Annotation
OBJECTIVES
This course in post-structuralist critical theory and philosophy is organized as an informal reading-and-discussion group. Its major purpose is intertextual reading and detailed discussion of source texts of post-structuralism ranging from Deleuze and Guattari to Derrida (Writing and Difference, Of Grammatology) and dealing with key problems of Western thought. The participants are expected to contribute actively to the course programme, suggesting further readings and preparing detailed discussions of selected problems.
The theme is Thinking Order, Structures and Signs. The course will start from the intertextual reading of Foucault by Gilles Deleuze (available in Czech translation) and of writings by Michel Foucault, including The Order of Things (Slova a věci), Discipline and Punish and the first part of The History of Sexuality. Deleuze´s texts are represented Proust and Signs (available in Czech translation only), Nietzsche and Philosophy, Difference and Repetition and The Logic of Sense. We will also discuss Anti-Oedipus and its sequel, A Thousand Plateaus , by Deleuze and Félix Guattari. This programme may be modified. Useful reference texts are Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, The Foucault Reader edited by Paul Rabinow, and Sara Mills' introduction entitled Discourse (Routledge, New Critical Idiom)
MATERIAL
(see above)
NOTE
Deleuze's Proust and Signs is not available in English translation.
ASSESSMENT
Credits will be given to MA students for a regular participation in discussions contributing to the general knowledge of discussed texts and to the development of the course.