Proseminar: Traditions of Interpretation

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary seminar for incoming M.A. students introduces a series of key 20th- and 21st-century theoretical debates about interpretation in the modern humanities. The first half of the course will trace a broad chronology of theories of interpretation from the early 20th century to the first decades of the 21st. Beginning with thinkers like Marx and Freud who defined theories of interpretation in the early part of the century, we will then move into discussions concerning author, text, and context that took place within literary circles in the mid-century – clashes over the location of meaning that challenged the ways in which artists and critics conceived of their work. The course continues with close analysis of the so-called “high theory” of the 1970s and ’80s, such as structuralism, deconstruction, and cultural studies which both reflected and fomented broader shifts within the contemporary western world. We will finish our survey by looking at important theories of interpretation in the 21st century, including material culture, postcolonialism, feminist and queer theory, performance studies, and the concept of “theory after theory.” The second half of the course will turn to various fields and disciplines in the humanities to study how theories of interpretation have manifested within these fields. We will look at music, religion, gender and sexuality, visual art, theater, and media. Students will emerge from the course with a stronger historical grasp of the interpretive theory of the past century, and will be encouraged to use the course’s introductory framework to further develop the theoretical underpinnings of their own work. Readings will include Bhabha, Butler, Barthes, Bennett, Derrida, Felski, Hall, Halberstam, Spivak, and many others.