Difference between revisions of "2025 SÜ Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

Lecture: VL "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts"

• 3.02.040 - Martin Butler, Anton Kirchhofer, Julia Wurr - Thu, 12:00-14:00, Room: A11 1-101 (Hörsaal B)

VL "Historical Background and Critical Concepts" Course Outline "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts"

Courses: S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

• 3.02.041 - Martin Butler - Thu, 08:00-10:00, Room: A01 0-010b
• 3.02.043 - Julius Greve - Thu, 14:00-16:00, Room: A01 0-005
• 3.02.044 - Michaela Keck - Thu, 08:00-10:00, Room: A01 0-005
• 3.02.045 - Michaela Keck - Thu, 10:00-12:00, Room: A01 0-005
• 3.02.046 - Christian Lassen - Thu, 08:00-10:00, Room: A05 0-055
• 3.02.047 - Christian Lassen - Fri, 08:00-10:00, Room: A08 1-116
• 3.02.048 - Alena Cicholewski - Fri, 12:00-14:00, Room: A05 1-159
• 3.02.049 - Alena Cicholewski - Fri, 14:00-16:00, Room: A05 1-159
• 3.02.050 - Rebecca Käpernick - Fri, 10:00-12:00, Room: A05 1-159

S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" Course Outline "S/Ü 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 12 lectures and the S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" of 12 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:

   Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print. [ISBN 13: 978-0198709879]

   Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. 1986-1987. New York: Random House, 2014. Print. [ISBN: 978-1-4012-4819-2]

   Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Alda. 2006. 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 10/11: 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 17/25: 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: Stuart Hall, "Representation and the Media"Part 1, Part 2

Session Three, April 24/ May 02: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative I

Primary Material

• Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

• Woloch, Nancy. "Benevolence, Reform, and Slavery." Women and the Great American Experience. Second Ed. New York et al.: McGraw-Hill, 1994. 170-203. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

Session Four, May 08/09: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative II

Primary Material

• Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

• Smith, Valerie. "Form and Ideology in Three Slave Narratives." Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987. 9-43. Print. (Excerpts)

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

Session Five, May 15/16: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative III

Primary Material

• Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

• Accomando, Christina. "'The Laws Were Laid Down to Me Anew': Harriet Jacobs and the Reframing of Legal Fictions." African American Review 32.2 (1998): 229-44.

Analytical Tools

• Handout: Narratology

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction": Sample solution

    REGISTRATION PERIOD BEGINS

Session Six, May 22/23: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel I

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. 1986-1987. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.

Text

• Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. "Introduction." Watchmen. 1986-1987. New York: Random House, 2014. 6-7. Print.

Analytical Tools

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

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" due]

May 30: Reading Week

Session Seven, June 05/06: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel II

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. 1986-1987. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.

Secondary Material

• Hughes, Jamie A. "'Who Watches the Watchmen?': Ideology and 'Real World' Superheroes." The Journal of Popular Culture 39.4 (2006): 546-57. Print.

Analytical Tools

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

Session Eight, June 12/13: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel III

Primary Material

• Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. 1986-1987. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.

Secondary Material

• Keating, Erin M. "The Female Link: Citation and Continuity in Watchmen." The Journal of Popular Culture 45.6 (2012): 1266-88.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 19/20: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film I

Primary Material

• Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Alda. 2006. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.

Secondary Material

• Bischoff, Mark, and Ulrike Ordon, eds. The Syntax of Film: A Glossary 3rd ed. Seesen, 2012.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual tools for the Analysis of Film

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel" due]

    REGISTRATION PERIOD ENDS

Session Ten, June 26/27: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film II

Primary Material

• Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Alda. 2006. 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, July 03/04: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film III

Primary Material

• Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Alda. 2006. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.

Secondary Material

• Happel, Alison and Jennifer Esposito. "Pageant Trouble: An Exploration of Gender Transgression in Little Miss Sunshine." Gender Forum 46 (2013): n.pag. Web.
• Robinson, Kerry H. and Cristyn Davies. "'She's kicking ass, that's what she's doing!': Deconstructing Childhood 'Innocence' in Media Representations." Australian Feminist Studies 23.57 (2008): 343-58. Print.

Analytical Tools

• Handout Conceptual tools for the Analysis of Film

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film": sample solution

Session Twelve, July 10/11: RPOplus: 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]

    [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' (Incidents, Watchmen, Little Miss Sunshine).

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