GOVT 6605 - [Theoretical Approaches to Ideology]

(crosslisted) AMST 6605

Spring. Next offered 2017-2018. 4 credits.

Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with GOVT 4605.

A. M. Smith.

Profound controversies revolve around the definition of “ideology,” its relationship to the interests of dominant groups, the means by which it is circulated throughout diverse social sites, its capacity to influence worldviews and identifications, and its institutional expression. We will lay the groundwork for the seminar by examining social contract theory and key texts on ideology by Marx and Foucault. In the second part of the course, we will explore various schools of ideological analysis; for the spring 2013 version of the seminar, we will focus in particular on feminist and critical race theory. (PT)