popular culture/syllabus

UNST 254A-001/14478 SOPHOMORE INQUIRY: POPULAR CULTURE
Dr. Grace Dillon. 725-8144 / dillong@pdx.edu / CH 117Q.
Office Hours: Thursday 10-noon, and by appointment.

Class meets MW 2:00-3:15 p.m. / CH 203

Mentor Section UNST 254B-001, M 4-4:50 p.m./ CH 249.
Mentor Section UNST 254B -002, W 4-4:50 p.m. / CH 249.
Mentor Section UNST 254B -003, W 1-1:50 p.m. / CH 196.
Grad Mentor: Beth Kaufka/ kaufkab@pdx.edu

Requirements: Final Exam: 30%; Panel Presentation (1), individual Panel Essay(1) and Audience-Response (7): 20%; Idoru Research Essay: 20%; Attendance and Participation in main and grad mentor sessions (includes group workshops, quizzes, or class-assigned analytical journals to readings): 20%; Media Response Folder: 10%.

Final Exam: Your final exam will consist of three parts: a section requiring you to define key terms with stipulative examples provided for each and two sections requiring you to write two essays.

Panel Presentation: You will join a generally four-five member group and collaborate on a 25-30-minute presentation covering a specific self-directed topic selected from the ten topics noted in class: t.v., UFO mythology, advertising, cyberculture and Idoru, film, sports, leisure, fads and fashion, and appropriation of culture. There will be 8 groups, two for each session documented in your course schedule. Start thinking now about your preferences. You will start forming your group and choosing your topic by the second grad mentor session.

Audience Response: When other panels present their views on the topics covered in class, you will record your reactions to the presentations using a separate audience response evaluation form for each group and turn them in for review by Alexander and me as well as by the groups themselves.

Media Response Folder: You will bring a 1-2 page recorded reflection on your field work and uses made of the voices and images currently in popular culture while reading and responding to selective questions tied to your readings in-class. Three of these reflections will be written and due in the main session; the fourth and final reflection will be presented orally during your final grad mentor session. While the purpose of this journal is to explore in a stronger experiential sense, popular culture as truly "everyday life", be sure to apply the principles and theories you have acquired from the readings in the main and mentor sessions.

Idoru Research Essay: You will also write an individual research essay using the proper MLA format on any topic covered in Idoru. Ideally, your research essay will draw on the information you gained along with the collaborative connections you made during class discussions and lectures. Note that the annotated bibliography will be due earlier.

ATTENDANCE: Because this class emphasizes group workshops and interactive discussions, absences are discouraged. Each absence after the first three lowers your grade one level. If you miss more than two weeks' worth of classes, you should consider dropping the course and retaking it when your schedule permits. If you arrive late or leave early, you may be counted absent for the day. Please notify Alexander or me if you must miss class for some reason. Discussions are encouraged and analytical journals or quizzes may come up in class. These responses will aid you in partnered discussions or quick workshops at the beginning of the session and in synthesizing critical theoretical material. In sorting out the meaning of each article provide your own concrete popular culture examples that are relevant to the areas noted for that particular session.

REQUIRED TEXTS: William Gibson, Idoru. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1996, rpt. 1997. Additional readings are supplied in your Smart Copy packet

COURSE SCHEDULE: The day-to-day schedule follows. Note that you should complete reading assignments by the day on which they are listed. Pck. Smart Copy packet on Sixth Avenue.

WEEK ONE: The Rise of the Blockbuster

M 9/30 Introduction to course. Welcome to popular culture!

W 10/2 Mark Schaefermeyer’s “Film Criticism” and Robert Stam’s “Film and the Postcolonial”and “the Poetics and Politics of Postmodernism” (same selection). (Pck. 1 and 2) Discussion of theoretical approaches, political economy, and ritual with film clip samples in class. Group discussion includes either the Austin Powers sequence, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings, Signs or what you feel qualifies as more recent blockbusters.

Mentor Session: Introduction to mentor session, modernism and postmodernism. Welcome to Popular Culture questionnaire.

WEEK TWO: Chaplin-Man

M 10/7 Roland Barthes' "The Poor and the Proletariat," and Robert Scholes' "Intertextuality”. (Pck. 3 and 4) Clips of The Simpsons or Malcolm in the Middle , Resurrection Boulevard or Snatch, and Queer as Folk or Sex and The City. Parody, intertextuality, class, and gender.

W 10/9 Michael Omi, "In Living Color: Race and American Culture" and Antonio Gramsci’s “Hegemony”. (Pck. 5 and 6) Edward Said referenced. Simpsons, Bernie Mac with The Kings of Comedy, Monster’s Ball with Training Day. Race, class, and appropriation from an ethnic studies perspective.

Mentor Sessions 10/7 and 10/9: Bring a cultural artifact to class that represents you ( e.g. a skateboard, toy, magazine, cd) Semiotic approach. Reading: Sonia Maasik,et. al., “The Semiotic Method”. (Pck. 8) Select group for panel presentations by this session.

Follow-up reading for the week: Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki’s “Prime-Time Television: White and Whiter”. (Pck. 7) Details sociological use of current stats on issues Omi explored at an earlier point.

WEEK THREE: Ghosts of the Machine

M 10/14 Nick McDonell’s Twelve. You should have read Twelve completely by this date. Clip of American Beauty.

W 10/16 Twelve continued. Clip of American Psycho. Panels discussed.

Mentor sessions 10/14 and 10/16: Writing workshop: Invention strategies and thesis development.

WEEK FOUR: The Desiring- Machines and Down the Rabbithole

M 10/21 Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. (Pck. 9) The Matrix, Shrek, Vanilla Sky, and Momento referenced. Hyperreality, the desert of the real, and Disneyfication.

W 10/23 Guest Lecturer: Beth Kaufka. Walter Benjamin’s “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”. (Pck. 10) Copyright issues, art reproductions and aura.

Mentor Sessions 10/21 and 10/30: Writing workshop: Developing your paper, using secondary sources, and formatting. Time to work with your groups. Come prepared to discuss your ideas! Research paper: thesis and prospectus due in mentor session.

WEEK FIVE: Rumour or Fame?

M 10/28 Henry Jenkins’ " Television Fans," Sabrina Ramet’s “UFOs Over Russia and Eastern Europe,” and Jurgen Habermas’s “The Public Sphere” (Pck. 11, 12, and 13). Unbreakable, Galaxy Quest, High Fidelity, Nurse Betty, and Starship Troopers referenced. Rogue fans and equal access public places. K-Pax, Signs, and Imposter referenced. Aliens and UFOs and the exotic Other.

W 10/30 Max Horkheimer and Theodore W. Adorno’s “Culture Industry.” (Pck. 14) Ad workshop on metonymy.

Mentor Sessions 10/28 and 10/30: Read Mark Dery’s “The Empire of Signs” (Pck. 15) Culture jamming, internet activism, and adbusters. Annotated bibliography on research paper due in mentor session.

WEEK SIX: Media Morphing of the Body Image

M 11/4 Panel presentations (2) on either cyberculture or hyperreality, postmodernism, or TV.

W 11/6 Susan Bordo's “beauty (re) discovers the male body” (Pck. 16) Feminization, gender and image shifts, and global homogenization. Feel free to bring a fashion magazine, preferably filled with international models, to class. Clips of Zoolander and Tank Girl.

Mentor Sessions 11/4 and 11/6: Writing Workshop: Peer review. Bring the rough draft copy of your research paper.

WEEK SEVEN: Globalization and Postmodern Schizophrenia

M 11/11 Holiday. Class canceled due to holiday.

W 11/13 Frederic Jameson’s ”The waning of affect” and Sherif Hetata’s “Dollarization, Fragmentation, and God.” (Pck. 17 and 18) Postcolonial theory , transnationalism and neo-colonialism. Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys, Ali, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai referenced. Research Essay (5-6 pages, 5 sources minimum) due in main class.

Mentor Sessions Holiday and 11/13: Mike Davis 's "Fortress LA: The Militarization of Space" and Ecology of Fear. (Pck. 19) Architecture, urban planning, and Disney’s Celebration.

WEEK EIGHT: Gothic organicism and the Carnivalesque
M 11/18 Panel presentations (2) on either ads or film.

W 11/20 Peter Stallybrass and Allon White's "From Carnival to Transgression". (Pck.20) and clips of Hannibal, Young Frankenstein, Blade, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Spawn. The Celluloid Closet, The Others, Mothman Prophecies, Resident Evil, and The Shadow of the Vampire referenced. Encoding and decoding humour and horror.

Mentor Sessions 11/18 and 11/20: Final exam review.

WEEK NINE: The Vatic Impulse
M 11/25 Michael Coyle and Jon Dolan’s Modeling Authenticity”. (Pck. 21) Music, choreography, and “MTV heuristics.” MTV 2002 Videos Awards and sample of winning videos.

W 11/27 Panel presentations (2) on either film or music.

Mentor Sessions 11/25 and 11/27: Bring in a song lyric (with CD, etc,) to share that you feel qualifies as poetry for you.

WEEK TEN: Hyperreality, our Plastic World, and Beyond
M 12/2 Cornel West’s “Black Postmodernist Practices.” (Pck. 22) Samples of MTV videos and Rage Against the Machine documentaries. The globalization of Hip-Hop, postmodern tenets renewed, political activism, and cultural appropriation in musical circles.

W 12/4 Panel presentations (2) on sports, leisure, fads and fashion, or appropriation of culture.

Mentor Sessions 12/2 and 12/4: TBA. End-of-quarter celebration.

Final Exam Schedule: Monday, December 9, 12:30-1:20. Take-home final exam due.