Syllabus
Syllabus: 1. No readings. Introductory Lecture 2. Different Conceptions of “Culture” and “Cultural Studies”
Cultural Studies with “C” or “c”? Why we need a concept of culture and what kind of concept of culture we need in order to understand and / or explain social and political phenomena?
Mandatory Readings:
Gayatri Spivak, "Scattered Specifications on the Question of Cultural Studies" in The Cultural Studies Reader , Simon During (ed.), Second Edition, London and New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 169-189. 3. The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory on Culture Industry
What is “Culture Industry”?
Mandatory Reading:
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as a Mass Deception,” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp. 31-42
Recommended Reading:
Angela McRobbie, “The Place of Walter Benjamin in Cultural Studies.” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp.77-97.
Watch Youtube video “The Culture Industry” : Tyler Stump and Christina Fairchild at the University of Maryland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6CGAK0kVY . 4. Theories of Popular Culture
Mandatory Reading: John Storey, "What Is Popular Culture?" 1-16
(eg pop culture: Mainstream Cinema, Advertisements, Fashion, TV Shows) 5. Hegemony and Culture
Reading: Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks 6. Counter-Hegemonic Cultures
What is Resistance? What is Cultural Resistance? To what extent counter-hegemonic cultural movements can foster economic, political, social and epistemic justice?
Jocelyn A. Hollander and Rachel L. Einwohner, “Conceptualizing Resistance,” Sociological Forum , Vol. 19, No.4, 2004, s. 533-554. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4148828
Case Study 1 : Counter-cultural music on the US-Mexico border
Counter-Cultural Music Resisting Oppresions on the US-Mexico Borders, http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/pt/borders-fronteras/item/1131-su10-countercultural-music/1131-su10-countercultural-music
Case Study 2 : Resisting The Hegemonic Regimes of Representation: Critical Art by 'Roma Artists' from Eastern Europe
Maria-Alina Asavei, “Performing Approaches to Identity in Contemporary Roma Art”, ARTmargins: Central and Eastern European Visual Studies , MIT Press (online), 2013 http://www.artmargins.com/index.php/2-articles/727-performative-approaches-to-identity-in-contemporary-roma-art 7. Cultural Nationalism and Cultural Identity
In the past, there was “a tendency to identify cultures with nation-states” (Michael Keating: 2008). More recently, culture is conceptualized and explored beyond national divisions in terms of fluid online and offline networks. Is National Culture Over the Advent of Globalization? To what extent we can talk about overcoming national culture paradigm?
Mandatory Reading:
Gregory Jusdanis, "Beyond National Culture ?," by Boundary 2 , Vol. 22, No.1 (Spring 1995), pp. 23-60. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/303661.pdf 8. Modernism versus Postmodernism
Mandatory Reading: John Storey, “Postmodernism,” in Theory and Popular Culture , 2001, pp. 181-184 197-210. 9. Cultures in Exile
How can we understand, interpret and evaluate the formations of cultures beyond the national borders?
Mandatory Reading: Hamid Naficy, “The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles,” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp. 537-567. 10. High Art and Mass Culture
What arguments have historically been used to distinguish between high art and mass culture?
Mandatory Reading: Raymond Williams, "On High and Popular Culture," 1974, available online at: https://newrepublic.com/article/79269/high-and-popular-culture
In class screening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz_UVfNdUV4 (High Art: Low Art) 11. Marxism and Culture
Mandatory Reading: John Storey, “Marxism,” in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture , 2001 59-88. 12. Recapitulation & discussion off the final papers (topics, arguments, sources and so on)
Annotation
This introductory course attempts to illuminate and disentangle why we need a concept of culture and what kind of concept of culture we need in order to understand and/or explain social and political phenomena. It introduces students to various conceptions of culture, methods of analysis, analytical techniques, and interpretative strategies through which we can understand our social and political world.
Please note! This course attempts to engage the theory, the methodologies and interpretation of Cultural Studies. It is not a course about studying "other cultures" or intercultural communication.