French Theory

Catalog description

Something called both “French” and “theory” came ashore in the Anglo-American academic scene of the 1970s. Supposedly both impenetrable and hegemonic, it was seen to reconstitute what was discussed in programs in literature and the social sciences, and how it was discussed. Today the shoreline of study in the humanities has been transformed, but French theory’s moment is presumed to have past. This course will trace that history through key French texts (read in translation) written between the 1960s and 1990s. Taught in English.