Sociology 5341: Contemporary Social Theory

Description
    Since about 1970, theorizing has been displaced from sociology, which is increasingly methods-driven, into neighboring disciplines such as English, comparative literature, philosophy, anthropology, history, cultural studies and women's studies. What remains as theory in sociology is largely middle-range explanation that, through literature reviews introducing empirical journal articles, collects cumulating research literatures into generalizations about variables. In this course, we examine apparently nonsociological theoretical discourses for what they have to offer sociology, which has subordinated theorizing to method. Of particular interest will be German critical theory, French theory (postmodernism, poststructuralism), cultural studies, feminist theory.

Coursework and Grades
    The course grade will rest on an approximately 20 page (double-spaced) paper, due on the last class date, November 30th, that treats an aspect or aspects of contemporary social theory. The paper should be a research paper, assaying a thesis that the author explores with reference to original and secondary writings. Papers that derive from the author's other coursework and/or thesis writing is encouraged. This assignment will be discussed in class at the beginning of the semester.

Readings (all paperback, except Jacoby's End of Utopia)
    Derrida, Of Grammatology
    Derrida, Positions
    Walters, Material Girls
    Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (2nd ed)
    Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment
    Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition
    Jacoby, Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe
    Jacoby, The End of Utopia
    Foucault, Discipline and Punish
    Agger, The Discourse of Domination

Lectures and Themes, by Week
    8/24: What is the topic?: social versus sociological theory, in light of the Americanization of European sociology and in light of changes in U.S. sociology after 1970
    8/31: interdisciplinarity as an alternative to disciplinary power: the displacement of theory from sociology into other disciplines (English, philosophy, women's studies, anthropology, comparative literature, political theory, communication studies)
    9/7: theories as discourses of post-WWII capitalism (explaining the Keynesian state, the culture industry, the culture of narcissism, sign value, post-feminism, information technologies, etc)
    9/14: Jacoby on the decline of theoretical discourse
    9/21 and 9/28: theorizing in light of Derrida's devastating critique of science!
    10/5: Foucault on disciplinary power
    10/12: Lyotard on the postmodern moment and its implication for narrativity
    10/19: Horkheimer and Adorno on the dialectic of enlightenment
    10/26: Marcuse on one-dimensionality
    11/2: Walters on feminist cultural theory
    11/9: Agger on the conjuncture of German and French critical theory
    11/16: Jacoby on the demise of utopian thought
    11/23: is postmodernism a viable alternative to positivism in the era of the "end of Communism" and World Wide Web?
    11/30: theorizing theorizing as a literary strategy