Critical Theory: Language and Culture

Language and Culture (CTLC) is a year-long course that introduces students to post-structuralism as a critical methodology for studying literature. Building upon the groundwork laid in TAA and MWA, CTLC asks students to consider why challenges to both epistemological certainty and structuralist and other foundationalist approaches to analyzing literature arose in the context of post-WWII society. Through an intensive study of genres of nonfiction, including creative nonfiction and visual rhetoric, students explore why there were so many challenges to certainty in this time period, what some of the deep roots of the poststructuralist approach are in the premodern period, and what kinds of questions this approach helps us ask and answer not only about literature but also about the world around us. In answering these questions, students also focus on how literary form connects to content and on their own formulation of an ethical writing voice. By the end of the course, students' essays are executed at the college level.