Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 00:55:17 -0400
Subject: The rookie speaks!


At 11:20 PM 10/7/96 -0400, you wrote:
>
>The guy's in French _lit_. for heaven's sake. By all means, he should read
>French Marxist political economy. I was just warning him about philosophy.
>--jks

Actually, I'm a Caribbeanist working in a French Dept. on a certificate in
New World Studies.  My undergrad was in French and some Spanish, my MA in
French Lit (19th and 20th Centuries -- especially rich novels for Marxist
analysis) and now I am working on my PhD in Caribbean Literature
(hispanophone, francophone and anglophone) and Caribbean Area/Cultural
Studies (uh-oh, dangerous words on this list!), by which I mean a
self-designed course of study comprised of lots of critical theory, cultural
studies and anthropology pertinent to readings of Caribbean texts. 

As for the French theorist, I have read a fair bit of Althusser and some
P=EAcheux (both on ideology), Debord, and even Derrida's _Spectres_of _Marx_.
On the Anglo-American front, I've read Terry Eagleton and Fred Jameson, but
like many literary scholars interested in theory, I have to get to the
fundamental texts.  While I would strongly defend the "lit" types, I will
certainly admit that far too many claim to be Marxist critics or to have
read Marxist criticism without seeming to have ever read Marx.  There is
unfortunately a trend toward what I personally refer to as "black jeans
Marxism" -- the idea that being a cool lit person and wearing black jeans
religiously makes one progressive or Marxist.  By the same token, of course,
I have seen some truly comitted Marxists in literature depts, lest one think
that I am anti-lit.  At any rate, thanks again for all the advice.

Keith
  

____________________________________________________________________
Keith Alan Sprouse				e-mail:  kas3f-AT-virginia.edu
Dept. of French Language and Literatures		office:  804.924.4626
University of Virginia				home:  804.979.3961
Charlottesville, VA 22903			fax:  804.924.7157



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