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NYU-PARIS / NYU-DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION
COURSE TITLE: Topics in Globalization: Creating French Culture
COURSE NO.: (NYU) MCC-GE2384-001
PROFESSOR RODNEY BENSON
SCHEDULETuesday, June 14 – Tuesday, July 5, 2016
ROOMNYU-Paris Seminar Room TBD
OFFICE HOURSBy Appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
France is at the center of debates about the reach and character of cultural globalization: its government has taken the lead in opposing U.S. efforts to define cultural exchange in purely market terms, even as French publics have often welcomed American popular culture and political ideas. In the meantime, French culture, in all its richness, complexity, and diversity, continues to be produced, reproduced, and transformed. In this intensive three-work course, the city of light and its environs will be our laboratory as we experience firsthand France’s diverse creative cultures. We will travel across Paris and beyond to meet with cultural professionals, artists, and activists representing a variety of fields and perspectives (music, cinema, philosophy, literature, urban architecture, television, online news, immigrant media, etc.). In so doing, we will deepen our understanding of the global, national, and local processes that shape the making of contemporary cultures.
TEACHING / COURSE OBJECTIVES
*to increase students’ understanding of how media differ around the world (with a particular emphasis on France) and to develop a deeper appreciation of global cultural differences;
*to provide students with knowledge of the major descriptive and explanatory theories of cultural globalization, media policy, and cultural production;
*to help students develop skills in primary and secondary research about the creative cultural activity of their choosing (music, art, cinema, popular entertainment, journalism, etc.);
*to provide students with the opportunity to hone their writing and oral presentation skills, working both individually and/or in teams.
TEXTS
Readings will be distributed on NYU Classes in pdf form.
EVALUATION
All Assignments are to be completed in English, but students may use French-language source materials.
20% Active participation (attendance, informed discussion, final presentation)
You are expected to complete all assigned readings and to be prepared to discuss readings in class. You are strongly encouraged to use active reading practices: i.e., printing out all readings, underlining key passages, and writing your comments/reactions in the margins.
25%Forum Comments
Purpose and focus of each comment is specified in the syllabus. All forum comments should be 250-300 words.
15% In-Class Reading Summary/Critique
Each student will summarize and critique one week’s readings, drawing on a 750 word short essay posted on the course Forum.
40% Final Project (15 page paper or approved multimedia project)
This project will draw on primary and secondary sources to analyze in detail some aspect of contemporary French media culture. Additional information about this assignment will be provided.
USE OF COMPUTERS AND CELL PHONES
Use of Cell phones for texting or any other purpose is not permitted during class.
Computers may be used for taking notes or for approved research, but not for email or non-class related browsing. Use of either cell phones or computers during class time for non-course related purposes will negatively affect your participation grade.
GRADING POLICIES
A = excellent. Outstanding work in all respects. Your completed assignments are thoroughly researched, appropriately documented, logically organized and rhetorically convincing. Your analysis is not only comprehensive and sound, but creative and original. In short, you not only get it, but begin to see through it!
B = good. Your understanding of course materials is complete and thorough, and there is at least some evidence of your own critical intelligence at work. You demonstrate basic competence in research, writing and oral presentation.
C = barely adequate. Your writing is vague and incoherent or riddled with grammatical or spelling errors. You do not make proper use of source materials, and there is little depth or concreteness to your research or analysis. Your understanding of concepts and ideas is incomplete and often misguided, but there is at least some evidence that you “got” something from this course.
D = unsatisfactory. Work exhibits virtually no understanding or even awareness of basic concepts and themes of course. Your participation has been inadequate or superficial. Either you have not been paying attention or you have not been making any effort.
F= failed. Work was not submitted or completed according to the basic parameters outlined in the course syllabus (basic requirements for word length, topical focus, types and number of sources, documentation of primary source materials, etc.).
Grades are calculated according to the following scale:
94-100 A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 83-86 B; 80-82 B-;
77-79 C+; 73-76 C; 70-72 C-; 67-69 D+; 63-66 D; 60-62 D-; 0-59 F
LATE POLICY: Assignments turned in late will be downgraded up to one full grade per day late.
You are responsible for keeping a digital copy of all assignments.
PLAGIARISM POLICY
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. Cheating or plagiarizing the work of another will result in an automatic “F” on the exam or assignment. Additionally, departmental and university policy permit harsher actions, if warranted. “Plagiarism, one of the gravest forms of academic dishonesty in university life, whether intended or not, is academic fraud. In a community of scholars, whose members are teaching, learning and discovering knowledge, plagiarism cannot be tolerated. Plagiarism is failure to properly assign authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a musical score and/or other materials that are not your original work. You plagiarize when, without proper attribution, you do any of the following: Copy verbatim from a book, an article or other media; Download documents from the Internet; Purchase documents; Report from other’s oral work; Paraphrase or restate someone else’s facts, analysis and/or conclusions; Copy directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.” (NYU Steinhardt School of Education Statement on Academic Integrity)
DETAILED SCHEDULE
(subject to revision: *readings may be added or subtracted and times of site visits or guests speakers may be changed depending on availability)
WEEK I
Tuesday, 6/14: Welcome Dinner
1: Wednesday, 6/15 Seminar + Flexible Site Visits
Introduction/Creating French Culture: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
*Sarah Waters, “Globalization and French Identity,” pp. 14-50 in Between Republic and Market: Globalization and Identity in Contemporary France (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012).
*AurélieFilippetti, “Is Cultural Policy Still Possible? The French Cultural Exception in the 21st century,” Address to Princeton Woodrow Wilson School, February 18, 2015, available at:
Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 amThurs.): Spend at least 2 hours Wed afternoon/evening exploring the city and taking notes, with or without the professor or teaching assistant. To facilitate multiple explorations, I will lead one group and our course TA will lead another, but you are also free to explore on your own. After you have finished, postfield notes of your observations of the intersection and mixing of French, American, and other global cultures in Paris. Suggestions for places to explore: The Marais, Montmartre, Champs-Elysées, Chinatown (13th), Belleville, and/or “Benjamin’s” Shopping Arcades (Passage Choiseul, Passsage des Panoramas, Passage du Grand Cerf, Passage Moliere).
2: Thursday, 6/16 Seminar + Site Visit
Experiences of Globalizationin Paris: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
*Ulf Hannerz. 1990. “Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture,” Theory, Culture & Society 7: 237-251.
*Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project(Harvard Belknap Press, 1999), excerpts; and/or David Harvey, Paris,Capital of Modernity (Routledge, 2005), excerpts
*Jan NederveenPieterse, Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange (Rowman and
Littlefield: 2009), ch. 3.
Site Visit to Trocadero and Eiffel Tower: 2:30-4:30 pm
Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Friday, 6/17): Discuss how and why “intellectual activity”retains a major place in French media culture.
3: Friday, 6/17 Seminar + Site Visit
French Intellectuals and the Media: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Screening: INA Online TV Archives of French philosophy shows
*Tamara Chaplin, Turning on the Mind: French Philosophers on Television(Chicago, 2011), excerpts
Site Visit to Latin Quarter (Sorbonne and Pantheon): 2:30-3:30 pm
Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 11 pm, Sunday, 6/19): Engaging with Monday’s readings, discuss the distinctive histories and characteristics of French popular music.
WEEK II
4: Monday, 6/20 Seminar
Popular Culture and Music in France: 10:30 am - 12:30 pm
*Tom Perchard, After Django: Making Jazz in Postwar France (Michigan, 2015), excerpts
*David Looseley, Popular Music in Contemporary France (Bloomsbury, 2003), excerpts
NO Post-Class Forum Assignment
5: Tuesday, 6/21 Site Visit
All-Day Site Visit: Fête de la musique
Walking Tour 11-12:30 / Lunch Discussion 12:30-2:00 pm
Continue exploring on own during afternoon and evening
*Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Wednesday): Write field notes on observations at Fête de la musique.
**Also be sure to read at minimum Bourdieu or Coulangeon/Lemel AND Lamont/Thévenot.
6: Wednesday, 6/22 Seminar
Cultural Tastes in France and the United States: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
*Pierre Bourdieu, “Social Space and Symbolic Space,” in Practical Reason (Stanford, 1998), pp. 1-13.
*Philippe Coulangeon & Yannick Lemel, “Is ‘Distinction’ really outdated? Questioning the meaning of the omnivorization of musical taste in contemporary France,” Poetics 35, 2-3 (2007), pp. 93-111.
*Michèle Lamont and Laurent Thévenot, “Comparing Cultures and Polities: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States,” in M. Lamont and L. Thévenot, eds., Comparative Cultural Sociology (Cambridge, 2000).
*Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Thursday): Drawing on today’s readings, write a critical commentary on how French cultural tastes differ within France and how they differ in general from the United States.
7: Thursday, 6/23 Seminar
Immigrant popular cultures and experiences in France
Screening “La Haine” (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995): 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
*Valérie Orlando, “From rap to raï in the mixing bowl: Beur hip hop culture and banlieue cinema in urban France,” Journal of Popular Culture 36.3 (2003), pages 395-415.
*Kathryn Kleppinger, Branding the ‘Beur’ Author: Minority Writing and the Media in France (Liverpool, 2015), excerpts.
Recommended: *Martin Schain, The Politics of Immigration in France, Britain, and the United States (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
*Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Friday): Write critical commentary on La Haine.
8: Friday, 6/24 Seminar
Religion and Secularism in the French Republic: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
*Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton, 2010).
*Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 11 pm Sunday, 6/26): Drawing on Thursday, Friday, and Monday readings, write critical reflections on history of immigration, contemporary beur literature and radio, and/or religion and secularism in France.
WEEK III
9: Monday, 6/27Site Visit
Site Visit to BeurFM: 3-5 pm
*Bridget Knapper, “BeurFM, agent of integration or ghettoization?” The Web Journal of French Media Studies 6 (2003), available at:
*Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Tuesday): Reflect on visit to BeurFM and, drawing on Tuesday’s readings, identify differences within French journalism as well as between French and US journalism.
10: Tuesday, 6/28 Seminar + Site Visit
News Media in France: 10:30 – 12:30
*Rodney Benson ‘The French and Journalistic Fields’, in Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 21-67
*Angèle Christin, Between Clicks and Pulitzers: How French and American Web Journalists Decide What Counts (Princeton sociology dissertation, 2015), excerpts
Afternoon Site Visit (2:30 – 4:00 p.m.): Libération, Le Monde/Le Huffington Post,Slate.fr, Vice.com/fr, orLe Monde Diplomatique
*Post-Class Forum Assignment: Write field notes on site visit. Reflect on both the differences and similarities you observed between French and US journalistic practices and ideas.
11: Wednesday, 6/29 Site Visit
All-Day Field trip to French-German cultural channel Arte (Strasbourg)
*Nora Berning, “The Cultural Television Channel Arte and the (Non-) existence of a Cross-border Franco-German Public Sphere,” The Web Journal of French Media Studies 8 (2010), available at :
Post-Class Forum Assignment (due by 9 am Thursday): Write field notes on site visit.
12: Thursday, 6/30Site Visit
Arthouse Movie Theaters in Paris: Site Visits to Le Champo, La Pagode, La Studio Galande
*Aurélie Pinto, “ArtHouse Movie Theaters in Paris and New York”
NO Post-Class Forum Assignment
13: Friday, 7/1
NO CLASS: Time to work on final projects
WEEK IV
14. Monday, 7/4
Final Project Presentations: 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Farewell Dinner, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, 7/5
Depart
Additional Recommended Reading (DRAFT)
Michèle Lamont, “How to Become a Dominant French Philosopher: The Case of Jacques Derrida,” American Journal of Sociology 93, 3 (1987), pp. 584-622.
SudhirHazareesingh, How the French Think: An Affectionate Portrait of an Intellectual People (Basic, 2015).
Diana Crane, The Production of Culture (Sage, 1999).
David Hesmondhalgh, “Theories of Culture, Theories of Cultural Production,” pp. 37-63 in The Cultural Industries (Sage, 2013).
Trica Danielle Keaton and T. DeneanSharpley-Whiting, eds., Black France / France Noire : The History and Politics of Blackness (Duke, 2012), excerpts
Paul Silverman, Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation (Indiana, 2004), excerpts
Richard A. Peterson and N. Anand. “The production of culture perspective.” Annual Review of Sociology 30: 311-334.
Pierre Bourdieu, “The political field, the social science field, and the journalistic field,” in R. Benson and E. Neveu, eds., Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2005).
Silvio Waisbord and Nancy Morris. “Rethinking Media Globalization and State
Power.” In N. Morris and S. Waisbord, eds., Media and Globalization: Why the State
Matters (Landham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), pp. vii-xvi
Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini. Comparing Media Systems (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), ch. 2
James Curran and Myung-Jin Park. “Beyond globalization theory.” In J. Curran and
M-J. Park, eds., De-Westernizing Media Studies (London: Routledge, 2000).
Rodney Benson, ““La fin du Monde? Tradition and Change in the French Press.” French Politics, Culture & Society 22, 1 (2004): 108-126.
RiadhFerjani, “Arabic-language television in France: post-colonial transnationality,” Global Media and Communication 5.3 (2009), pages 405-428.
Matthew Jordan, Le Jazz: Jazz and French Cultural Identity (Illinois, 2010), excerpts
Jeffrey H. Jackson, Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris (Duke, 2003), excerpts
Andy Fry, Paris Blues: African American Music and French Popular Culture, 1920-1960 (Chicago, 2014), excerpts
Edmund White, The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, 2008
Jeremy Mercer, Time was soft there: A Paris sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.
Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Literary France.
Beth Epstein, Collective Terms: Race, Culture, and Community in a State-Planned City
in France (Berghahn Books, 2011)