French Theory Seminar Series: From Structuralism to Post

French Theory Seminar Series:
From Structuralism to Post-Modernism
Time: 5-6.30pm on Thursdays of odd weeks
Location: Howard Stringer Room, Merton College
(located on the ground floor of the TS Eliot Lecture Theatre).
Convenors: Benjamin Levy (ENS) and Emma Goodwin (Merton College)
The aim of this seminar series is to explore the way four different themes were being
approached by French philosophers, writers, sociologists, historians or anthropologists
during the second half of the 20th century. These themes have been selected for their
cross-disciplinary influence, but we shall try to see what unifies them.
For more information, including how to access the extracts (in English or in
French), please contact [email protected]
All welcome.
Wk 1
Structuralism:
Lévi-Strauss
Pierre Bourdieu
Wk 7
Gender:
Foucault
Cixous
Irigaray
différance
Politics:
Althusser
Foucault
Wk 5
Subjectivity:
Deleuze and
Guattari
Lacan
Wk 3
WEEK ONE: STRUCTURALISM
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “La Structure des Mythes” in Anthropologie structurale (Paris: Plon,
1997) pp.227-255.
Translation : “The Structural Study of Myth” in Structural Anthropology (London: Penguin,
1968), pp. 206-231.
Pierre Bourdieu, Esquisse d'une Théorie de la Pratique (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2000), pp.
256-285.
Translation : Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977),
pp.72-95.
WEEK THREE: THE ‘SUBJECT’ AND SUBJECTIVITY
Deleuze and Guattari, L’Anti-Oedipe (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1972), pp.7-59.
Translation : Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (London: The Athlone Press, 1984),
intro. xv-xxiv and pp.1-50.
Lacan, “La lettre volée” in Ecrits, (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1966), p 11-61.
Translation “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’ in Yale French Studies, 48 (1972) 39-72.
WEEK FIVE: POLITICS
Louis Althusser, “Idéologie et Appareils idéologiques d’État: Notes sur une Recherche” in Sur
la Reproduction (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995), pp. 271-314.
Translation “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes towards an Investigation” in
Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays, trans. Ben Brewster (London: New Left Books, 1977),
<http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm.>
Michel Foucault, La Naissance de la Biopolitique: Cours au Collège de France, 1978-79 (Paris:
Gallimard Seuil, 2004), pp.3-28.
Translation : The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France 1978-79, ed. Michel
Senellart and trans. Graham Burchell (Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2008), <http://www.netlibrary.com/Reader/> [Bodleian Electronic Resource].
WEEK SEVEN: GENDER
Michel Foucault, La Volonté de Savoir: Histoire de la sexualité, vol. 1 (Paris: Editions
Gallimard, 1976), pp. 9-67.
Translation : The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality, vol. 1 (London: Penguin, 1990),
pp.2-49.
Hélène Cixous, “Le Rire de la Méduse” in l’Arc, 61 (1975), 39-54.
Translation “The Laugh of the Medusa” in New French Feminisms: an Anthology (Hemel
Hempstead: Harvester, 1981), pp. 245-264.
Luce Irigaray Ce Sexe qui n’en est pas un (Paris Les Éditions de Minuit, 1977) pp.23-32.
Translation : This Sex which is not One (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985),
pp.23-34.