Cultural and Critical Theory (Philosophy and Critical Theory)

Master

In Brighton And Hove

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Master

  • Location

    Brighton and hove

  • Duration

    1 Year

Facilities

Location

Start date

Brighton And Hove (East Sussex)
See map
Grand Parade, BN2 0JY

Start date

On request

About this course

Typical entry requirements
A good (normally an upper second class award) relevant, honours degree or
equivalent. Relevant recent work or other experience may be considered in
compensation for a weaker academic profile. IELTS score (for those for whom
English is not their first language): 7.5 overall, and a minimum of 7.5 in writing
and in listening.

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Course programme

The first unit of the Core Course, ‘Critical Foundations’

The Philosophical Foundations of Critical Theory, commences with a consideration of the contemporary state of theory after the impact of poststructuralism and post-modernism in five areas of enquiry: historiography, aesthetics, the philosophy of natural and social science, and literary theory.

This is designed to provide an introduction to the conflicts over the status of
knowledge that reverberate in most, if not all, disciplines today. As such, it is
a guide to the destination that students will be working towards throughout
their experience on the degree, the culmination of which ought to provide
them with a sophisticated understanding of, and a coherent position on, such disputes in their own specialised field.

The unit then surveys the foundations of modern cultural and critical theory.
Commencing with the liberal tradition, in its British variant as inaugurated by
Smith, Locke, Hobbes and Hume, it moves to its Continental counterpart
in the work of Kant and Hegel. It then considers the subversion of those
Enlightenment ambitions provided by Marx’s critique, and his development of the concept of alienation, and of a theory of history. Consideration is then
given to the differing interpretations of the woman question in the writings
of Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Engels. It then proceeds to consider Nietzsche’s
reactions to Enlightenment conceit as either a complement or alternative to
Marxism, before addressing Husserl’s inauguration of the Phenomenological tradition. The contribution of Freud to our understanding of the human condition is then addressed.

The second unit, ‘Critical Traditions’

Phenomenology to Postmodernism, maps the development of the variety
of critical and analytical traditions that have emerged from the philosophical
foundations of Critical Theory. It considers the development of Liberal and
illiberal individualism in the works of Rawls and of Nozick; the Western Marxist tradition in the works of Lukács, Gramsci, Adorno, Benjamin and Habermas; the Phenomenologies developed by Heidigger, Sartre and de Beauvoir; the Humanist tradition offered by Thompson and Williams; the Structuralism inaugurated by Saussure and further developed by Barthes and Althusser; the Post-Structuralism signally found in the work of Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, and Kristeva; the modern Feminisms to be found in the works of, Firestone and Segal; and the Postmodernisms of, inter alia, Lyotard and Rorty, and their feminist inflections in the works of Cixous and Irigaray.

The Core Course in Philosophy and Critical Theory is designed to embrace
the needs both of those who have touched on its material before (with, for
example, degrees in Cultural Studies, Visual Culture, or Art History), and those from other disciplinary backgrounds whose previous academic experience has provoked an interest in these questions, without addressing them directly. Taught sessions consist of both an intellectual contextualisation of the material, and a close reading, and sophisticated critique, of primary texts.

Structure of the Degree

The Core Course is delivered during the autumn and spring terms. In addition to the Core Course, students must complete a Research Methods course and an Elective Course before researching and writing a 20,000 word Dissertation.

• The Core Course, delivered over two terms, Philosophy and Critical Theory;

• a Research Methods Course, which prepares students to meet the challenge of identifying, delimiting, preparing for, and completing extended research projects and their written outcome, and considers the distinctive
approaches taken by the different disciplines relevant to the field;

• an Elective Course – one of the following - chosen from three types of student experience -

• a one term MA unit drawn from the range of other degree programmes offered to post-graduate students in the School of Historical and Critical Studies, in the Faculty of Arts and Architecture, of which the School is a part, or from further afield in the University

OR

• a Higher Education Teaching and Learning Course which involves following a one term, third-year, Honours level, Undergraduate course unit, considering the course design and delivery issues with the responsible tutor, observing student progress, and delivering one lecture and conducting one seminar discussion; OR

• completing a 10,000 word Extended Essay with regular one-to-one tutorial supervision;

• and a Dissertation of 20,000 words (or equivalent – eg video, installation,
or other studio-based work supplemented by a 12,000 word critical
reflection) in which the insights provided by the critical theory addressed
in the Core Course are combined with each student’s disciplinary specialism in an investigation of a text, issue, or problematic that can be supervised within the School of the University.

The Dissertation is the culmination of the degree experience. It allows each
student to address an issue or text drawn either from the Core Course or from their disciplinary specialism, and to do so with the experience of having already approached other areas of inquiry (on the Elective Course) armed with the critical insights provided by the Core Course.

Mode of Attendance : Full-time: 1 year (max 5 years)

Cultural and Critical Theory (Philosophy and Critical Theory)

Price on request