Credits: 3 (3-0-0)
Description
In this course we will inquire into some or all of the following questions pertaining to the relation between criticism, crisis, critique and critical theory: a) the development of criticism as a part of the literary as well as philosophical inquiries into morals and tastes from antiquity to the present; b) the manner in which the development of the idea of critique in the context of the crisis that accompanied 18th century “Enlightenment”, the rise of the public sphere, and colonialism; c) the relation of criticism and critique to literature and to metaphysical inquiry; d) the concepts and concerns that inform theoretical and critical activity today, i.e., the critiques of gender, religion, race and caste; e) the relation of critical theory to critical practice, e.g. application, evaluation, description, self-reflexivity, and resistance, as observed in various schools of literary theory and criticism.