6. Sample Syllabi 1

VI. Sample Syllabi I

University of Chicago
Department of Political Science
Spring 2007

Alternative Models of Political Theorizing

Dr. Claudia Leeb
leebclaudia@uchicago.edu
www.claudialeeb.uchicago.edu
office location: Pick Hall, 515
office phone: 1-773-702-8059
office hours: M 1:30-3:00 and by appointment

Course goals:
This course has three specific aims: 1) to introduce students to three alternative models of political theorizing (critical theory, post-structuralism, and feminist political theory) 2) to encourage the development of analytical skills that enables students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each of these models to think about injustice 3) to develop an in depth knowledge of the thinkers we discuss to assess their commonalities and differences.

Course requirements:
This course requires:
a) regular class participation
b) a close and careful reading of the assigned texts
c) active participation in class discussions
d) three short papers (5 – 6 pages double-spaced). The first paper is due in our 5th session; the second in our 8th and the last one in our 10th session.
e) one 10 minute group presentation (two or more students) on a specific portion of the readings.

Grading:
Papers: 60% of grade (20% for each paper)
Presentation: 20% of grade
Class and discussion participation: 20% of grade

Schedule and Readings:

Week 1: Introduction (no reading)

Week 2: Critical Theory 1: Karl Marx
Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” “Theses on Feuerbach,” “The German Ideology: Part I,” “Capital, Volume One, Part I,” in Robert C. Tucker (ed.). The Marx-Engels Reader (second edition, 1978, New York/London: Norton & Company), pp. 53 – 66; 143-145; pp. 146-200; pp. 302-329.

Week 3: Critical Theory 2: Theodor W. Adorno
“Negative Dialectics: Concept and Categories,” in E.B. Ashton (trans.), Negative Dialectics, (1973, New York/London: Continuum), pp. 135-163.
“On Subject and Object,” in Henry W. Pickford (trans.) Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords (2005, New York: Columbia University Press), pp. 245-258.
“Marginalia to Theory and Praxis,” in Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, pp. 259-278.

Week 4: Critical Theory 3: secondary literature
Etienne Balibar, “Marxist Philosophy or Marx’s Philosophy?,” “Changing the World: From Praxis to Production,” “Ideology and Fetishism: Power and Subjection,” in The Philosophy of Marx (1995, London/New York: Verso), pp. 1 – 79.
Himani Bannerji, “Building from Marx: Reflections on Class and Race,” Social Justice, 2006, Vol. 32 Issue 4, pp.144-160.
Espen Hammer, “Adorno in Contemporary Political Theory,” in his Adorno and the Political (2006, London/New York: Routledge), pp. 159-177.
Lisa Yun Lee, “The Bared-Breasts Incident,” in Renee Heberle (ed.) Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno (2006, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press), pp. 113 – 139.
Simon Jarvis, “Adorno, Marx, Materialism,” in Tom Huhn (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Adorno (2004, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 79 – 100.

Week 5: Post-structuralism 1: Michel Foucault
“Governmentality,” in G. Burchell et al. (ed) The Foucault Effect: Studies on Governmentality (1991, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press); pp. 87 – 104.
“Objective”, “Method,” “Right of Death and Power over Life,” in his The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction, (1990, New York: Vintage), pp. 81-102; pp. 135 – 159.
“Docile Bodies,” “The Means of Correct Training,” “Panopticism,” in Paul Rabinow (ed.), The Foucault Reader. (1984, New York: Pantheon Books.), pp. 188 – 225.

Week 6: Post-structuralism 2: Jacques Lacan
“The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function: as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience,” in Ecrits: A Selection, Bruce Fink (trans.), (2002, New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company), pp. 4 - 9.
“The subject and the Other: Alienation,” in The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Jacques-Alain Miller (ed.) and Alan Sheridan (trans.), (1973, 1977, New York: W.W. Norton & Company); pp. 203 – 215.
“On creation ex nihilo,” in The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960, Dennis Porter (trans.), (1986, 1992, NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company), pp. 115 -127.

Week 7: Post-Structuralism 3: secondary literature
Jon Simons, “ Foucault in Contemporary Political Theory,” in Foucault and the Political, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1995), pp. 105 – 126.
Giovanna Procacci, “Social Economy and the Government of Poverty,” in The Foucault Effect: Studies on Governmentality (1991, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press); pp. 151-168.
Sandra Lee Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power,” in Katie Conboy, Nadia Medina, and Sarah Stanbury (ed.), Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory (1997, New York: Columbia UP), pp. 129-154.
Yannis Stavrakakis, “Encircling the Political: Towards a Lacanian political theory,” in his Lacan & the Political (1999, New York: Routledge); pp. 71 – 98.
Slavoj Zizek, “Love Thy Neighbour? No, Thanks!” in his The Plague of Fantasies (1997, London/New York: Verso), pp. 45 – 85.
Claudia Leeb, “The Lacanian Real and the Adornian Non-Identical: Two Central Concepts for Feminist Political Theorizing,” (in preparation for publication in Political Theory), (30 pages).

Week 8: Feminist Political Theory 1: Iris Marion Young
“Five Faces of Oppression,” in her Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press), pp. 39 – 65.
“Introduction,” “Democracy and Justice,” “Inclusive Political Communication” in her Inclusion and Democracy (2000, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 1 – 80.
“Throwing Like a Girl,” “Women Recovering our Clothes,” “Menstrual Meditations,” in her On Female Body Experience - “Throwing Like a Girl” and Other Essays (2005, New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 27-45, pp. 62-74, pp. 97-122.

Week 9: Feminist Political Theory 2: Judith Butler
“Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire,” in her Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990, New York: Routledge), pp. 3 – 44.
“Introduction,” in her Bodies That Matter (1993, New York: Routledge); pp. 1-23.
“Gender Regulations,” “Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?’ “The End of Sexual Difference,” in her Undoing Gender (2004, New York: Routledge), pp. 40- 56, pp. 102-130, pp. 174-203.

Week 10: Feminist Political Theory 3: Secondary Literature
Lorenzo Simpson, “Communication and the Politics of Difference: Reading Iris Young,” Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory, Sep2000, Vol. 7 Issue 3, p. 430, 13p.
Paul Apostolidis, “Negative Dialectics and Inclusive Communication,” in Renee Heberle (ed.) Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno (2006, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press), pp. 233 – 256.
Allisen Stone, “Towards a Genealogical Feminism: A Reading of Judith Butler’s Political Thought,” Contemporary Political Theory, 2005, 4, pp. 4-24.
Catherine Mills, “Contesting the Political: Butler and Foucault on Power and Resistance; Journal of Political Philosophy; Sep. 2003, Vol. 11 Issue 3, pp. 253-272, 20p.
Hull, Carrie-L. “Materiality in Theodor W. Adorno and Judith Butler,” Radical Philosophy, No. 84 (1997), pp. 22-35, 13 p.

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