Learning Outcomes
This course introduces students to key concepts in cultural studies. There is a elementary look at ‘classic’ texts in cultural studies –Marx, Freud, Leavis– and then there is a move to the establishment of cultural studies as a discipline, looking at texts from the Frankfurt School, the Birmingham School, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and others. The rest of the course charts the areas modern Cultural Studies cover, looking at topics such as (new) media, consumption cultures, cprosumerism, post-modernism, gender studies, race and ethinicity etc.
Learning outcomes:
Students will learn to differentiate key concepts of cultural analysis and familiarize themselves with its various research methodologies.
The introduction to cultural analysis will inform the student’s understanding of cultural phenomena. S/he will learn to take a critical approach to the cultural sphere
Course Content (Syllabus)
Week 1 Introduction to Culture: Norms, Values, Beliefs
Week 2 Introduction to Key Concepts and Key thinkers
Week 3 High and Low Culture: Leavis, Adorno, Williams
Week 4 Capitalism, commodification, consumer culture: Marx
Week 5 Questions of Culture and Ideology: Gramsci
Week 6 Culture, Meaning, Knowledge
Week 7 Intercultural Communication
Week 8 Popular Culture: Stuart Hall
Week 9 Sex, Subjectivity and Representation
Week 10 Race and Ethnicity
Week 11 Digital Media
Week 12 Music and Culture
Week 13 Review
Additional bibliography for study
Barker, Chris. Culture Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2000.
Cambell, Neil and Alisdair Kean (eds.). American Culture Studies: An Introduction to
American Culture. London: Routledge, 1997.
Easthope, Antony and Kate McGowan (eds.). A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader.
Toronto: University of Toronto P, 1992.
Grossberg, Lawrence, et.al. Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1992.
McGuigan, Jim. Cultural Methodologies. London: Sage, 1997.
Monaghan, Leila and Jane E. Goodman (eds.). A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal
Communication: Essential Readings. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2007.
Smith, Philip. Cultural Theory: An Introduction. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2001.
Stores, John. What is Cultural Studies? A Reader. London: Arnold, 1996.
Thomas, Helen and Jamilah Ahmed (eds.). Cultural Bodies: Ethnography and Theory.
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004.
Thornham, Sue. Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies: An Introduction. London:
Arnold, 2000.