1. Handbook
  2. Subjects
  3. Critical Debates

Critical Debates (ENGL30002)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

You’re viewing the 2018 Handbook:
Or view archived Handbooks
You’re currently viewing the 2018 version of this subject

Overview

Availability
Semester 2
FeesLook up fees

This subject will proceed through close examinations of a series of debates that continue to influence literary studies today. The debates have been chosen for both their centrality and their diversity, for their historical force as for their abiding contemporary significance, for their dense particularities as for their global import. The situations, conditions, agents, arguments, concepts and consequences of the debates will be examined in detail. Key figures examined may include Jacques Derrida, Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancire, among others. The particular case-studies will also serve to illuminate such general headings as Literature and Science, Literature and History, Literature and Politics, Literature and Philosophy, Literature and Society, Literature and Sexuality, Literature and Postcolonialism etc.

Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:



  • reflect critically on the analytical skills and methods developed over the course of the major;
  • demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of a number of key theoretical debates that have set the direction and tone for literary discourse today;
  • demonstrate a general understanding of the concepts and principles from cognate disciplines like the history of philosophy, political theory and media theory;
  • apply an independent approach to knowledge that uses rigorous methods of inquiry and appropriate methodologies that are applied with intellectual honesty and a respect for ethical values;
  • articulate the relationship between diverse forms of knowledge and the social, historical and cultural contexts that produced them;
  • communicate effectively in a variety of oral and written formats;
  • act as informed and critically discriminating participants within the community of scholars; and
  • work with independence, self-reflection and creativity.

Generic skills

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

  • be able to develop and apply research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

  • be able to develop persuasive arguments on a given topic;

  • be able to communicate oral and written arguments and ideas effectively and articulately.

Last updated: 3 November 2022