Universität Wien

120086 AR Interdisc. Course (Gender St): Signifier-Signified-Referent (2008S)

Post/structural approaches in gender, cult. and postcolonial studies

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work

anrechenbar als 701 (UniStG Studienplan Diplomstudium) und als freies Wahlfach für UF Englisch, sowie als Vorprüfungsfach K 701 (alter Studienplan).

Details

Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 11.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 18.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 25.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 01.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 08.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 15.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 22.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 29.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 06.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 13.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 20.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 27.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 03.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 10.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 17.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 24.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course is an introduction to structuralist and poststructuralist theories of language with
particular emphasis on the relation signifier-signified-referent. After providing a survey over
structuralism (F. Saussure') we investigate in detail the deconstruction of the unity of the
sign and its radicalization ("floating signifiers") in poststructuralist theories of language (J.Derrida).
Next we consider the impact of post/structuralismon gender-, cultural, and postcolonial studies in
regard to methodology. In contrast of views of language which confuse the signified with the referent,
i.e. rest on a tacit essentialism, our focus will be on the deconstructivist subversion of binary oppositions.
Thus we do not merely reverse the hierarchical values of sex/gender, male/female, culture/nature, West/East, and colonizer/colonized but, by destabilizing both parts, reveal these as historically and culturally contingent constructions.

Requirements: regular attendance, participation in critical discussions, short written papers

Assessment and permitted materials

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

interactive

Reading list

" Barthes, Roland, "To Write: An Intransitive Verb, in: The Structuralist Controversy (ed.
R. Macksey & E. Donato), 134-145 (reprinted in: Philip Rice & Patricia Waugh, Modern Literary Theory. A Reader. 2nd ed., London, New York: Edward Arnold/Routledge, 1989, 42-53)
" Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture. London, New York: Routledge, 1994
" Cameron, Deborah, "Theoretical Debates in Feminist Linguistics: Questions of Sex and Gender", in: R. Wodak, Gender and Discourse, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. SAGE Publications, 21-36
" Culler, Jonathan, The Pursuit of Signs. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981
" Johnson, Barbara, "Thresholds of Difference: Structures of Address in Zora Neale Hurston", in: Critical Inquiry Vol.12, No. 1, "Race", Writing, and Difference, (Autumn, 1985), 278-289
" Derrida, Jacques, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourses of the Human Sciences", 1966
" Foucault, Michel, "From the Order of Discourse" (1971)
" Grosz, Elisabeth, "Ontology and Equivocation. Derrida's Politics of Sexual Difference", in: Nancy B. Holland, Feminist Interpretations of Jacques Derrida. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Univ. Pr. 1997, 73-101
" Nagy-Zekmi, Silvia, "Images of Sheherezade (1): representations of the postcolonial female subject", in: Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 12, No.3, 2003
" Saussure, Ferdinand de, Course in General Linguistics (1915), tr. W. Baskin, London: Fontana/Collins, 1974
" Spivak, Gayatri Ch., "Displacement and the Discourse of Woman", in: Nancy B. Holland, Feminist Interpretations of Jacques Derrida. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Univ. Pr. 1997, 43-72
" Sturrock, J. (ed.), Structuralism and Since: From Levi-Strauss To Derrida. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr. 1979
" Waniek, E. "Meaning in Gender Theory: Clarifying a Basic Problem from a Linguistic Philosophical Perspective", in: Hypatia vol. 20, no. 2 (Spring 2005)

Association in the course directory

501, 701; K 701, K 801

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:33