Introductory description

ECTCS is designed to allow sustained and intensive engagement with selected traditions of classic and contemporary critical theory. The module examines two interrelated topics: (1) the future of work (encompassing theories of automation, digital labour, social reproduction, Afrofuturism, queer futures and post-capitalism); and (2) the question of ecological futures (involving readings on climate breakdown, environmental justice, decolonising green movements, eco-utopias/dystopias and debates around the Anthropocene/ Capitalocene). Each strand is anchored by a literary or cultural work that extends and fleshes out the implications of the theory covered.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Peter Frase, Four Futures
Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries
Marx, “The Fragment on Machines,” The Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy
Nick Dyer-Witheford, Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex
Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work
Jason Moore, “Cheap Labor?: Time, Capital, and the Reproduction of Human Nature”
Mark Fisher, Postcapitalist Desire
Silvia Federici, “Precarious Labor: A Feminist Viewpoint”
Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Exploring the Managed Heart,” The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling
Tithi Bhattacharya, “Mapping Social Reproduction Theory”
Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism,” New Centennial Review (2003)
José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
John Akomfrah, dir. The Last Angel of History (1996)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Identify and critically assess significant tenets and claims within the field of modern critical and cultural theory.
• Understand and evaluate the argumentative concerns, traditions and methodological approaches within a variety of analytic modes, together with their formal and rhetorical strategies.
• Enhance the ability to make abstract connections between individual ideas and conceptual frameworks.
• Gain confidence in understanding, interrogating and applying a variety of theoretical positions.
• Broaden awareness of the relation of critical-theoretical arguments to the general study of literary and cultural works.

Indicative reading list

Peter Frase, Four Futures
Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries
Marx, “The Fragment on Machines,” The Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy
Nick Dyer-Witheford, Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex
Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work
Jason Moore, “Cheap Labor?: Time, Capital, and the Reproduction of Human Nature”
Mark Fisher, Postcapitalist Desire
Silvia Federici, “Precarious Labor: A Feminist Viewpoint”
Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Exploring the Managed Heart,” The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling
Tithi Bhattacharya, “Mapping Social Reproduction Theory”
Kodwo Eshun, “Further Considerations on Afrofuturism,” New Centennial Review (2003)
José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
John Akomfrah, dir. The Last Angel of History (1996)

Research element

Independent research required for writing essays and creating podcasts/video presentations.

Interdisciplinary

Exploration of a variety of theoretical approaches drawn from across the arts and social sciences.

Subject specific skills

• Ability to identify and critically assess significant tenets and claims within the field of modern critical and cultural theory;
• Ability to recognise historical contexts shaping critical debates;
• Ability to broaden awareness of the relation of critical-theoretical arguments to the general study of literary and cultural works.
• Enhanced confidence in understanding, interrogating and applying a variety of theoretical positions.

Transferable skills

• Ability to work individually as well as a member of a group;
• Ability to construct well supported arguments and express them plausibly in both oral and written forms;
• Ability to recognise the relative values of web-based and multimedia resources;
• Enhanced ability to make abstract connections between individual ideas and conceptual frameworks;
• Enhanced ability to work efficiently and professionally toward stated deadlines.