, Discussion on art, ethics, and society.

Week II: Kant, “First Section: Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment,” in Critique of Judgment, pp. 35

• 74.

Week III: Nietzsche, “The Birth of Tragedy,” in The Nietzsche Reader, pp. 42 - 73.

Week IV: Marx, “Estranged Labor,” in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, pp. 28 -

35.

Week V: Horkheimer & Adorno, “The Concept of Enlightenment,” in Dialectic of

Enlightenment, pp. 1 - 34.

Week VI: Horkheimer & Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” in

Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. 94 - 136.

Week VII: Horkeheimer, “Materialism and Metaphysics,” in Critical Theory, pp. 10 - 46.

Week VIII: Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason, pp. 3 - 39.

Week IX: Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, pp. 217 - 251.

Week X: Benjamin, Selected Writings, pp. 78 - 81, 217 - 219, 297 - 320.

Week XI: Fromm, To Have or To Be, pp. 13 - 54.

Week XII: Fromm, Man for Himself, pp. 8 -37.

Week XIII: Analysis of a work of art

Podmínky zakončení předmětu

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

Students will be assessed on one academic essay and one oral examination:

The essay, approximately 1,500 words on a topic of the student’s choosing related to any of the

themes or texts discussed throughout the course, will be due at mid-term. The project should be a

critical enterprise, i.e., it should aim to advance an original, sophisticated argument and not

merely offer an exposition of certain texts or ideas. Papers should be formatted according to

academic standards specified in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). This examination

constitutes 40% of the student’s final grade.

The oral examination will be a one-on-one critical discussion with the instructors on themes

relevant to the course, approximately 30 minutes in length, scheduled during the final exam

period. This examination constitutes 40% of the student’s final grade.

Additionally, a compulsory informal essay approximately one page in length on a variable topic

will be due at the beginning of the term. While this exercise will not be graded, no further written

work will be accepted until the student has completed this one.

As class discussions are an indispensable component of the course, attendance is important.

Reasonable accommodations may be made in exceptional circumstances, but please

communicate any foreseeable absences or complications as much in advance as possible. A

written or oral makeup assignment will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Attendance

constitutes 20% of the student’s final grade.

Grading Scale (in %)

90 - 100 Pass (First)

80 - 89 Pass (Second)

70 - 79 Pass

0 - 69 Fail

Studijní opory

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (03.01.2024)

Required texts
Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In Illuminations:

Essays and Reflections. Translated by Harry Zohn. Edited by Hannah Arendt. New York:

Schocken Books, 1968.

• -- ---. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, 1: 1913-1926. Edited by Marcus Bullock

and Michael W. Jennings. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,

2002.

Fromm, Erich. Man for Himself. Abingdon: Routledge, 2002.

• -- ---. To Have or To Be. New York: Continuum, 2008.

Horkheimer, Max. "Materialism.and Metaphysics." In Critical Theory: Selected Essays: Max

Horkheimer. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. NewYork: Continuum, 1972.

• -- ---. Eclipse of Reason. New York: Continuum, 2004.

Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by Edmund

Jephcott. Edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Translated by James Creed Meredith. Edited by Nicholas

Walker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Marx, Karl. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Translated by Martin Milligan.

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1959. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/

download/pdf/Economic-Philosophic-Manuscripts-1844.pdf

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “The Birth of Tragedy.” In The Nietzsche Reader. Edited by Keith Ansell

Pearson and Duncan Large. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Further Reading
A Handbook to Critical Approaches to Literature Fifth Edition. Edited by Wilfred L. Guerin,

Earl Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. Oxford: Oxford

University press, 2005.

Critical Theory and Society: A Reader. Edited by Stephen Eric Bronner and Douglas Kellner.

New York: Routledge, 1989.

Fromm, Erich. "Psychology of Nationalism (1962)." YouTube. February 22, 2016. Video, 41:49.

https://youtu.be/pcX53MuX0ZI?si=QRUjP2o7-vTV5CU8

Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Lukács, György. “Kafka or Thomas Mann?” In The Meaning of Contemporary Realism.

Translated by John and Necke Mander. London: Merlin Press.

• -- ---. “On Irrationalism as an International Phenomenon in the Imperialist Period.” In The

Destruction of Reason. Translated by Peter Palmer. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities

Press, 1981.

Rosen, Michael."Benjamin, Adorno, and the Decline of the Aura." In The Cambridge

Companion to Critical Theory, edited by Fred Rush, 40-56. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2004.

Schmidt, James. "The 'Eclipse of Reason' and the End of the Frankfurt School in America." New

German Critique 100, (2007): 47 - 76.

The Routledge Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. Edited by Neil Badmington and Julia

Thomas. New York: Routledge, 2008.