I've been teaching a MA-level critical theory course for a couple of years now, and while I think it's effective on some levels as-is, I would like to offer a more curated, in-depth approach. Currently, the course is organized loosely chronologically, using the 2nd edition of the Rivkin & Ryan anthology--what I used in graduate …
Gender Studies, Bishop
In 290 tomorrow, I'm going to try something a bit new--students will have read the Ryan introduction to gender studies, which has three distinct portions (not divided as such, but useful): an overview, a closer look at the patriarchal construction/rejection/suppression of the feminine, and a section on homosexual panic and compulsory heterosexuality, all the while …
Achebe and the Center
In my tutorial today on the postcolonial novel and theory, we'll discuss The Empire Writes Back and the chapter on "Re-Placing the Text," in conjunction with the first part of Achebe's Things Fall Apart and, if we have time, Yeats' "The Second Coming": William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) THE SECOND COMING Turning and turning in the …
Bishop, “Insomnia,” and Psychoanalysis
Today in EN290, we discussed Bishop's poem "Insomnia" from a psychoanalytic perspective. I started the class by turning to some important themes in Bishop's biography, themes which find expression quite often in her work--loss, alienation, dislocation, and so on. This allowed us to differentiate formalist from psychoanalytic methodology, while also giving us a starting place …
Tying up Derrida, Moving on Lacan
Critical theory meets on Tuesday to finish discussing Derrida and to begin thinking about psychoanalysis--largely, Freud and Lacan, but including our crazy friends Deleuze and Guattari. I'm hoping to be able to move fairly quickly through the excerpts we've got, but I anticipate having to spend more time than less with poststructuralism. I've got a …
Tonya Howe 