Culture and Meaning

The “(selections)” notation suggests focusing on key chapters or sections of longer, foundational works. This provides a more accessible and manageable entry point for high school students to grasp core arguments and potentially spark further interest.

  • Culture and Identity

      
    The Interpretation of Cultures
    Clifford Geertz
    Introduces the concept of “thick description” and explores how culture shapes human experience and meaning-making.
    Anthropology/Sociology
      
    Orientalism
    Edward Said
    A highly influential work that critiques Western perceptions of the “Orient” and explores the relationship between power and representation.
    Literary Theory/History/Cultural Studies
      
    Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
    Judith Butler
    A highly influential work that challenges binary notions of gender and sex, arguing that gender is a social construct performed through language and social practices.
    Feminist Theory/Philosophy
      
    The Wretched of the Earth
    Frantz Fanon
    A powerful analysis of the psychological and social impacts of colonialism and the processes of decolonization.
    Postcolonial Studies/Sociology/Psychology
      

    Language and Meaning

      
    Course in General Linguistics
    Ferdinand de Saussure
    A foundational work in structural linguistics, introducing key concepts like the signifier and the signified, and emphasizing the arbitrary nature of linguistic signs and the importance of relational meaning.
    Linguistics/Literary Theory/Philosophy
      
    Mythologies
    Roland Barthes
    Explores how everyday cultural phenomena are turned into “myths” – seemingly natural but actually constructed meanings that reinforce dominant ideologies.
    Literary Theory/Cultural Studies/Sociology
      
    Syntactic Structures
    Noam Chomsky
    A highly influential work that revolutionized linguistics by proposing a universal grammar and emphasizing the innate human capacity for language acquisition.
    Linguistics/Cognitive Science
      
    The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
    Steven Pinker
    A compelling exploration of the biological basis of language and the innate human capacity for it.
    Psychology/Linguistics