Lecture Description
Overview:
In this lecture on Derrida and the origins of deconstruction, Professor Paul Fry explores two central Derridian works: "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences" and "Différance." Derrida's critique of structuralism and semiotics, particularly the work of Levi-Strauss and Saussure, is articulated. Deconstruction's central assertions that language is by nature arbitrary and that meaning is indeterminate are examined. Key concepts, such as the nature of the text, discourse, différance, and supplementarity are explored.
Reading assignment:
Derrida, Jacques. "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" and "Différance." In The Critical Tradition, pp. 915-25 and pp. 932-39
Course Index
- Introduction
- Introduction (cont.)
- Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle
- Configurative Reading
- The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork
- The New Criticism and Other Western Formalisms
- Russian Formalism
- Semiotics and Structuralism
- Linguistics and Literature
- Deconstruction I
- Deconstruction II
- Freud and Fiction
- Jacques Lacan in Theory
- Influence
- The Postmodern Psyche
- The Social Permeability of Reader and Text
- The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory
- The Political Unconscious
- The New Historicism
- The Classical Feminist Tradition
- African-American Criticism
- Post-Colonial Criticism
- Queer Theory and Gender Performativity
- The Institutional Construction of Literary Study
- The End of Theory?; Neo-Pragmatism
- Reflections; Who Doesn't Hate Theory Now?
Course Description
In this course, Prof. Paul H. Fry gives 26 video lectures on Theory of Literature. This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?