Proseminar: Interpretation and Textual Analysis

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary seminar for incoming MA students introduces a series of key theoretical debates about interpretation and textual analysis. Beginning with thinkers like Marx and Freud whose work underpinned theories of interpretation in the early part of the twentieth century, we will then move into debates about the location of meaning that challenged the ways in which scholars, artists, and critics conceived of their work. The course continues with close analysis of the “high theory” of the 1970s and 80s, such as New Historicism, structuralism, deconstruction, and cultural studies which both reflected and fomented broader shifts within the contemporary Western world. We will conclude our survey with twenty-first century approaches to interpretation, including material culture, postcolonialism, feminist and queer theory. A portion of each class will be devoted to applying the readings to students’ own research projects. Students will emerge from the course with a strong understanding of the interpretive theories 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 in the Thesis Proposal Seminar.