Syllabus:

1. No readings. Introductory Lecture

2. Different Conceptions of “Culture” and “Cultural Studies”

Cultural Studies with “C” or “c”? Why we need a concept of culture and what kind of concept of culture we need in order to understand and / or explain social and political phenomena?

Mandatory Readings:

Gayatri Spivak, "Scattered Specifications on the Question of Cultural Studies" in The Cultural Studies Reader , Simon During (ed.), Second Edition, London and New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 169-189.

3. The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory on Culture Industry

What is “Culture Industry”?

Mandatory Reading:

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as a Mass Deception,” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp. 31-42

Recommended Reading:

Angela McRobbie, “The Place of Walter Benjamin in Cultural Studies.” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp.77-97.

Watch Youtube video “The Culture Industry” : Tyler Stump and Christina Fairchild at the University of Maryland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6CGAK0kVY .

4. Theories of Popular Culture

Mandatory Reading: John Storey, "What Is Popular Culture?" 1-16

(eg pop culture: Mainstream Cinema, Advertisements, Fashion, TV Shows)

5. Hegemony and Culture

Reading: Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks

6. Counter-Hegemonic Cultures

What is Resistance? What is Cultural Resistance? To what extent counter-hegemonic cultural movements can foster economic, political, social and epistemic justice?

Jocelyn A. Hollander and Rachel L. Einwohner, “Conceptualizing Resistance,” Sociological Forum , Vol. 19, No.4, 2004, s. 533-554. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4148828

Case Study 1 : Counter-cultural music on the US-Mexico border

Counter-Cultural Music Resisting Oppresions on the US-Mexico Borders, http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/pt/borders-fronteras/item/1131-su10-countercultural-music/1131-su10-countercultural-music

Case Study 2 : Resisting The Hegemonic Regimes of Representation: Critical Art by 'Roma Artists' from Eastern Europe

Maria-Alina Asavei, “Performing Approaches to Identity in Contemporary Roma Art”, ARTmargins: Central and Eastern European Visual Studies , MIT Press (online), 2013

http://www.artmargins.com/index.php/2-articles/727-performative-approaches-to-identity-in-contemporary-roma-art

7. Cultural Nationalism and Cultural Identity

In the past, there was “a tendency to identify cultures with nation-states” (Michael Keating: 2008). More recently, culture is conceptualized and explored beyond national divisions in terms of fluid online and offline networks. Is National Culture Over the Advent of Globalization? To what extent we can talk about overcoming national culture paradigm?

Mandatory Reading:

Gregory Jusdanis, "Beyond National Culture ?," by Boundary 2 , Vol. 22, No.1 (Spring 1995), pp. 23-60. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/303661.pdf

8. Modernism versus Postmodernism

Mandatory Reading: John Storey, “Postmodernism,” in Theory and Popular Culture , 2001, pp. 181-184 197-210.

9. Cultures in Exile

How can we understand, interpret and evaluate the formations of cultures beyond the national borders?

Mandatory Reading: Hamid Naficy, “The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles,” The Cultural Studies , Simon During (ed.), Pp. 537-567.

10. High Art and Mass Culture

What arguments have historically been used to distinguish between high art and mass culture?

Mandatory Reading: Raymond Williams, "On High and Popular Culture," 1974, available online at: https://newrepublic.com/article/79269/high-and-popular-culture

In class screening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz_UVfNdUV4 (High Art: Low Art)

11. Marxism and Culture

Mandatory Reading: John Storey, “Marxism,” in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture , 2001 59-88.

12. Recapitulation & discussion off the final papers (topics, arguments, sources and so on)