Classes

Spring 2006 Syllabus

In the past ten years, the expansion of the internet and the digitization of culture have vastly changed the way Americans, and people all over the world, share information. Libraries of data can now be accessed and exchanged instantaneously from terminals around the globe. Any blogger with a keyboard can weigh in on the issues of our times to an international audience, and hope to build a readership based on nothing other than strength of ideas. Digital production technologies make the tools of the Hollywood pros available to anybody with a Mac. And new models of “open source” software distribution challenge the inequities of the global capitalist economy.

But if new media technology today offers a host of utopian promises, it also inspires dystopian fears: of technology making jobs obsolete, of ubiquitous governmental and corporate surveillance, of the consequences of the pervasive digital divide between the info-haves and -have-nots.

Meanwhile, the American media landscape is in the midst of major transitions:

Traditional news-gathering organizations have been challenged by bloggers, who, scouring the ‘net in their pajamas, are often more informed than the high-powered journalists with the greatest insider “access.”

Television networks continue to lose market share to cable, and now have begun selling episodes through DVD, pay per view, and iTunes.

Movie studios now make over two-thirds of their grosses from DVD sales rather than box office receipts. Box office declined 5% in the US in 2005, as studios began discussing the option of releasing films simultaneously in theaters and on DVD, which could lead to the end of the American custom of going to the movies.

CD sales have been dropping for years, but the music industry now makes billions on ringtone sales, and Apple’s iPod has become on of the most successful consumer products in global history.
Even as the public sphere grows more capacious, the ownership of production and distribution grows more concentrated, as a small number of multinational corporations more powerful than many nation-states continue to expand their mass media oligopolies.

Moore’s Law states that the pace of growth in computing power continuously accellerates. It’s not surprising, then, that the pace of technological change continues to pulse faster and faster.

In the thick of the moment, how can we gain perspective on the present, and insight into the future? One way is to turn to the past, to look at our circumstances in the light of earlier transitional moments. Examining the introduction of the telegraph can help us gain perspective on the rise of the internet. At the same time, studying our projections of the future can also help us understand our present obsessions.

This class, then, will bounce between the past, present and future. At the same time, it will engage a range of methodologies, including cultural studies, social history, journalism, futurism, science studies, science fiction, blogging and Buddhist philosophy.

There are 12 required books:

Ted Friedman, Electric Dreams
James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy
Steve Fuller, Kuhn vs. Popper
N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Post-Human
Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New
Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past
Jonathan Markoff, What the Doormouse Said
Dan Gilmor, We Are the Media
Alex Gallaway, Protocol
Cory Doctrow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Peter Morville, Ambient Findability
Joel Garreau, Radical Evolution

Several of the texts are available at GSU bookstores. However, the syllabus has been revised since books were ordered; several books were not ordered, and several of the ordered books are no longer assigned. All of the required books can be ordered online. Additional readings will be distributed in class and via email. The required computer game demo will be available for free download. Audio recordings will be digitally distributed.

Schedule

New Technologies Yesterday and Today

1/9 Introduction

1/16 No class - Martin Luther King Holiday

1/23 Ted Friedman, Electric Dreams

1/30 James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and
Literacy
Play the demo of a computer game chosen by the class

Theorizing Scientific and Technological Change

2/6 Steve Fuller, Kuhn vs. Popper
Selections by David Wolfram and Rupert Sheldrake

2/13 N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Post-Human

When Old Technologies Were New

2/20 Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New

2/27 Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past

3/6 Spring Break - no class

3/13 Jonathan Markoff, What the Doormouse Said

New Media Politics

3/20 Dan Gilmor, We The Media

3/27 Alex Gallaway, Protocol

Extrapolation

4/3 Cory Doctrow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Selections by Fredric Jameson and Scott Bukatman

4/10 Peter Morville, Ambient Findability

4/17 Joel Garrau, Radical Evolution

4/24 Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom as read by Richard Gere
(audio recording to be distributed on mp3)

5/1 Video games at Ted’s house

Assignments

Lead two book discussions – 15% of final grade each, 30% total

You will sign up to lead, with a group, discussions of two books. To prepare for the discussion of the reading, in addition to reading the week’s assignment, research these questions to put the reading in a broader context:

What is the author’s background? What discipline is the author trained in? What else has s/he written? In which journals has s/he published?

What was the reception of the book? How was book reviewed? What criticisms have been made of the author’s work? How has the author responded? Whom has the author influenced?

Then, meet with your group to prepare for a class discussion. Don’t bother summarizing the work. Rather, concentrate on how the work relates to the key questions we’ll be asking all semester. In addition to the research topics, other subjects for discussion should include:

Theoretical debates: In what debates does the work intervene? Where does the author stand? Whom does the author criticize? How does this work move the debate forward?
Methodology: What research methods does the author use? (Possibilities include textual analysis, ethnography, historical research, quantitative social science, etc.) How does the author approach and justify this methodology? What are the advantages and limitations of this methodology?
Example of Analysis: Pick one text, idea or issue that’s either directly addressed by the author, or that can be illuminated by applying the author’s perspective. Show a representative clip or demonstration, if appropriate. Discuss how the author would (or does) interpret the example. What are the strengths and limitations of this interpretation? What alternate interpretations are possible?

Outline the key topics of discussion in a short (1-2 page) handout for the class. There’s no need to include more detail, or to prepare a PowerPoint presentation – the focus should be on presenting material orally and facilitating a good class discussion.

Note: you don’t need to organize your discussion in the order listed above. It may help to present the example up front, to ground your discussion of methodology and theory. It’s often also a good icebreaker to begin discussion by going around the room, asking everybody to answer a specific question related to their response to the book.

New Media Presentation - 9% of final grade

You will pick an example of new media product you find innovative - it could be a game, a website, a cellphone, a movie, etc. You will give a short (10-15 minute) presentation to the class, demonstrating the product and discussing why you find it innovative.

Critical Summaries - 2% of final grade each, 16% total

You will submit 8 1-2 page critical summaries of the assigned texts. Each is graded pass/fail, counting for two points each. Late submissions are not accepted. Critical summaries are not due on the weeks you lead discussion; which other weeks you pick are up to you. Out of 13 assignment weeks, you’ll total 2 presentations, 8 critical summaries, and 3 weeks off.

Each critical summary should focus on the following two issues:

Theoretical debates: What is the author’s key argument? In what theoretical debates is the author engaging? How does this work move the debate forward?
Methodolgy: What is the author’s research strategy? What are the strengths and limitations of this approach?

Final Project: 45% of final grade

You have two options for your final project:

Write a 10-12 page essay on a subject relating to culture and technology.

Produce a creative work which experiments with new media forms. The project can be a short film, a screenplay, or a multimedia work. When submitting the final version, include a 3-page essay relating your work to ideas from the class.

For either option, the deadlines are the same:

A one-page proposal is due March 13. I will schedule individual meetings with you to discuss your proposal.
The final version of the paper or project is due May 8.

Attendance Adjustment
As Woody Allen put it, “80 percent of success is showing up.” It’s less than that in this formula, but the bottom line is that you can’t contribute to the class if you’re not there. You’re allowed one unexcused absence for the semester. After that, each unexcused absence subtracts one point from your grade total. Excused absences include medical and family emergencies. You will be expected to schedule any employment responsibilities around this class, or accept the consequences of missed classes for your grade. If you do need to miss a class, please contact me ahead of time, and make arrangements to catch up on missed material.

Policies

Academic Honesty
The university’s policy on academic honesty is published in On Campus: The Undergraduate Co-Curricular Affairs Handbook, available online at http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwcam. The policy prohibits plagiarism, cheating on examinations, unauthorized collaboration, falsification, and multiple submissions. Violation of the policy will result in failing the class, in addition to possible disciplinary sanctions.

Withdrawals
Students withdrawing on or before the mid-semester point will receive a W provided they are passing the course. Students who withdraw after the mid-semester point will not be eligible for a W except in cases of hardship. If you withdraw after the mid-semester point, you will be assigned a WF, except in those cases in which (1) hardship status is determined by the office of the dean of students because of emergency, employment, or health reasons, and (2) you are passing the course.

Incompletes
Incompletes may be given only in special hardship cases. Incompletes will not be used merely for extending the time for completion of course requirements.

Changes to the Syllabus
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course. Deviations may be necessary.

Spring 1997 Syllabus

Satire in American Literature and Culture

Literature 20.9, Spring, 1997

Course Description

What’s so funny about American culture? Racism, patriarchy, exploitation: these are the things we laugh at to keep from crying - and perhaps because laughing is a way to fight back. Or is it just how we blow off steam? This class will investigate the role of humor in American culture by looking at classic works of American satire, from Huckleberry Finn to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The following required books are available at The Regulator on Ninth Street:

• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
• Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint
• Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
• Anonymous, Primary Colors
• Don DeLillo, White Noise
• Jane Smiley, Moo

These required comics are at Books Do Furnish A Room on Markham Ave., between East Campus and Ninth Street:

• The Best of Bijou Funnies/The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics
• Roberta Gregory, A Bitch Is Born

Copies of required articles will be distributed in class. To pay for duplication expenses, a $30 copying fee will be collected from each student. This amount is an estimate of the expense of copies over the course of the semester. If the expense runs over $30, more money will be collected. If it is less than $30, the change will be refunded.

Most audio/visual material will be screened during class. Several feature-length films, however, will be shown in the evening. Students who cannot make these screenings will be required to view the films in Lilly Library, where they will be on reserve.

Syllabus

I. Introduction

Thurs, Jan 16

II. Huckleberry Finn and the Ironies of the Canon

Tues, Jan 21

R: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (all)

A: Reaction #1

Bring in three-ring binder

Thurs, Jan 23

R: Gerald Graff, “Hidden Meaning, or, Disliking Books at an Early Age”
Jonathan Arac, “Nationalism, Hypercanonization, and Huckleberry Finn”
Jane Smiley, “Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

A: Response #1

Tues, Jan 28

R: Ralph Ellison, “Twentieth Century Fiction,” “Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke”

A: Reaction #2

III. Some Theories of Humor

Thurs, Jan 30

R: Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, selections.

A: Response #2

Quiz #1

Tues, Feb 4

R: Patricia Mellencamp, “Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud: Discourses of Gracie and Lucy”
Susan Douglas, “Genies and Witches,” from Where the Girls Are
Mel Watkins, “Black Humor,” from On the Real Side

A: Reaction #3

IV. Invisible Man and African-American Signifying

Thurs, Feb 6

R: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 1-4 (pp. 1-108)

A: Response #3

Tues, Feb 11

R: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 5-17 (pp. 109-382)

A: Reaction #4 (start Group B)

Thurs, Feb 13

R: Henry Louis Gates, “Introduction,” The Signifying Monkey

A: Response #4

Tues, Feb 18

R: Ellison, finish

A: Reaction #5

V. Portnoy’s Complaint and Jewish-American Comedy

Thurs, Feb 20

R: Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint (pp. 1-104)

A: Response #5

Tues, Feb 25

R: Roth, finish

A: Paper #1 due

Thurs, Feb 27

R: TBA

A: No Assignment

Presentation #1

Quiz #2

VI. Transgressive Humor: Underground Comics

Tues, Mar 4

R: The Best of Bijou Funnies/The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics

A: Reaction #6

Evening Screening of Crumb to be scheduled

Thurs, Mar 6

R: Roberta Gregory, A Bitch Is Born

A: Response #6

Presentation #2

VII. Mocking the Middle Class: Babbitt

Tues, Mar 11

R: Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Chapters 1-17 (pp. 1-177)

A: Reaction #7 (start Group C)

Presentation #3

Thurs, Mar 13

R: Lewis, finish

A: Response #7

Presentation #4

Spring Break - No Class March 18, 20

VIII. Political Satire: Primary Colors

Tues, March 25

R: Anonymous, Primary Colors, Chapters 1-5 (pp. 3-185)

A: Reaction #8

Presentation #5

Thurs, March 27

R: Anonymous, finish

A: Response #8

Presentation #6

Tues, Apr 1

R: TBA

A: Reaction #9

Presentation #7

Quiz #3

IX. White Noise and Postmodern Pastiche

Thurs, Apr 3

R: Don DeLillo, White Noise, pp. 1-129

A: Response #9

Presentation #8

Tues, Apr 8

R: DeLillo, finish

A: Reaction #10 (start Group D)

Presentation #9

Thurs, Apr 10

R: Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”

A: Response #10

Presentation #10

X. Science Fiction as Satire: Selections from Snowcrash

Tues, Apr 15

R: Neal Stephenson, Snowcrash, selections

A: Reaction #11

Presentation #11

XI. Camp, Cheeze, and Irony: Critique or Cop-Out?

Thurs, Apr 17

R: Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp”
Andrew Ross, “Uses of Camp”

A: Response #11

Presentation #12

Tues, Apr 22

R: TBA

A: Reaction #12

Presentation #13

XI. Hitting Closer to Campus: Moo

Thurs, Apr 24

R: Jane Smiley, Moo, pp. 1-125

A: Response #12

Presentation #14

Quiz #4 (includes the first 125 pages of Moo)

Tues, Apr 29

R: Smiley, pp. 125-250

A: No Assignment

Presentation #15

Thurs, May 1

R: Smiley, finish

A: Paper #2 due

Assignments

I. Class Participation

You will be expected to come prepared for class and to engage in class discussion. Class participation will make up 10% of your final grade.

II. In-class Presentation

In the latter half of the semester, you will give a 5-10 minute presentation on a comic text you find particularly interesting and culturally significant. This could be a novel, essay, TV show, movie, comic strip, stand-up act, shaggy dog story, or anything else you find funny (as long as it’s not already on the syllabus). You will be expected to summarize the text, describe its context, and discuss your interpretation of what makes it funny and important. When appropriate, you should bring in videotape, xeroxes, or other visual aids. You will also hand in a written outline of the presentation. The presentation will make up 10% of your final grade. (A later handout will describe what’s expected from the presentations in more detail.)

III. Quizzes

Rather than a midterm or final, there will be four short quizzes. The quizzes are to demonstrate that you’ve done the reading; they will all be multiple-choice IDs. There are only three grades on the quizzes: Excellent (10 out of 10), Satisfactory (7 to 9), or Fail (6 or less), corresponding to A, C, and F. The average of your quiz grades will make up 10% of your final grade. In addition, you cannot pass the course without passing every quiz. Anyone failing a quiz will be responsible for writing a 3-page make-up paper on the readings covered in the quiz, addressing a topic of my choice. A satisfactory grade on the paper will raise the grade of your quiz to Satisfactory.

IV. Reaction and Response Essays

Reaction Essays are due on Tuesdays; bring three (or four) copies - one for me, the others for the members of your response group. These brief essays can be informal in tone; they don’t need beginnings, middles, or ends. They’re your chance to work through your thoughts and ideas about the readings. Pick any passage or topic you find puzzling, fascinating, or irritating. You don’t have to come to any definitive conclusions; the point is to grapple with the material. Feel free to also include observations about class discussions, conversations you’ve had with friends, or anything else in the rest of the world that relates to the class. Reaction papers should be more than two pages long (in other words, they should at least spill over to a third page). They may be hand-written if clearly legible, but word-processing is strongly preferred (Times New Roman 12 point, double-spaced, standard margins, to be exact). With your first entry, hand in a three-ring binder; at the end of the semester, you’ll get the binder back filled with all your entries.

Response Essays addressing the rest of your group’s journal entries are due the subsequent Thursdays. You can combine your responses to each group member into one document, which again should total more than two pages in length. Again, bring copies for each of the group members, plus one for me. Your job is not to judge your classmates, but to engage them. What surprises you in their arguments? What makes you rethink your own ideas? Write directly to them; they’re your audience.

No individual essays will be graded. At mid-semester, you will receive a tentative grade for the quality of your reactions and responses so far, based on the thoroughness, consistency, and creativity with which you’ve engaged the ideas of the course. At the end of the semester, you will receive a final grade on the reactions and responses, which will make up 40% of your course grade.

V. Papers

There will be two papers.

Paper #1 will be a short (4-5 page) analysis of a scene from Huckleberry Finn or Invisible Man. The first paper will make up 10% of your final grade.

Paper #2 will be a longer (6-8 page) interpretation of the same comic text you discuss in your presentation, elaborating and expanding upon your ideas in a formal essay. The second paper will make up 20% of your final grade.

Fall 2003 Syllabus

Current Debates in Media and Cultural Studies

COMM 8750/WST 8920, Fall 2003
Thursdays, 7:15-9:45 PM, Room TBA
Class Home Page: http://www.tedfriedman.com/theory.htm

Dr. Ted Friedman
Office: 738 One Park Place South
Email: tedf@gsu.edu
Phone: (404) 463-9522
Home Page: http://www.tedfriedman.com

Course Description
Cultural Studies is a interdisciplinary field devoted to exploring the political implications of popular culture. Like any academic field, it’s a world at once rife with controversy over some topics and univocal about others. Some concepts attract firestorms of controversy; others ossify into unexamined shibboleths. The purpose of this class is to reexamine both the ongoing debates and unquestioned assumptions of cultural studies – to figure out the limits of the discipline as its stands, and to ask where it might go from here.

Among the conflicts we’ll survey include:
• Base vs. superstructure – which, “in the last instance” (to quote Althusser) determines the other?
• Resistance vs. hegemony – does resistance just reinscribe hegemony? If there’s resistance everywhere, why does so little seem to change?
• Anti-essentialism vs. strategic essentialism – is foundationalism always a mistake? What are the limits of relativism?
• Utopianism vs. reformism – is Utopia hopelessly unrealistic, or the only possible motivator for any increment of change?
• “False consciousness” vs “cynical reason” – why do people ally themselves with politics that seem to be against their own best interests?
• Selling out vs. crossing over – is access to a larger audience worth the compromises of working within the culture industry?
• Identity politics vs. postethnicity – are identity politics self-marginalizing, or are postethnic coalitions simply new forms of white priviledge?
• Academics vs. public intellectuals – is there a way to bring Ivory Tower ideas to a larger audience? What changes in the process?
• Academia vs. itself – how does the corporatization of the university change the role of the professor and the nature of academic work?
• Theory vs. praxis – how does the esoteric language of theory translate into the real world of political activity?
• Disciplinary conflicts – literature vs. sociology vs. film studies vs. anthropology vs. rhetoric vs. . . .
• Methodological conflicts – ethnography vs. textual analysis vs. theoretical discourse vs. historical research vs. political economy vs. . . .
• National conflicts – British Cultural Studies vs. American Cultural Studies vs. Australian Cultural Studies vs. . . .
• And on and on . . .

This class will largely be a class about “theory,” in the sense that it is interested in big questions – not just the limited questions that individual works of scholarship tend to ask about their subjects, but much wider questions about how we can relate individual works of scholarship to broader debates. Not all of the readings for the class will be self-consciously theoretical. But we will continue to ask these same questions of each reading, as we attempt to answer the questions that necessarily haunt all work in cultural studies.

Readings
Class readings will include books, a coursepack of articles, and news items distributed via the class email list.

The course books are available at the GSU bookstores, with the exception of Postethnic America, which can be ordered from Amazon.com or bn.com. Please note that some books on the bookstore shelves will not be used in the class. Here are the books you’ll need:

• John Storey, ed., What Is Cultural Studies?
• John Hartley, A Short History of Cultural Studies
• Ian Hacking, The Social Construction of What?
• David Harvey, Spaces of Hope
• Donald Hall, The Academic Self
• John Street, Politics and Popular Culture
• Larry Gross, Up from Invisibility
• Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape Culture
• David A. Hollinger, Postethnic America
• Toby Miller et al, Global Hollywood
• Will Brooker, Using the Force

The coursepack is sold by Bestway Copy Center, 18 Decatur Street SE (on the first floor of One Park Place South). See the last page of this syllabus for full citations of coursepack readings.

Email Group
All students will be signed up to the class email list. I will regularly forward media news and cultural criticism to the list. You’re encouraged to forward other interesting information, post your reactions to recent movies, respond to other postings, or continue any other ongoing discussions from class.

Schedule

Part I: The State of Cultural Studies

8/28 Introduction

9/4 What Is Cultural Studies?
John Hartley, A Short History of Cultural Studies
John Storey, “Cultural Studies: An Introduction” (WICS)
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms” (WICS)
John Fiske, “British Cultural Studies and Television” (WICS)

9/11 What’s (Maybe) Wrong with Cultural Studies?
Richard Johnson, “What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?” (WICS)
Cary Nelson, “Always Already Cultural Studies” (WICS)
Meaghan Morris, “Banality in Cultural Studies” (WICS)
Fredric Jameson, “On ‘Cultural Studies’” (CP)
Donna Harway, “Teddy Bear Patriarchy” (CP)
Michael Schudson, “Paper Tigers” (CP)

Part II: Theory

9/18 Hegemony, Resistance and Utopia
Terry Eagleton, “Ideology and Its Vicissitudes in Western Marxism” (CP)
Michelle Barrett, “Ideology, Politics, Hegemony,” (CP)
Fredric Jameson, “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture” (CP)
Douglas Kellner, “Ernst Bloch, Utopia and Ideology Critique”
http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell1.htm
Outside Screening: See Jaws

9/25 Cynical Reason and the Desert of the Real
Slavok Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology pp. 1-84 (CP)
Zizek, “The Spectre of Ideology” (CP)
Zizek, “The Matrix: Or, The Two Sides of Perversion”
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9912/msg00019.html
Zizek, “Welcome to the Desert of the Real”
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0109/msg00106.html
Zizek, “Ideology Reloaded”
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16248
Outside Screening: See The Matrix

10/2 Ontology
Hacking, Ian, The Social Construction of What?
Selections on the Sokal Hoax from Lingua Franca
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/
Berube, Michael. “The Return of Realism and the Future of Contingency”
www.blusparx.com/berube/pdf/realism_enginst.pdf

Part III: Praxis

10/9 Space
David Harvey, Spaces of Hope

10/16 Academia
Donald Hall, The Academic Self

10/23 Politics
John Street, Politics and Popular Culture
Tony Bennett, “Putting Policy into Cultural Studies” (WICS)

10/30 Visibility
Larry Gross, Up From Invisibility
Ellen Rooney, “Discipline and Vanish” (WICS)

11/6 Postfeminism
Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape Culture
Elizabeth Long, “Feminism and Cultural Studies” (WICS)
Franklin, Lurie, and Stacey, “Feminism and Cultural Studies: Pasts, Presents,
Futures” (WICS)
Outside Screening: See Thelma and Louise

11/13 Postethnicity
David A. Hollinger, Postethnic America
Manthia Diawara, “Black Studies, Cultural Studies” (WICS)
Stuart Hall, “Race, Culture and Communications” (WICS)

11/20 No Class – NCA Convention

11/27 No Class - Thanksgiving Break

12/4 Globalization and Political Economy
Toby Miller et al, Global Hollywood

12/11 Audience
Will Brooker, Using the Force
Ien Ang, “Culture and Communication” (WICS)
Outside Screening: See Star Wars

Assignments

I. Discussion leadership – 30% of final grade (2 classes, 15% each)
You will sign up to lead, with a group, discussions for two classes – one in the first half of the semester, one in the second.

To prepare for the discussion, in addition to reading the week’s assignment, research these questions to put the reading in a broader context:

1. What is the author’s background? What discipline is the author trained in? What else has s/he written? In which journals has s/he published?

2. What was the reception of the book? How was book reviewed? What criticisms have been made of the author’s work? How has the author responded? Whom has the author influenced?

3. Theoretical debates: In which of the current debates in cultural studies does the work intervene? Where does the author stand? How does this work move the arguments forward?

4. Methodology: What methods does the author use? What are the advantages and limitations of this methodology?

5. Applicability: How might the ideas in this work be applied to other, more recent examples? To address this question, bring to class one brief contemporary media text, such as a music video, TV commercial, or website, for the class to discuss in the context of the week’s reading. The example should be self-contained – rather than discussing a section from a larger work, such as a movie clip, try to find an example that can stand on its own. Longer examples, such as sitcom episodes, can be screened, but be sure to check with me first if you plan to show a clip of more than 5 minutes.

6. What’s at Stake: Why does this work matter? How does this work function as praxis – a synthesis of theory and practice? (As Marx put it, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”)

II. Journal Presentation – 10% of final grade
Sign up (via email) to give a presentation on one of the journals listed on the website. Browse through the last several years of the journal, reading enough articles to give you a sense of the journal’s disciplinary focus, methodological assumptions, and theoretical framework. Which scholars are regularly cited? What knowledge is taken for granted? What kind of specialized language is employed? Pay particular attention to debates within the journal, such as essays which provoke responses. Also research the journal’s submission policies and rejection rate. Give a 15 minute presentation addressing these questions. Summarize your research on a one-page handout for the class.

III. Research Presentation – 10% of final grade
Present a 10 minute summary of your research project and answer questions from the class. Summarize your project on a one-page handout for the class.

IV. Research Paper – 50%.of the final grade
Write a 15-20 page paper on a subject relating to cultural studies. You should write this paper with an eye towards eventually presenting it at a conference, expanding it and publishing it. In addition, if you already have a thesis or dissertation topic in mind, consider how this paper might form the basis for a chapter of the larger work.

A one-page prospectus is due October 9. I will schedule individual meetings with you to discuss the prospectus.

I will look at drafts of the final paper submitted on or before December 4. You’re welcome to submit multiple drafts for feedback.

The final paper is due December 15.

Policies

Withdrawals
Students withdrawing on or before the midsemester point will receive a W provided they are passing the course. Students who withdraw after the midsemester point will not be eligible for a W except in cases of hardship. If you withdraw after the midsemester point, you will be assigned a WF, except in those cases in which (1) hardship status is determined by the office of the dean of students because of emergency, employment, or health reasons, and (2) you are passing the course.

Incompletes
Incompletes may be given only in special hardship cases. Incompletes will not be used merely for extending the time for completion of course requirements.

Changes to the Syllabus
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course. Deviations may be necessary.

Courespack Bibliography

Jameson, Fredrick. “On ‘Cultural Studies’.” Social Text 34 (1993): 17-52.

Haraway, Donna. “Teddy Bear Patriarchy.” From Primate Visions: Gender Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science. New York: Routledge, 1989.

Schudson, Michael. “Paper Tigers.” Lingua Franca (August 1997): 49-56.

Eagleton, Terry. “Ideology and its Vicissitudes in Western Marxism.” From Slavoj Zizek, ed. Mapping Ideology. New York: Verso, 1994.

Barrett, Michele. “Ideology, Politics, Hegemony: From Gramsci to Laclau and Mouffe.” From Zizek, ed.

Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. New York: Verso, 1989.

Zizek, Savoj. “The Spectre of Ideology.” From Zizek, ed.

Jameson, Fredric. “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture.” Social Text 1 (1979): 130-148.
COMM 8750/WST 8920, Fall 2003
Thursdays, 7:15-9:45 PM, Room TBA
Class Home Page: http://www.tedfriedman.com/theory.htm