The Invention of French Theory: A History of Transatlantic Intellectual Life since 1945
This MIT OpenCourseWare course traces how postwar French thinkers such as Lacan, Cixous, Derrida, Foucault and Debord came to be packaged in American universities under the label French Theory. Lectures and readings follow the transatlantic exchange from existentialism's postwar heyday through debates on communism, decolonization, neoliberalism, gender and mass media, asking why a shared nationality got treated as a shared theoretical program. The syllabus pairs primary texts from the French thinkers with the American reception that reshaped them, tracking how ideas travel and mutate across academic cultures. Materials include the course syllabus, reading lists and assignments as posted on MIT OpenCourseWare; the course is free to access and taught in English, with no certificate offered. It suits anyone curious about the intellectual history behind terms like postmodernism and poststructuralism as they entered American humanities departments.