Critical Debates

This subject will stage decisive debates in contemporary literary theory. Key figures examined may include Fred Moten, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Saidiya Hartman, Frantz Fanon, Judith Butler, and Alain Badiou, among others. The particular debates will allow us to situate contemporary critical practice in relation to its long history and to new developments in black studies, media theory, critical climate studies, decolonial thought and radical feminism.

• 1Engage with critical debates that have set the direction and tone for literary discourse today
• 2Discuss relevant concepts and principles from cognate disciplines like the history of philosophy, political theory and media theory
• 3Apply 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
• 4Articulate the relationship between diverse forms of knowledge and the social, historical and cultural contexts that produced them
• 5Communicate effectively in a variety of oral and written formats
• 6Act as informed and critically discriminating participants within the community of scholars
• 7Work with independence, self- reflection and creativity.