Ph. D. Course on Method/Critical and Cultural Theory
School of Culture and Communication
Södertörn University, Spring 2013
Professor Sara Danius
COURSE OUTLINE
This course is about an issue which lies at the heart of every scholarly endeavor: method (from Gr.
methodos, having to do with "way"). More specifically, the course explores the art of making
arguments, and the methods scholars use in order to support these arguments (e.g., reasoning,
statistics, analysis of historical and other kinds of empirical material, etc.). Beginning with Aristotle's
Rhetoric, we will proceed to explore a selection of exemplary texts drawn from a variety of disciplines
in the humanities. The aim is twofold: (1) to identify the central theses put forward, including the
ways in which these are framed, and (2) to trace and analyze the scholarly methods used. We will
focus especially on the introductory chapters in the works under discussion. The course consists of
eight colloquia, and particular emphasis will be placed on discussion and oral presentations. In
addition, each course participant will be expected to write a weekly paper.
Course requirements: active participation in discussions (30%), at least one oral presentation
(10%), weekly one-page papers (40%), and a final, ten-page double-spaced paper at the end of the
course (20%).
The weekly paper. Each and every text that we read has an aim. In analyzing the text, a good way
to begin is to identify the general argument. (Please pay attention to the distinction between topic and
thesis/argument.) If there is an argument, there is also a polemic context – sometimes it is explicit,
sometimes implicit. Now identify the polemic context. What does the author argue for? Against?
What does he or she seek to address, redress, correct, modify, change? Next comes the equally
important question of method. Please identify, analyze, and assess the roads taken, and form your
observations into a coherent presentation. The ideal format is a one page paper, single-spaced.
Always use your own words, and push your own analysis into the foreground. At the end of the
course, you will be pleased to discover that you have in fact compiled a personal compendium, with
papers on a number of central problems at the heart of scholarship in the humanities.
Oral presentations. For your oral presentation, you may use your weekly paper. Sometimes,
however, specific tasks will be assigned. Make sure to deliver your talk in a lively and interesting
manner. Please close your presentation with three observations based in your analysis of the text, or
three questions, or three remarks. This is to encourage discussion.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
(1) Topic: The Art of Writing, the Art of Thinking
• Aristoteles, The Art of Rhetoric, övers. H. C. Lawson-Tancred (London: Penguin, 1991).
• Wayne C. Booth, ”Writing As a Craft: Making Choices”, i The Harper & Row Rhetoric: Writing as
Thinking, Thinking as Writing (New York: Harper & Row, 1987).
1 Wednesday, January 30
(2) Topic: Ways of Making an Argument: Discovering the Method, I
• Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1983).
• Michel Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of
Pictorial Style (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Thursday, February 14
(3) Topic: Ways of Making an Argument, Ways of Making a Counter Argument:
Discovering the Method, II
• Michel Foucault, “Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur” (1969), i Dits et écrits. 1954-1969, vol. 1. English
translation: "What Is an Author?", in Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism, ed.
Josué V. Harari (London: Methuen, 1979), 141-160. Or: in The Foucault Reader, red. Paul
Rabinow (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), 101-120. Sv. övers.: ”Vad är en författare?”, övers.
Jan Stolpe, i Diskursernas kamp (Stockholm/Stehag: Brutus Östlings bokförlag, 2008), 77-100.
• Roger Chartier, The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe Between the 14th and
18th Centuries, transl. Lydia G. Cochrane (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1994).
NB: Tuesday, February 19
(4) Topic: Ways of Making an Argument: Discovering the Method, III
Distinguished Visitor: Professor Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University
• Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, transl. Willard R. Trask (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957),
chapters "Odysseus' Scar" and "In Hôtel de la Môle". På svenska: ”Odysseus ärr” samt ”Hôtel
de la Môle”, i Mimesis. Verklighetsframställningen i den västerländska litteraturen, övers. Ulrika
Wallenström (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1998).
• Gumbrecht's Essay on Auerbach (pdf to be distributed).
• Part 1: Gumbrecht on Gumbrecht
• Part 2: Gumbrecht on Auerbach
Monday, February 25
(5) Topic: Ways of Making an Argument: Discovering the Method, IV
• Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-century Miller (Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1997).
• Carlo Ginzburg, "Clues", in Clues, Myths and the Historical Method (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore, 1989). Sv. övers.: ”Ledtrådar”, i Ledtrådar. Essäer om konst, förbjuden
kunskap och dold historia (Stockholm: Häften för kritiska studier, 1989), 8-39.
2 Thursday, February 28
(6) Topic: The Art of Ethnographic Writing/Distinguished Visitor: TBA
• James Clifford, Writing Culture (1986)
• Beverly Skeggs "Theorizing, Ethics and Representation in Feminist Ethnography"
Further reading, not required:
• Toril Moi, ”What Is a Woman: Sex, Gender, and the Body in Feminist Theory”. I What Is a
Woman and Other Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 3-120.
• Bränström-Öhman, Annelie (2008) "Show some emotion!". Tidskrift för genusvetenskap (TGV) 2,
2008.
• Hejinian, Lyn (2002) ”Some Notes toward a Poetics”, in Claudia Rankine and Juliana Spahr
(eds.). American Women Poets in the 21st Century. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press,
235–241
• Richardson, Laurel (2000) ”Writing: A Method of Inquiry” i Denzin, Norman K. & Lincoln,
Yvonna S. (red.), Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Monday, March 11
(7) Topic: Discovering the Object of Study, II
• Anne Friedberg, The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,
2006).
Thursday, March 14, 2013
(8) Topic: Discovering the Object of Study, III
Distinguished Visitor: Staffan Ericson, Associate Professor,
Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University
• Pierre Bourdieu, Photography: A Middle-brow Art, transl. Shaun Whiteside (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1990).
--------------------* In all likelihood, during your career as Ph. D. student there will be stretches when you feel that
your writing/your thinking/your dissertation is fundamentally worthless. Before considering a
career change, please read: Joan Bolker, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. A Guide
to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis (New York: Henry Holt, 1998). NB: This
reference is no joke. The book is brilliant.
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