Two Weeks of Theory

In a few weeks, I am the guest faculty member in Ray Haberski’s graduate seminar for American Studies PhD students. My assignment is to introduce students to critical theory in any way that I see fit (and, by critical theory, we’re not talking about the Frankfurt School, but rather a broad range of critical modes).

This is an immensely frustrating task for me. I have already spent hours trying to put together a set of readings that I’m comfortable with—readings that will (1) cover some key themes, (2) speak to each other, and (3) give some indication of how theory can be applied.

I don’t like to think about the authors that were once on this list, only to be cut: Benjamin, Césaire, Butler, Spivak, Fanon, Deleuze. The list goes on.

But, eventually, I had to make a decision. And here it is.

Week 1: Some Basics

  • Marx, Karl. “The German Ideology: Part I.” In The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker, 2nd ed., 146–200. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978.

  • Dubois, W.E.B. “Marxism and the Negro Problem.” The Crisis 40, no. 5 (May 1933): 103–4, 118.

  • Gramsci, Antonio. “Hegemony, Relations of Force, Historical Bloc.” In The Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935, edited by David Forgacs, 189–221. New York: NYU Press, 2000.

  • Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, 2nd ed., 94-101. New York, NY: Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press, 1983. 

Week 2: Power and the Urban Landscape

  • Michel Foucault, “The Eye of Power.” In Foucault Live: Collected Interviews, 1961-1984, edited by Sylvère Lotringer, 226-40. New York, NY: Semiotext(e), 1996.

  • Rosol, Marit. 2015. “Governing Cities through Participation—a Foucauldian Analysis of CityPlan Vancouver.” Urban Geography 36 (2): 256–76.

  • Avila, Eric. 2014. “L.A.’s Invisible Freeway Revolt: The Cultural Politics of Fighting Freeways.” Journal of Urban History 40 (5): 831–42.

  • Pulido, Laura. 2016. “Flint, Environmental Racism, and Racial Capitalism.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 27 (3): 1–16. 

TeachingJason Kellytheory, critical theory, reading listComment