General Information
Course Description
9551 - Rethinking the Subject in Discourse: Representation, Confession, Answerability - This course will study issues relating to the construction of the self and the representation of the other in discourse as a way of discussing contemporary issues of outsiderness in literature and the law. Literature and related theories have much to teach us about how our society reproduces its own norms and excludes those who, for reasons of (say) race, sex or political affiliation, question the image that dominant groups have of themselves. First we will evaluate a range of contemporary approaches relating to the representation of the Subject in discourse, including works by Angenot, Foucault, Kristeva and Bourdieu; then we will examine the problems of authoring in discourse, with reference to theoretical works by Bakhtin and literary texts by Dostoevsky and Joyce; finally, we shall examine the ethics of, and obstacles to, presenting an adequate representation of the self and the other, with reference to legal theory relating to Outsider Law, and literary texts dealing with issues of outsiderness and legal procedure, including Kafka's The Trial, Dorfman's Death and the Maiden and Gordimer's Crimes of Conscience.
