Deconstruction and History (P00421)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LLC-P-P00421

This course offers an intensive study of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology, and a small selection of his more recent work. The focus will be on Derrida's deconstruction of the ideas of speech and writing. The course will explore the speech/writing binary through a series of temporal and spatial conditions including England in the 1790s, early 19th century Scotland, colonial and post-colonial writing, and contemporary "dialect" poetry. Authors and theorists examined include Rousseau, Burns, George Eliot, Kipling, Levi-Strauss, Walter Benjamin, and Tom Leonard. The course looks at how deconstruction functions in different political contexts, including the nature of written constitutions, the invention of the primitive, the history of anthropology and the function of popular literature.

Entry Requirements

? Costs : Purchase of essential texts as required.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 2 hour(s) per week for 1 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

To give MSc students an in-depth knowledge of important text for critical and cultural theory with an introduction to other texts by Derrida.
To show how theory can be used in literary and political contexts.
To supplement the key themes on English literature masters courses: Nation, Writing, Culture, and Writing and Cultural Politics, and give students from non-English literature backgrounds some experience of dealing with literacy texts.
To introduce students to working within an interdisciplinary field, making connections between important areas for postgraduate work.