Sociology of Culture Course Syllabus
Sociology 250, Spring 1999
9:05-9:55 MWF L307 Lafayette
Prof. Thomas Streeter
31 So. Prospect, 656-2167
Office Hours: 11-12 MWF, & by appointment
email: thomas.streeter@uvm.edu
This course will explore central themes and issues in the sociology
of culture. It will focus on questions such as: What is the relation
of the cultural forms studied by humanists to the social structures
studied by sociologists and political scientists? What is the
relation of experience, of subjectivity, to material life?
Assignments: class participation (including demonstrating
that you've done assigned readings), regular short essays on the
readings, some in-class presentations, a research paper, and an
oral report on your research paper.
All assigments must be completed to pass the course.
Texts: Mukerji and Schudson (eds.), Rethinking Popular
Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies, (Berkeley:
Univerisity of California Press, 1991) is available at the bookstore.
The rest of the required readings are on electronic reserve at
the UVM library.
Course Outline
"Rethinking" = Mukerji and Schudson. All other
readings are on reserve. Assignments are subject to modification
during the semester.
I. The Cultural Approach
A. Introduction: Some Precedents and
Examples
[diamond] Douglas E. Foley, "The
Great American Football Ritual," from Learning Capitalist
Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas, Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1990, pp. 28-62.
[diamond] Clifford Geertz, "Deep
Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," in Rethinking, pp.
239-277. (from The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973.)
[diamond] Henry C. Finney, "Mediating
Claims to Artistry: Social Stratification in a Local Visual Arts
Community," Sociological Forum, Vol 8. No. 3, 1993, pp. 403-431.
[diamond] Lawrence W. Levine, "William
Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation,"
in Rethinking, pp. 157-197.
B. Theory: What is Culture and Why
Does it Matter?
[diamond] Pierre Bourdieu, "The
Aristocracy of Culture," from Collins et al. (eds.), Media,
Culture, and Society: A Critical Reader, Sage, pp. 164-193.
[diamond] Anthony Giddens, "Conclusion,"
from New Rules of Sociological Method, pp. 155-169.
[diamond] Richard Johnson, "What
is Cultural Studies Anyway?" Social Text, Winter 1986/87,
pp. 38-80.
[diamond] Raymond Williams, "Culture"
from Marxism and Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1977, pp. 11-20.
[diamond] Raymond Williams, "Base
and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory," in Rethinking,
pp. 407-423.
[diamond] Chandra Mukerji and Michael
Schudson, "Introduction" in Rethinking, pp. pp. 1-61.
[diamond] Marshall Sahlins, "La
Pensée Bourgeoise: Western Society as Culture," in
Rethinking, pp. 278-290.
C. The Analysis of Form: Semiotics
and Ideology
[diamond] Roland Barthes, "The
World of Wrestling," pp. 15-25, and "Myth Today,"
pp. 109-159, from Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers, New York:
Hill and Wang, 1972,.
[diamond] Semiotics and Media Web
Site, http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/index.html
[diamond] Roland Barthes, "Written
Clothing," in Rethinking, pp. 432-445.
[diamond] Judith Williamson, "Meaning
and Ideology," pp. 11-14 and "A Currency of Signs,"
pp. 20-39, from Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning
in Advertising, Boston: Marion Boyars, 1978.
II. Culture and Social Relations
A. Gender
[diamond] Video: Dreamworlds: Desire/Sex/Power
in Rock Video (written & directed by Sut Jhally)
[diamond] E. Ann Kaplan, "Is
the Gaze Male?," from Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera,
1983.
[diamond] Rachel Bowlby, Just Looking:
Consumer Culture in Dreiser, Gissing, and Zola, NY: Methuen, 1985,
pp. 1-34.
B. Capitalism and Class Relations
[diamond] Stanley Aronowitz, "Working
Class Culture in the Electronic Age," in in Ian Angus &
Sut Jhally (eds.), Cultural Politics in Contemporary America,
New York: Routledge, 1989, pp. 135-150.
[diamond] E. P. Thompson, "Time,
Work-discipline, and Industrial Capitalism," Past and Present,
No. 38, 1967, pp. 56-97.
[diamond] Robert Darnton, "Worker's
Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin,"
in Rethinking, p. 97-120.
[diamond] Roy Rosenzweig, "The
Rise of the Saloon," in Rethinking, pp. 121-156.
C. Race and Ethnicity
[diamond] Laura T. Fishman, "Images
of Crime and Punishment: The Black Bogeyman and White Self-righteousness,"
in Mann and Zatz (eds.), Images of Color, Images of Crime, Los
Angeles: Roxbury Publishing, 1998, pp. 109-126.
[diamond] Michael Omi, "In Living
Color: Race and American Culture," in Ian Angus & Sut
Jhally (eds.), Cultural Politics in Contemporary America, 1989.
[diamond] Ellen Seiter, "Different
Children, Different Dreams: Racial Representation in Advertising,"
Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 14, No. 1, Winter 1990,
pp. 31-47.
III. Culture and Modernity
A. Consumer Culture
[diamond] Rosalind Williams, "The
Dream World of Mass Consumption," in Rethinking, pp. 198-235.
[diamond] Thorstein Veblen, "Conspicuous
Consumption," from The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic
Study of Institutions, 1953 [1899].
[diamond] Colin Campbell, "Modern
Autonomous Imaginative Hedonism," pp. 77-95, and "Conclusion,"
pp. 202-227, from The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern
Consumerism, Basil Blackwell, 1987.
B. Culture and Problems of Identity
[diamond] John Berger, "The Suit
and the Photograph," in Rethinking, pp. 424-431.
[diamond] Michel Foucault, "What
is an Author?" in Rethinking, pp. 446-464.
[diamond] Stuart Hall, "Minimal
Selves," in Gray and McGuigan (eds.), Studying Culture: An
Introductory Reader (New York: Edward Arnold, 1993), pp. 134-138.
C. Culture, Hegemony, and Resistance
[diamond] T. J. Jackson-Lears, "The
Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities."
The American Historical Review, 90:3, June 1985, pp. 567-593.
[diamond] Jürgen Habermas, "The
Public Sphere," in Rethinking, pp. 398-404.
[diamond] Janice Radway, "Interpretive
Communities and Variable Literacies: the Functions of Romance
Reading," in Rethinking, pp. 465-486.
[diamond] Stuart Hall, "Culture,
Community, Nation," Cultural Studies, Oct. 1 1993, v. 7 n.
3, pp. 349-363.