350:507                                                                                                

Index # - 52872

Distribution Requirement:  B

Thursday – 9:50 a.m.   

BH 211

Richard Dienst

Intellectual Traditions:  Dialectics and Anti-Dialectics 

In certain precincts of the theoretical world, battles over the status of the dialectic have raged for decades, even centuries. Is the dialectic a fundamental instrument of thought, or a doctrinaire straitjacket? Is the dialectic inscribed in the shape of history, or imposed upon the dynamism of unruly creativity and becoming?

We will trace this controversy through many of the key texts and figures of the theoretical canon. In that sense, this course can serve as an introduction to contemporary theory and its backgrounds, using the question of dialectics as the guiding thread. The purpose of this exercise is not to supply an all-purpose overview of the debates around dialectics—even the most stripped-down syllabus will leave aside many important statements. At best, we will get a sense of how theory engages in intellectual, cultural and political conflicts, all the way up till now.

The readings will be organized into a few major pairings or clusters, supplemented by as many important essays as our schedule and stamina will allow. Here is a provisional list of works we’ll read (often through excerpts):

Aristotle, Poetics

Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit and Reason in History

Marx, The German Ideology and Capital

Brecht, Short Organum and miscellaneous short texts

Horkheimer and Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment

Sartre, Search for a Method

Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind

Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy

Althusser, For Marx

Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason

Butler, Subjects of Desire

Derrida, Spectres of Marx

Zizek, The Parallax View