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English 264
Reading Popular Culture
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Prof Jared Gardner
530 Denney Hall
Office hours: T 8:30-10 & W 8:30-9:30; & by appointment
gardner.236@osu.edu
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SCHEDULE
Week 1 Popular Culture: Definitions, History, Challenges
T 3/31 Introductions
R 4/2 Reading: Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing the ‘Popular’” (508-18); Michel de Certeau, “The Practice of Everyday Life” (545-55); John Fiske, “Understanding Popular Culture” [C]
Week 2 When High Culture Was Low—Historical Popular Culture Studies
T 4/7 Reading: Ramond Williams, “The Analysis of Culture” (33-40); Levine, “William Shakespeare and the American People” [C]; Paul DiMaggio, “Cultural Entrepreneuriship in Nineteenth-Century Boston” (519-38)
R 4/9 Reading: Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life” [C]; Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” [C]
Online: net.tutor: Searching 101: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/les4/
Workshop: Investigating Historical Popular Culture Using Primary Source Online Tools
F 4/10 Quiz 1 due by midnight
Week 3 Popular Culture 1909
T 4/14 Reading: Pop Project #1: popular culture 1909 (posted to Carmen by M 4/13 at 12PM)
Online: net.tutor: Evaluating Websites: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/les1/
R 4/16 Popular Culture 1909 (continued)
Online: net.tutor: Finding Articles: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/articles/
Workshop: Digging deeper using primary and secondary sources
Reading: Early Comic Strips Archive [C]; David Westbrook, “From Hogan's Alley to Coconino County: Four Narratives of the Early Comic Strip” [C]
Week 4 Reading in the Historical Gutter: Krazy Kat
T 4/21 Reading: George Herriman, Krazy & Ignatz; Seldes, from The Seven Lively Arts (1924) [C]
R 4/23 Reading: Crocker, "Some Say it With A Brick” [C]
Online: net.tutor: Searching the Library Catalog: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/oscar/
F 4/24 Quiz 2 due by midnight
Week 5 Reading TV: Soap Operas, Feminist Critique, and Convergence Culture
T 4/28 Reading: Ien Ang, “Dallas and the Ideology of Mass Culture” (173-82); Christine Geraghty, “Soap Opera and Utopia” (216-23); Elayne Rapping, “Daytime Utopias” [C]
Online: Soap opera sampler (see Carmen under “Readings and Screenings’”)
R 4/30 Reading: Neil Perryman, “Doctor Who and the Convergence of Media: A Case Study in ‘Transmedia Storytelling” (472-92); Steven Johnson, from Everything Bad Is Good For You [C]
Online: Dr. Who sampler; visit Dr. Who and Lost websites (see Carmen under “Links”)
Workshop: evaluating and learning from fan-communities and fan-based expertise on the web
F 5/1 Paper 1: a reading of a Krazy Kat cartoon in relation to the culture to which and from which it is speaking
Week 6 Reading Music: Control & Resistance
T 5/5 Reading: Adorno, “On Popular Music” (63-74); Storey, “Rockin’ Hegemony” (88-97); Ryan Moore, “Friends Don’t Let Friends Listen to Corporate Rock” [C}
R 5/7 Reading: Lipsitz, “Diasporic Noise: History, Hip Hop, and the Post-colonial Politics of Sound” (C); Paul Gilroy, “’Get Up, Get Into It and Get Involved’—Soul, Civil Rights and Black Power” (355-64)
Week 7 Reading Fashion: Lived-in Culture
T 5/12 Reading: Barthes, “Myth Today” (261-69); Barthes, “Written Clothing” [C]; Fiske, “The Popular Economy” (564-80)
Online: review net.tutor Research Guides by discipline (Humanities, Social Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts): http://liblearn.osu.edu/guides/. What gets left out for an interdisciplinary field of study like Popular Culture Studies?
R 5/14 Reading: Elizabeth Wilson, “Fashion and Postmodernism” (444-53)
Pop Project #2: Fashion & Music Circa 2009 (post to Carmen by W 5/13 12 PM)
F 5/15 Quiz 3 due by midnight
Week 8 Game Cultures I
T 5/19 Workshop: Archives, Ephemera, Fan Culture, and Other Unique Challenges and Pleasures in Popular Culture Studies Research (with Special Guest Jenny Robb, Associate Curator, Cartoon Library and Museum)
Online: Notes toward a Guide to Pop Culture researching (link through “Readings and Screenings”)
R 5/21 Reading: Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” [C]; Bourdieu, “Sports & Social Class” [C]
Week 9 Game Cultures II
T 5/26 Mactavish, “Technological Pleasure: The Performance and Narrative of Technology in Half-Life and other High-Tech Computer Games” (C); T. L. Taylor, “Beyond Fun: Instrumental Play and Power Gamers” [C]
R 5/28 Pop Project #3: Ethnography of Gaming or Sports Culture at OSU (posted by W 5/27 at 12PM)
F 5/29 Quiz 4 due by midnight
Week 10 Conclusions: Global Pop & The Future of Popular Culture Studies
T 6/2 Reading: Jenkins, “Pop Cosmopolitanism: Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence” [C]; Roland Kelts, from Japanamerica [C]
R 6/4 Pop Project #4: GlobalPop (posted by W 6/3); Conclusions
F 6/5 Abstract/ bibliographies due posted on Carmen
T 6/9 Final Exam
R 611 Final paper due
RESPONSIBILITIES
Required texts
Storey, John, ed., Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (4th Edition) (Paperback) Longman ISBN: 140587421X
Herriman, George, Krazy & Ignatz 1929-1930 (Paperback) Fantagraphics ISBN: 1560975296
Online quizzes.
In lieu of a midterm, we will have Carmen quizzes. These short, timed online quizzes will be given FIVE times during the quarter as marked on the syllabus. They will cover material from our reading, class discussions and lectures, and research workshops. No make-up quizzes will be given. I will drop the lowest grade if you have taken all five quizzes. 20% of final grade.
Final exam.
The exam will be comprehensive, asking for brief essays about major concepts of the course. The best way to study is to review both lecture/class notes and the reading assignments. 20% of final grade.
Pop Projects
There are four short, interactive “Pop Projects,” asking you to do some research and/or theorizing in relation to a current topic of class discussion. These will be due before the class for which they are scheduled on the syllabus, as spelled out in the prompts. 20% of final grade
Papers
One 3-4 page paper on Krazy Kat and one final research paper (5-7 pages) on a topic of your choice. Detailed instructions will be distributed after the mid-term. A (briefly) annotated bibliography and abstract is required for the final paper, posted to Carmen. 30% of final grade
Attendance/participation.
More than two absences will negatively affect your final grade; more than three will likely result in a failing grade in the course. 10% of final grade
Carmen.
This course has a Carmen site. To get to the course site, go to http://carmen.osu.edu and follow the directions from there. This will be the space where announcements, links, readings, resources, and discussion forums. All readings marked on the syllabus with “C” can be downloaded via the class’s Carmen site. Participation in the informal discussion forum on Carmen will count toward your participation grade.
Academic honesty.
Plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own: it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. All cases of suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct.
Students with disabilities.
Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss specific needs. You should also contact the Office for Disability Services at 292-3307 in room 150 Pomerene Hall, who will work with us to coordinate reasonable accommodations for documented disabilities.