MSt Methods of Criticism (Hilary Term)
SESSION 5: DECONSTRUCTION
Core Reading:
Jacques DERRIDA
 « Signature événement contexte», Marges de la philosophie (1972)
trs. ‘Signature Event Context’, Margins of Philosophy

« Ce dangereux supplément», De la grammatologie (1967)
trs. ‘That Dangerous Supplement’, Of Grammatology (**Rivkin & Ryan
Reader, 2002 Revised ed. only)

« La structure, le signe et le jeu dans les sciences humaines », L’écriture et
la différence (1967)
trs. ‘Structure, sign and play in the discourse of the human sciences’ (Lodge
Reader)

« La différance », Marges de la philosophie, trs. ‘Différance’ (1960) (Rivkin
& Ryan Reader)
Paul DE MAN, ‘The Resistance to Theory’ (Lodge Reader)
Further Reading:
Jonathan CULLER, On Deconstruction (1983)
J. DERRIDA, ‘La mythologie blanche’, in Marges (1972), trs. ‘White mythology’,
Margins and Positions (1972), trs. Positions
P. DE MAN, Allegories of Reading (1979)
Christina HOWELLS, Derrida: Deconstruction from Phenomenology to Ethics
(1998)
Nicholas ROYLE, Jacques Derrida (2003)
Barbara JOHNSON, ‘Frames of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida,’ in The Critical
Difference (1980)
Christopher NORRIS, Deconstruction: Theory and Practice (1982) and Derrida
(1987)
SESSION 6: GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Core Reading:
Hélène CIXOUS, ‘Sorties’ (Lodge Reader) and ‘Le rire de la Méduse’, L’Arc (1975);
trs. ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ Trans. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs 1
(1976): 875-93. [reprinted in English in New French Feminisms, Elaine Marks
and Isabelle de Courtivron (eds), University of Massachusetts Press, 1980]
Luce IRIGARAY, ‘The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine’
(*please read the whole essay, not simply the extract in the Rivkin & Ryan
Reader)
Judith BUTLER, ‘Imitation and Gender Insubordination’ (**Rivkin and Ryan Reader
2002 Revised edition only) and ‘Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual
Autonomy’, from Undoing Gender (2004)
Eve Kosofky SEDGWICK, ‘Between Men’ (**Rivkin & Ryan Reader, 2002
Revised edition only)
Michel FOUCAULT, ‘The History of Sexuality’ (Rivkin & Ryan Reader)
Further Reading:
Judith BUTLER, Gender Trouble (1990)
Mary EAGLETON (ed.) Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader (1986) and Feminist
Literary Criticism (1991)
Toril MOI, What is a Woman? (1999) esp. Ch. 1
Toril MOI, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (Methuen,
1985)
Morag SHIACH, Hélène Cixous: A Politics of Writing (Routledge, 1991)
Margaret WHITFORD, Luce Irigaray: Philosophy in the Feminine (Routledge, 1991)
Shoshana FELMAN, What does a woman want? (1993)
Eve Kosofsky SEDGWICK,‘Epistemology of the Closet’ (Rivkin & Ryan
Reader)
SESSION 7: LITERATURE AND ETHICS
Core Reading:
Emmanuel LEVINAS, ‘’Ethics as First Philosophy’and ‘The other in Proust,’ in
The Levinas Reader, ed. S. Hand (1989)
Alain BADIOU, L’éthique: essai sur la conscience du mal (1993). Translated as
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (2002) esp ‘Does the other
exist?’
Derek ATTRIDGE, The Singularity of Literature (2004), esp ‘Responsibility and
Ethics’
Martha NUSSBAUM, ‘Form and Content: Philosophy and Literature’, in Love’s
Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature (1990)
Marjorie Garber, ‘Who Owns “Human Nature”?,’ Quotation Marks (2003)
Further Reading:
Simon CRITCHLEY, The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (1992)
Robert EAGLESTONE, Ethical Criticism: Reading After Levinas (1997)
Emmanuel LEVINAS,‘Reality and its Shadow’ in The Levinas Reader, ed. Sean
Hand (1989)
J. HILLIS MILLER, The Ethics of Reading (1987)
Andrew GIBSON, Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel: From Leavis to Levinas
(1999)
Jacques DERRIDA, ‘La littérature au secret: une filiation impossible’, in Donner la
mort (1999). Translated as ‘Literature in Secret’, in The Gift of Death AND
Literature in Secret (2008)
SESSION 8: POSTCOLONIAL THEORY
Core Reading:
Frantz FANON, Peau noire, masques blancs. translated as Black Skin, White Masks
(1965), esp. ‘L’expérience vécue du noir’ (‘The Fact of Blackness1’) and
Conclusion
Edward SAID, Introduction to Orientalism (1978), and ‘Jane Austen and Empire’,
Culture and Imperialism
Homi K. BHABHA, The Location of Culture (1994), esp. ‘The Commitment to
Theory’ and ‘Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse’
Gayatri SPIVAK, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ Laura Chrisman and Patrick Williams
Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader (1994)
Stuart HALL, ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’, available in the above reader.
Further Reading:
Aijaz AHMAD, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures (1992)
Jane HIDDLESTON, Understanding Postcolonialism (2009)
Ania LOOMBA, Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998)
Bart MOORE-GILBERT, Postcolonial Theory (1997)
Benita PARRY, ‘Problems in Current Theories of Colonial Discourse’, Postcolonial
Studies: A Materialist Critique (2004)
Robert YOUNG, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (1990)
1
Also available in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, (eds.) B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths,
H. Tiffin (1995)