Difference between revisions of "2024 SÜ Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

Latest revision as of 06:57, 28 June 2024

Please note: The ang070/ang071 module consists of

• a seminar (S/Ü "Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature", offered in the previous winter term),
• a lecture (VL "Introduction to Literary History and Textual Analysis", offered in the previous winter term),
• a seminar (S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies", offered in this term), and
• a lecture (VL "Historical Background and Critical Concepts", offered in this term).

On this page you will find detailed information on the lecture "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts" and on the courses "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies".

Both the lecture (VL) and the courses (S/Ü) are part of the Basismodul ang070/ang071 and focus on key concepts in cultural studies and techniques of textual analysis in the context of discussing culture. The VL "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts" consists of 14 lectures and the S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" of 14 courses/Übungen.

The S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" analyzes material and is relying on concepts and approaches complemented by the lectures. The analysis of the material from a cultural studies perspective is based on three guiding questions:

• 1. What are the specific and medial characteristics of the material? (See Handouts: Conceptual Tools)
• 2. How is the material situated and what institutions are responsible for its existence and discussion?
• 3. What function and effect for identity formation can the material have?

Please make sure that you are registered for the lecture and ONE of the courses in Stud.IP.

The texts for our courses will come from a common pool, though each course may have a different choice.

The "analytical tools" will be presented by the lecturers (on a handout) in each meeting. The additional reading from which these 'tools' are taken is not obligatory, and it can be done either before or after each session. Mandatory texts and other materials will be made accessible to you electronically (cf. the links below). In addition, you will need to purchase the following works:

   Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 1845. Oxford: OUP, 2009. Print. [ISBN-13: 978-0199539079]

   Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. 1982-1989. New York: DC Comics, 2020. Print. [ISBN: 978-1779511195],
   OR: Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo, 2008. Print.

   The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. 1975. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.

Course work: You will be asked to write three exercise assignments (analysing a non-fiction text, a graphic novel, and a film, respectively, max. 3 pages each; and composing a short bibliography, max. 1 page each), take a test about relevant content from the lecture series, and produce a research paper outline and a problem-oriented sample analysis of a relevant passage (RPO+, due on August 15). Both the outline and the sample analysis are preparatory steps for the research papers you will be asked to produce in future seminars. For this RPO+ you will need to find your own topic to work on, document the preliminary work (this includes finding an appropriate title, writing a paragraph on the state of the art of your problem and one that describes your problem and your goal, and presenting a tentative table of contents as well as a short bibliography) and write up a formal and genre-specific analysis of a passage that fits in with the research question and thesis statement put forward in your RPO. All assignments are to be formatted according to the style sheet.

Session One, April 04/05: Introduction

Welcome

Preliminaries and General Course Information.

• Introduction to the ang071 Curriculum, Aims and Goals
• Introduction to the ang071 Course Outline "Key Concepts"

Analytical Tools: Culture and Representation, Discourse, Media, Identity

• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Discourse
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Culture and Representation
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Identity
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Media

Session Two, April 11/212: Working with Key Concepts in Cultural Studies

Analytical Tools: Culture and Representation, Discourse, Media, Identity

• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Discourse
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Culture and Representation
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Identity
• Handout Key Concepts in Cultural Studies: Media

Further Reading

• Ang, Ien. "Cultural Studies." The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Studies. London: SAGE, 2008. 227-48. Print.
• Chouliaraki, Lilie. "Discourse Analysis." The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Studies. London: SAGE, 2008. 674-96. Print.
• Clarke, Simon. "Culture and Identity." The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Studies. London: SAGE, 2008. 510-29. Print.
• Hall, Stuart. "The Work of Representation." Representation. Eds. Stuart Hall, Jessica Evans, and Sean Nixon. Los Angeles et al.: Sage, 2013. 1-15. Print.
• Kaplan, Carla. "Identity." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NY: New York UP, 2007. 123-7. Print.
• Yúdice, George. "Culture." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NY: New York UP, 2007. 71-6. Print.
• You may also watch Stuart Hall explain his notions of representation:Hall, Stuart. "Representation and the Media"

Session Three, April 18/19: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative I

Primary Material

• Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 1845. Oxford: OUP, 2009. Print.

Secondary Material

• Foner, Eric. “The Peculiar Institution.” Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. New York: Vintage, 2005. 3-33. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

Session Four, April 25/26: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative II

Primary Material

• Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 1845. Oxford: OUP, 2009. Print.

Secondary Material

• Foner, Eric. “True Likenesses.” Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. New York: Vintage, 2005. 34-40. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

Session Five, May 02/03: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative III

Primary Material

• Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 1845. Oxford: OUP, 2009. Print.

Secondary Material

• Levine, Robert S. "Identity in the Autobiographies." The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass. Ed. Maurice S. Lee. Cambridge Companions Online. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. 31-45. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction": Sample solution

    REGISTRATION PERIOD BEGINS

May 09: No Session

May 10: Reading Week

Session Six, May 16/17: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel I

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. 1982-1989. New York: DC Comics, 2020. Print.

Text

• Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. "Introduction." V for Vendetta. 1982-1989. New York: DC Comics, 2020. 3-4. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual Tools for the Analysis of Comics and Graphic Novels

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" due]

Session Seven, May 23/24: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel II

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. 1982-1989. New York: DC Comics, 2020. Print.

Secondary Material

• Moffett, Paul. "U for Utopia: the dystopian and eutopian visions in Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 8.1 (2017): 46-58. Print.

Further Reading (Optional)

• Call, Lewis. "A is for Anarchy, V is for Vendetta: Images of Guy Fawkes and the Creation of Postmodern Anarchism." Anarchist Studies 16.2 (2008): 154-72.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual Tools for the Analysis of Comics and Graphic Novels

Session Eight, May 30/31: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel III

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and David Lloyd. V for Vendetta. 1982-1989. New York: DC Comics, 2020. Print.

Secondary Material

• Oppolzer, Markus. "Gothic Liminality in V for Vendetta." Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition. Ed. Matthew J. A. Green. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2013. 103-17. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual Tools for the Analysis of Comics and Graphic Novels

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel": Sample solution

Session Nine, June 06/07: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film I

Primary Material

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. 1975. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.

Secondary Material

• Hitchcock, Susan Tyler. "Chapter 9: Monsters in the Living Room." Frankenstein: A Cultural History. New York and London: Norton, 2007. 227-63. Print. (esp. 249-53)

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual tools for the Analysis of Film
• Bischoff, Mark, and Ulrike Ordon, eds. The Syntax of Film: A Glossary 3rd ed. Seesen, 2012.

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel" due]

    REGISTRATION PERIOD ENDS

Session Ten, June 13/14: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film II

Primary Material

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. 1975. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD

Secondary Material

• Butler, Judith. "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories. Ed. Diana Fuss. New York and London: Routledge, 1991. 13-31. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual tools for the Analysis of Film

Guiding Questions

• At the very beginning of her text, Butler points out that she feels uneasy when it comes to identifying with specific identity categories as these "tend to be instruments of regulatory regimes, whether as the normalizing [emphasis added] categories of oppressive structures or as the rallying points for a liberatory contestation of that very oppression" (13-4). How does the quote relate to the ambivalent processes of identitiy formation that may lead to oppression (through pathologisation, criminalisation) but also to emancipation (through political articulation)?
• How could identity categories/ labels be made useful in a reverse discourse/ counter discourse? What may be the uses of Spivak's notion of "strategic essentialism"?
• And yet, which space or means of resistance does Butler open up by refusing fixed identity categories and by insisting on the instability of labels? If Spivak's "strategic essentialism" consolidates a political identity/sameness as a means of resistance, i.e. a political "we" opposing the status quo, then how can Butler's oppostion to essentialist identity categories be conceptualised as a means of resistance as well? May it in fact undo essentialist positions altogether?
• What subversive effect can be achieved by the deliberate refusal/irritation/disruption of identity categories? How can imitation, and the deliberately flawed imitation of (normative) gender (stereotypes) in particular, become a means of gender insubordination? What does it mean if gender is thus shown to be an effect of imitation and repetition rather than a natural given? How do these practices of imitation and repetition expose the performativity of identity and identity categories?
• How can drag serve as an instrument and a deconstructivist tool in this context? How may drag, as a gender performance that deliberately irritates gender norms through imitation, in the act of performing gender undo it?
• What does drag reveal about the allegedly natural relationship between gender and biological sex? How does it deconstruct the binaries male/masculine and female/feminine?
• If drag illustrates that all gender is performative, something produced rather than given, then how does this insight lead us to rethink/reconceptualise notions of an allegedly natural/proper/real/original gender?

Session Eleven, June 20/21: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film III

Primary Material

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. 1975. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD

Secondary Material

• Lamm, Zachary. "The Queer Pedagogy of Dr. Frank-N-Further." Reading Rocky Horror: The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Popular Culture. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 193-206. Print.

Further Reading (Optional)

• Cornell, Julian. "Rocky Horror Glam Rock." Reading Rocky Horror: The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Popular Culture. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 35-49. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual tools for the Analysis of Film

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film": sample solution

Session Twelve, June 27/28: RPOplus I: Textual Analysis and Problem Orientation

Skills and Activities

Assignments "Non-Fiction", "Graphic Novel", "Film"

• Handout: Portfolio and Grading
• Handout: RPO+ (Annotations)
• Sample: RPO+

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film" due]

Session Thirteen, July 04/05: RPOplus II: Brief Report on 'Work in Progress'

Skills and Activities

Brief Report on 'Work in Progress': Your Term Paper Projects

• Handout: Portfolio and Grading
• Handout: RPO+ (Annotations)
• Sample: RPO+

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "RPOplus" due August 15]

Guidelines for finding your RPO topic:

1. Your RPO+ topic needs to be related to at least one of the key concepts: identity, media, discourse, culture and representation
2. As the material basis for your analysis you will need to pick material from the 'Übungen' (Narrative, V for Vendetta, The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

You have access to the scholarly discourse on the material from the Übung through the MLA database.