Now you can view this blog on your mobile phones! Give a try.

Monday, November 02, 2009

SEMINARS

I know its been really long and that I was supposed to write all this long ago.. But I've decided to write about it today. So, here's a little abstract of how classes work here.

I'm a postgraduate student doing MA Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. I have six hours of classes per week. Well, actually four hours per week, with one two hour seminar per week per module.

I'm doing two modules this semester, one titled Material Cultures and Subject and Sign after Freud and Saussure. The second one is the most exciting part of the course, and is also the toughest. It's so interesting to see how the curve moves from Saussure, to Barthes, to Freud, to Lacan. I can actually see how each theorist and philosopher laid the foundation for the next one to come, and so on... Its a beautiful progression of thought. And it's so interesting to see how each person belongs to their time, and that they could not, obviously think beyond their time.

I was talking about the structure of the seminars when I got carried away... We have, as I said, two modules per semester, and the last two hours is this series of lectures called Tradition of Critique, which is pretty awesome, because we get an overview of the key theorists of the 19th and 20th Century. For the man module classes, we have quite a bit of reading to do... These reading last somewhere between 50-100 pages, but this s just the essential reading... There's also the secondary reading, which I've never managed to actually get around.

This week is reading week, which means we don't have classes at all. I know that sounds like a blast, but its really hard because you have to get off your back and sit and focus and read, and figure out what you want to with your essay, which I'm finding quite difficult at the moment.

Till I have more,
In typical Brit Style,

Cheers

Kanasu

3 comments:

Anil Pinto said...

Kana, what is the nature of the seminar? How is it organised? What do you do in it?

JoseAngel said...

This sounds like the kind of course I teach here in Spain. And I went through the same experience in the USA; there were lots of readings to go through, and I did the lot, both the essential and the less important ones. I did well, but most of my colleagues seemed to read only the readings for their presentations, and they did well too. So try to gauge which are the REAL requirements behind the requirements... and devote your time and energy to the things that will actually do most to improve your results.

Anil Pinto said...

thanks JoseAngel.