Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods

Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods

Spring 2009

Liberal Studies

Professor Judith Halberstam

INTRODUCTION

What is Cultural Studies? What is the history of the development of cultural studies and what is its future in a changing university. Shifts in technology in the last thirty years have engendered widespread discussions about the meaning of culture in the age of digital technology. In this class, we will look at historically located debates about culture from other eras and examine what is specific to contemporary debates over censorship, the politics of authorship, seriality and originality. Looking at specific case histories, this course will also try to introduce students to the basic methods in Cultural Studies.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Requirements

1)PAPERS: 4 short position papers (2 pp) which clearly engage with one argument or line of inquiry from one of the readings and proceeds by way of close reading and textual analysis. You might use these papers as a basis for your presentations.

40%

2)CLASS PRESENTATIONS: Beginning the fourth week of the quarter - students each session will be responsible for presenting one of the assigned essays or books for class discussion. The presentation should be less formal and more discussion oriented - ideally a presentation would draw attention to an idea, an argument, a passage from a text and ask questions designed to promote further exchanges of ideas.

20%

3)LONG SEMINAR PAPER: 8-10pp: This paper may be turned in to me any time before the end of the quarter. Produce a study of a subculture, or a pop culture phenomenon, or develop a theory of cultural production/consumption/interaction, or study a cultural group of some kind (a book club, a film audience, a sports crowd). Use some of the theoretical materials you have read in class to describe, document but also analyze the subculture you have chosen.

40%

*Attendance rules are as follows:

All absences should be explained.

After 3 absences your grade will be reduced by half a point (an A will be reduced to and A minus, a B + to a B, and A minus to a B + etc).

After four absences your grade will be reduced by a full point (an A will be a B, a B+ will be a C+ etc).

After five absences, you will have missed a quarter of the class and will be awarded an F.

*Participation means:

coming to class, participating in class discussion, completing all assigned readings in a timely manner, asking questions, participating in a presentation group.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in LA (New York and London: Verso

Books, 2006). ISBN: 978-1844675685

Simon During, The Cultural Studies Reader 2nd edition(NY: Routledge, 1999).

ISBN: 978-0415137546

Nan Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular Culture and

Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (New York, NY: Columbia,

UP, 1999. ISBN: 978-0231111034

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (New York, NY: Routledge, 1981).

ISBN: 978-0415039499

Perry, Imani. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Durham, NC: Duke

UP, 2004). ISBN: 978-0822334460

Esther Leslie, Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and The Avant-Garde

(London, UK: Verso Books, 2002). ISBN: 978-1844675043

Jonathan Burt, Rat (London, UK: Reaktion Books, 2004). ISBN: 978-1861892249

Barbie Zelizer, Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory Through the Camera’s Eye

(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 2000). ISBN: 978-0226979731

FILMS – please view on your own or on campus

1. Safe
2. Shoah

Syllabus

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION

January 12

WEEK TWO:NO CLASS

January 19MLK DAY

WEEK THREE:What is Cultural Studies? Theory and

January 26Method

Readings:Part 1 of THE CULTURAL STUDIES READER: Adorno and Horkheimer; Barthes; Steedman; McRobbie; Clifford; Hall.

WEEK FOUR:Excavating Los Angeles

February 2***FIRST POSITION PAPER DUE Monday Feb 2***

Readings:Mike Davis, City of Quartz

Film:Todd Haynes, Safe – view at the library.

WEEK FIVE:Space and Time

Feburary 9

Readings:Part 2 of THE CULTURAL STUDIES READER: Soja, de

Certeau, Foucault; Lyotard; Abbas.

WEEK SIXNO CLASS

February 16 PRESIDENT”S DAY

WEEK SEVEN:Gender and Popular Culture

February 23

Reading:Nan Enstad, Ladies of Labor; Janice Radway, “The

Institutional Matrix of Romance” (The Cultural Studies

Reader – TCSR).

WEEK EIGHT:Consumption, The Market, Leisure

March 2***SECOND POSITION PAPER DUE Monday Mar 2***

Reading:TCSR Parts 8 and 9:Morris, Williams, Bordieu, Hebdige,

Straw, Chow.

WEEK NINEHip Hop Nation

March 9

Reading:Imani Perry, Prophets of the Hood

WEEK TENNO CLASS

March 16SPRING BREAK

WEEK ELEVENAnimating History

March 23***THIRD POSITION PAPER DUE Mar 23***

Reading:Esther Leslie, Hollywood Flatlands.

Screening:Cartoons, in class.

WEEK TWELVENO CLASS

March 30INSTRUCTOR AWAY – Make Up Class May 4.

WEEK THIRTEENSexuality and Gender

April 6

Reading: Part 6 of TCSR

WEEK FOURTEENCybercultures and Subcultures

April 13

Reading:Haraway and Ross in TCSR; Dick Hebdige, Subcultures.

WEEK FIFTEENAnimal Cultures

April 20

Reading:Haraway, from “Companion Species” (Blackboard); Rat

by Jonathan Burt

Screening:Ratatouille

WEEK SIXTEENMemory and Memorializing

April 26

Reading:Barbie Zelizer, Remembering to Forget

Screening:Parts of Shoah in class.

WEEK SEVENTEENCONCLUSIONS

May 4PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS