Modules

Humanities after the Human: Further Adventures in Critical Theory (EAS2090)

30 credits

Humanities After the Human considers how critical theory – a constellation of writing that includes philosophy, sociology, political manifesto, and cultural commentary – has decentred the (white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender, male) human subject as the privileged site of meaning, knowledge, and creativity. In so doing, this course tries to imagine those yet-to-be-enumerated possibilities of being and relating to others and the world around us that models of subjectivity in late consumer capitalism tend to foreclose. You will build on concepts introduced in Approaches to Criticism and reflect on the challenges that critical theory poses for the study of literature, the limits of the self, possibilities of kinship, and the organisation of social life. It is advantageous for you to be familiar with the material in Approaches, although it is not a prerequisite.