Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Seminar and Discussion Series Is Theory Dead?

The Use of Critical Theory in Different Disciplines

Date 23.04.2012 30.04.2012 07.05.2012 14.05.2012

Title and speaker Lacan, objet petit a, and the Intricacies of Desire Katy Cook (UCL, English Literature and Psychoanalysis) Susan Sontags On Photography and the Problems of Representing War Mercedes Aguirre (UCL, English Literature) Twelve Books of Ambiguity: Paradise Lost and New Criticism Roberta Klimt (UCL, English Literature and Italian) Nothing more comic than a theory of the comic (Robert Gernhardt): On the Problem of Theorising Humour and the Comic Sandra Fluhrer (LMU Munich, Comparative Literature) Hyperreal Landscapes: Baudrillard's America and the New Topographics Elsa Court (UCL, English Literature) Theorising Past Identities: A Fruitful or Impossible Task? Julia Nikolaus (Leicester University, Archaeology) Assumptions and Evidence: Ironic Readings and their Implications for Queer Theory Jutta Kling (University of St. Andrews/ Tuebingen University, Comparative Literature) Chorography and Cartography: Franco Moretti and Quantitative Analysis Eliza Cubitt (UCL, English Literature) Faeces/ Fetishism: Early Twentieth Century Theories of Consumer Desire Luke Davies and Rachele Dini (UCL, English Literature)

21.05.2012 28.05.2012 11.06.2012 18.06.2012 25.06.2012

Location

English Department, Foster Court, Room 243 Postgraduate students from different disciplines, departments and universities have selected various critical texts and will show to which extent they are relevant for the research they are conducting. After the introduction participants are invited to discuss the selected text with the speaker.

Time To participate

6 8 p.m. Please send an email to pg.reading.group.ucl@gmail.com and we will share the Dropbox folder Is Theory Dead with you; here you will find copies of the required reading. Everyone is welcome to attend! There will be drinks and refreshments.