The seminar offers an introduction to some key contemporary trends in critical and radical theory. What this means is that you will acquire essential skills in working with new critical and theoretical texts, while also exploring how the ideas articulated in these texts can be applied to a range of literary and cultural materials. Material discussed in the class will cover anti-/postcolonial, Marxist/anarchist, and feminist/queer/trans positions. We will approach individual texts though the close reading of selected passages, but we also aim to shed light on the key arguments and presuppositions which underpin them. As term progresses, we will build up an archive of ideas that will equip you for future classes in the fields of literary and cultural studies, broadly conceived. Critics discussed include Louis Althusser, Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Frantz Fanon, José Muñoz, and Fred Moten.