ENG 5079 Spring 2022 Tran

This course takes as its point of departure Donna Haraway’s assertion in Staying with the Trouble that “It matters what thoughts think thoughts. It matters what knowledges know knowledges. It matters what relations relate relations. It matters what worlds world worlds. It matters what stories tell stories.” Admitting that “It matters” is to recognize the enormous privilege and possibilities of the work we do and the fields and conversations in which we are entering as scholars and teachers. As an introduction to contemporary practice in literary and cultural studies, this class invites us to engage with the history of ideas and the politics of knowledge production. We will ask questions such as: How do we define theory and what are the stakes of theoretical scholarship? How might engaging with different schools of thought and theoretical frameworks allow us to read literature more closely while also attuning us to the broader implications of interpretive acts? Addressing questions like these will help us elaborate how theory nuances our understanding of the structures of power, social hierarchies, norms, and narratives that organize what constitutes cherished notions of identity, belonging, home, and the human.

We will examine both foundational and contemporary theoretical texts from a range of discourses, including biopolitics, Black studies, gender and sexuality studies, ecocriticism, indigenous cosmologies, postcolonial theory, and more. In order to facilitate our discussion of these dense concepts and debates, we will analyze the theoretical selections alongside short literary readings and strive to make connections between the works we engage and contemporary social and political phenomena. This course is, above all, an invitation to deeply contemplate the thickness of the multiple presents we inhabit, to participate in rigorous social, material, and cultural critique, because IT MATTERS to the project of realizing more livable, joyful, and equitable worlds.