English 506: Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory Wednesdays: 5:30-8:20 Professor: Justin Omar Johnston Office hours: Mondays 1:00-2:30, Wednesdays 1:00-2:30, and by appointment Email: [email protected]

Course Description:

This course will explore works of contemporary literary theory and the array of critical concepts that animate them: embodiment, materiality, sexuality, power, representation, affect, and communication, to name only a few. The goal of this course, therefore, is not only to expose students to a range of recent literary and cultural theory, but also to give students the opportunity to fashion their own critical vocabularies or ways of interpreting texts, systems, and lived experiences. We will read literary criticism (for example, Caroline Levine, Lauren Berlant, Edward Said, Rita Felski, Rob Nixon, Sarah Brouillette, and Mark McGurl) as well as cultural and critical theory (for example, Sara Ahmed, Melinda Cooper, Paul Preciado, Lisa Lowe, Paul Amar, Anna Tsing, and Wendy Brown). Collectively, we will also generate an archive of sharable/teachable short works of fiction, TV episodes, podcast episodes, memes, news stories, and commercials that will help us illustrate and ground critical concepts in everyday texts.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Proficiency in the discourse genres of professional literary studies: the conference presentation and proposal. 2. Advanced research skills, including the abilities to conduct a comprehensive search for relevant secondary sources (a literature review); to conduct archival research, if appropriate; to summarize and synthesize findings; and generally to join scholarly discussions in writing as a peer. 3. Scholarly expertise in a narrowly delimited subject, of appropriate scope for an article- length project.

Academic Integrity: Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty are required to report any suspected instance of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/

DSS Assistance: If you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services (631) 632-6748 or http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/dss/. They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential. Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation are encouraged to discuss their needs with their professors and Disability Support Services.

Critical Incident Management: SBU expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, and/or inhibits students' ability to learn.

Texts:

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Active class participation. I conceive of this class as a collective endeavor, so your attendance and participation are crucial for the success of the course. Indeed, keeping up with the readings and coming to class prepared to discuss them are among the most important requirements.

2. Twice during the semester you will lead class-discussion through an opening presentation. You will get us started by summarizing and exploring one of the critical texts for that day’s class. I recommend that you foreground the article’s main argument, noting your concerns or interests along the way, point us to some passages you find especially interesting or revealing, and end by offering up a set of questions and/or contradictions that will allow us to begin discussion. Indeed, for this class, I’d like you to select a photo, painting, song, object, short poem, commercial, meme, or object that might tangibly instantiate one or more of the concepts addressed in the critical text.

3. A 15-minute or approximately 8-page conference paper for delivery at the inaugural English 506 (mini) Conference (all submissions guaranteed acceptance). This is a great way to get a lot of feedback on a version of your seminar paper before its due.

4. End or course paper- 15 pages. You should check-in with me about your chosen topic week 13 at the latest.

Required Texts: Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go Han Kang, The Vegetarian Ben Lerner, 10:04 Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia Online Course Reader (available on Blackboard)

Week One: Literature and Critique Nico Baumbach, “For a Political Critique of Culture” Rita Felski, Introduction from The Limits of Critique Gilles Deleuze, “What is Minor Literature?” Photo of Earth from space (Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony”)

Week Two: Form and History in/of Literature Caroline Levine, “The Affordances of Form” Joseph North, Introduction to Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History Theodore Martin, “Theses on the Concept of the Contemporary” Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child

Week Three: Human Capital Michel Foucault, “14 March 1979” and “21 March 1979” from Birth of Biopolitics Annie McClanahan, “Behavioral Economics and the Credit-Crisis Novel” from Dead Pledges Thomas Piketty, Introduction to Capital in the 21st Century Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child; “Be More Human” ad campaign

Week Four: Human Capital continued… Wendy Brown, Chapters 1-3 from Undoing the Demos Imre Szeman, “Entrepreneurship as Common Sense” Jane Elliott, Microeconomic Mode: Survival Games, Life-Interest and the Re-imagination of Sovereignty Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go; Fiverr ad campaign

Week Five: Human Capital continued… Melinda Cooper, “Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism” Sarah Brouillette, The Psychology of Creativity” Sarah Brouillette, “Literature and the Creative Economy” Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Week Six: Biotechnology Melinda Cooper, Chapters 1-2 from Clinical Labor Melinda Cooper, “Life as Surplus” Alondra Nelson, Introduction to The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Week Seven: Post-humanism Rosi Braidotti, Ch. 1 from The Posthuman Cary Wolfe, Intro from What is Posthumanism? Donna Haraway, “The Cyborg Manifesto” Han Kang, The Vegetarian

Week Eight: Bodies becoming… Paul Preciado, “Pharmaco-pornographic Politics: Towards a New Gender Ecology” Jasbir Puar, “Prognosis Time: Towards a geopolitics of affect, debility and capacity” Han Kang, The Vegetarian

Week Nine: Bodies tiring… Lauren Berlant, “Slow Death” Sara Ahmed, “Against Students” Jennifer Egan, “Black Box”

Week Ten: Vital and Violent Ecologies Rob Nixon, Introduction to Slow Violence Anna Tsing, from Mushrooms at the End of the World Mark McGurl, “The New Cultural Geology” Ben Lerner, 10:04

Week Eleven: The Anthropocene Rob Nixon, “The Anthropocene: The Promise and Pitfalls of an Epochal Idea” Ursula Heise, “From the End of Nature to the Beginning of the Anthropocene” Leerom Medovoi, “The Biopolitical Unconscious: Toward an Eco-Marxist Literary Theory” Ben Lerner, 10:04

Week Twelve: Biopolitics and Nationalisms Jasbir Puar, “Homonationalism and Biopolitics” Achilles Mbembe, “Necropolitics” Timothy Snyder, Introduction to The Road to Unfreedom Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Week Thirteen: Thanksgiving Break

Week Fourteen: After post-colonialism Lisa Lowe, Chapter One of The Intimacy of Four Continents Edward Said, “Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories” Paul Amar, Introduction to The Security Archipelago Franz Fanon, Conclusion of Wretched of the Earth Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Week Fifteen: Societies of Control Jodi Dean, Communicative Capitalism Mark McGurl, “Everything and Less: Fiction and the Age of Amazon” Gilles Deleuze, Societies of Control Black Mirror: “White Bear,” “San Junipero”