English 383: Introduction to Cultural Studies

Spring, 2002

Instructor: Dennis Allen

Office: 439 Stansbury

Office Hours: 4:00-5:00 T/Th and by appointment

Phone: Office: 293-3107 Ext. 33440 Home: 292-0081

Website: http://www.as.wvu.edu/~dallen/cs.htm

E-mail: dallen@wvu.edu

Course Purpose: Cultural Studies analyzes texts (ranging from literature and film to raves and Madonna) as social practices that reflect and reinforce (and sometimes destabilize) a culture's beliefs and values. This class will provide an introduction to the theoretical work in this field and apply this theory to texts of various sorts. Some of the topics we will cover will include: the cultural impact of science and technology, globalization, changing notions of gender and sexuality, and postcolonialism.

Course Requirements: Course grades will be based on a midterm (30%), a final exam (30%), and four two page response papers (40%).

The Response Papers: Should consist of a two page typed analysis of an essay from the course reading assignments. These should not summarize the reading but should engage it intellectually. In other words, a response to a particular essay should do one or more of the following: critique the essay, apply it to a literary or cultural text, or relate it to previous reading in the course. Also, if an essay proves exceptionally difficult, your response paper on that essay could present some focused, specific questions on points that you did not understand.

Attendance: You are allowed three absences. If you miss class a fourth time, you will fail the course.

Text: Simon During, The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 1999).

Assignments:

Basic Principles:

Aug. 23: Introduction--Course Structure
Aug. 25: Simon During, "Introduction," pp. 1-17

Aug. 30: John Fiske, "Culture, Ideology, Interpellation" (handout)
Sept. 1: Raymond Williams, "Advertising: The Magic System," pp. 410-423 Response 1 Due

Media and Representation:

Sept. 6: Adorno and Horkheimer, "The Culture Industry," pp. 31-41
Sept. 8: Stuart Hall, "Encoding, Decoding," pp. 507-517

Sept. 13: Dick Hebdige, "The Function of Subculture," pp. 441-451 Response 2 Due
Sept. 15: Application Day

Gender and Sexuality:

Sept. 20: Eve Sedgwick, "Axiomatic," 320-330
Sept. 22: Sedgwick , pp. 330-339

Sept. 27: Judith Halberstam (handout)
Sept. 29: Application Day

October 4: Midterm

Audiences and Consumption:
Oct. 6: Stallybrass and White , "Bourgeois Hysteria and the Carnivalesque," pp. 382-388

Oct. 11: Richard Dyer, "Entertainment and Utopia," pp. 371-381
Oct. 13: Janice Radway , "The Institutional Matrix of Romance," pp. 564-576

Science and Technology:

Oct. 18: Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto," pp. 271-281
Oct. 20: Haraway, pp. 281-291

Oct. 25: Andrew Ross, "The Challenge of Science," pp. 292-304 Response 3 Due
Oct. 27: Application Day

Ethnicity and Multiculturalism:

Nov. 1: Eric Lott, "Racial Cross-Dressing and the Construction of American Whiteness," pp. 241-255
Nov. 3: Day Off

Nov. 8: Cornel West, "The New Cultural Politics of Difference," pp. 256-267
Nov. 10: bell hooks, "A Revolution of Values," pp. 233-240

Public Space:

Nov. 15: Michel Foucault, "Space, Power and Knowledge," pp. 134-141
Nov. 17: Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, "Sex in Public," pp. 354-367 Response 4 Due

Break

Nationalism, Postcolonialism, and Globalization:

Nov. 29: Gayatri Spivak, "Scattered Speculations on the Question of Cultural Studies," pp. 169-180
Dec. 1: Spivak, pp. 180-188

Dec. 6: Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy," pp. 220-230
Dec. 8: Review Day

Final Exam: Dec. 16th, 8:00-10:00 AM

Last Updated: 8/15/05