Cultural Studies

Objectives

To understand and to interpret the contemporary age.

To get acquainted with the several senses of 'culture'.

To relate culture to other concepts and social fields (ethics, art, religion, politics, economics, technology, utopia, ideology, etc.)

To know the main turning points in Western culture.

To know the evolution of cultural theory and symbolic practice during the course of the 20th century.

To contrast several levels and types of 'culture'.

To identify the causes the led to the constitution of Cultural Studies.

To identify thematic priorities and methodological paths in Cultural Studies.

To show the importance of an engaged citizenship.

Program

I- Cultural hallmarks:

1. From the History of Culture to Cultural Studies.2. Opositions ans complementarities: Culture/Nature; Civilization/Barbary; Humanities ans Sciences.3. Marxism.4. The Futurist movement – its claims and manifestos. 5. The world wars.

II- Contemporary society: practices and values:1.Jean-François Lyotard's postmodern condition (the end of the great narratives).1. George Steiner's postculture (decadence).2. Gilles Lipovetsky's hipermodernity (excess).

III- The Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies of Birmingham: 1. The founders and the predecessors of Cultural Studies.2. Cultural Studies: the two paradigms.3. Culture VS culture.4. Thematic priorities and research methods.5. The Frontier metaphor.6. Ideology, hegemony, and power.

IV- Practical cases of transgression and transdisciplinarity: minorities.1. Gender studies.2. Ethnicity studies.3. Spatiality studies.

Teaching Methodologies

Teaching methodologies include the analysis of texts and images, the synthesis of topics taught in class or of readings that were recommended. It is expected to foster students' ability to develop habits of academic research.

Therefore, besides the final exam, students will be asked to regularly answer in writing to short quizzes and to prepare an oral presentation.

Bibliography

HALL, Stuart (1980), “Cultural Studies: two paradigms” in Media Culture and Society, London, 2, pp.57-72.

HAUSER, Arnold (2000), História Social da Arte e da Literatura (tradução de Álvaro Cabral), São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1995 [1953].

HEATER, Derek (1999), What is Citizenship? Cambridge: Polity Press.

INGLIS, Fred (1995), Cultural Studies, Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell [1993, 1994].

KATZ, Adam, “Postmodern Cultural Studies: a critique”, in The Alternative Orange, vol. 5, nº 1, Fall-Winter, 1995-6

STOREY, John (1997), An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, 2nd ed., London, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore,

Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Paris: Prentice Hall, Harvester Wheatsheaf [1993].

IDEM (1996), What is Cultural Studies? A reader, London: Arnold.