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Informatie over Ba American Studies
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| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
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| semester I a | verplicht | LAX025P05 | The Americas Ia: The American Century | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| verplicht | LAX039P05 | Theories of Culture Ia | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| verplicht | LAX048P05 | Rhetoric and Composition Ia | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester I b | verplicht | LAX026P05 | The Americas Ib: The American Century | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| verplicht | LAX041P05 | Theories of Culture Ib | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| verplicht | LAX049P05 | Rhetoric and Composition Ib | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II a | verplicht | LAX032P05 | The Americas IIa: New Frontiers | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| verplicht | LAX043P05 | North & South Americans I | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep A | LAX050P05 | Special Topics 1a: Canada and the US | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep A | LAX051P05 | Special Topics 1a: Voice of America | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep A | LAX052P05 | Special Topics 1a: TBA | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II b | verplicht | LAX033P05 | The Americas IIb: New Frontiers | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| verplicht | LAX044P05 | North & South Americans II | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep B | LAX053P05 | Special Topics 1b: Canada's Cult. Mosaic | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep B | LAX054P05 | Special Topics 1b: United States of TV | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuzegroep B | LAX055P05 | Special Topics 1b: TBA | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| Opmerkingen | Students choose one course from option group A and one course from option group B. | ||||||
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| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
| semester I a | verplicht | LAX045B05 | Theories of Culture IIa: Politic. Theory | Engels | 5 | 2 | |
| verplicht | LAX046B05 | The Americas IIIa | Engels | 5 | 3 | ||
| verplicht | LAX047B05 | Rhetoric and Composition IIa | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester I b | verplicht | LAX048B05 | Theories of Culture IIb: Media Theory | Engels | 5 | 2 | |
| verplicht | LAX049B05 | The Americas IIIb | Engels | 5 | 3 | ||
| verplicht | LAX050B05 | Rhetoric and Composition IIb | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II | verplicht | LAX041B10 | Political Culture | Engels | 10 | 2 | |
| semester II a | keuzegroep C | LAX037B10 | Special Topics 2: Early America & Orient | Engels | 10 | ||
| keuzegroep C | LAX051B10 | Special Topics 2: TBA | Engels | 10 | 4 | ||
| semester II b | keuzegroep D | LAX042B10 | Global USA: Business, Work and Wealth | Engels | 10 | 4 | |
| keuzegroep D | LAX043B10 | Media Specialization | Engels | 10 | 4 | ||
| Opmerkingen | 1. In the second semester, students choose two of the specialization course units: every student takes one Special Topics 2 course and one out of the other two optional course units. | ||||||
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| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
| semester I | verplicht | Minor | Engels en Nederlands | 30 | |||
| semester II | verplicht | LAX022B10 | Mobility, Migration, Transculturation | Engels | 10 | 4 | |
| verplicht | LAX999B10 | Bachelor's Thesis American Studies | Engels | 10 | variabel | ||
| semester II a | verplicht | LAX052B05 | Theories of Culture IIIa | Engels | 5 | 2 | |
| semester II b | verplicht | LAX053B05 | Theories of Culture IIIb | Engels | 5 | 2 | |
| Opmerkingen | Students who have a very good reason for not travelling abroad may follow a specific compulsory Minor instead. Please contact your study advisor. | ||||||
| 1 | Bachelor's Thesis American Studies | LAX999B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • To build upon and develop in-depth understanding and knowledge of the Americas, past and present, acquired during BA seminars. • To explore a specific topic within American Studies in relation to its cultural, sociological, historical, political, legal, and literary contexts, as appropriate. • To foster the scholarly skills (selection, processing, and evaluation of information) and academic knowledge necessary for semi-independent research. • To explore and apply current cultural/political/media and other theories as relevant to American Studies. • To develop advanced-level insights into interdisciplinary perspectives on the production of knowledge. • To equip the student with relevant transferable communication and writing skills, including the use of electronic technologies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2 | Global USA: Business, Work and Wealth | LAX042B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “The chief business of the American people is business” (President Calvin Coolidge) In the years since the Second World War, the character of what Robert Kagan has called “the world America made” has changed considerably. Focusing on a crucial aspect of the evolution of that “world,” this course traces the global history of U.S. capitalism from the establishment of the Bretton Woods system in 1944, through the turbulence of the 1970s and the end of the Cold War, to the present day, when, in the eyes of many commentators, the U.S.-dominated global (or, at least, Western) order faces a series of unprecedented threats . Students will explore how U.S. economic power interacted with the nation’s military and political power to shape an international order in which U.S.-based companies and U.S.-derived business practices have become increasingly influential in the lives of people all over the globe. Concentrating on the rise of U.S. economic power and influence in three key regions of the world (Western Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East), the course also considers the domestic effects of the expansion of that power and influence and introduces students to different ways of conceptualizing it. Has this been a process of democratization, globalization, imperialist domination, or something else entirely? And what have been the effects on populations both within the U.S. and abroad? While many may feel ambivalent about living in an allegedly Americanized world, how might we feel about alternative ways of working and securing wealth? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3 | Media Specialization | LAX043B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Our contemporary media environment is vertiginously complex, multi-centered, and evolving. This course arms students with the historical perspective and critical tools they will need understand U.S. popular culture in the present moment and to participate in that culture through informed everyday consumption, rigorous scholarly discourse, and thoughtful cultural production. The first half of the course explores how media have shaped American life through two key problems: The Event and The Hoax. We will examine a series media events—from the death of Abraham Lincoln to the surprise album “drop” of Beyonce’s Lemonade—that have provoked scholarly debate about the role of celebrity, spectacle, and collective emotion in American life. Along the way, we will attend to how the mediation and reception of these events are shaped by ideologies of empire, race, gender, and class. We will then turn to a series of media hoaxes from the 18th century to the present: the U.S. reception of the novel Charlotte Temple, Mark Twain's "The Petrified Man," Orson Welles' radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, and the J.T. LeRoy scandal from the early 2000s. These scandals and deceptions show us how authors and audiences have responded to the rise of new media technologies (whether it be the sentimental novel, the newspaper, the radio, or the internet). Hoaxes also prompt us to reflect on our continued investment in the category of authenticity, especially in an age that theorists have termed "postmodern." The second half of the course explores the relationship between media and contemporary politics around three themes: diversity, dystopia, and counterpublics. How does contemporary media both reflect and obscure the racial, gender, religious, and economic diversity of American life in the 21st century? Is media today a tool of authoritarian rule or a platform for resurgent democracy? To what extent does the digital media environment demand new philosophies and terms of analysis? To explore these essential questions, we will read classic theories of media and politics—Adorno, McLuhan, Baudrillard, and others—alongside primary texts from and journalistic commentaries on the current media ecosystem. Our primary texts will be drawn from diverse forms of popular media, including film franchises, on-demand television series, Twitter hashtags, "fake news" stories, and podcasts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 4 | Mobility, Migration, Transculturation | LAX022B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whether it is students spending an exchange semester away from their home university; migrant workers crossing land or water in pursuit of the American or European Dream; or political refugees trying to escape life-threatening circumstances in their home countries: mobility and migration have always constituted a fundamental experience of many people. Yet its causes and consequences have only recently started to receive an increasing amount of critical attention at a time shaped by global trade agreements as well as global terrorism and national security interests. While unskilled migrants have long since been perceived as an economic threat by many wealthy receiving nations, current changes in the geopolitical order have led to significant immigration policy changes in the Americas and Europe that increasingly blur the lines between economic migrants, political or environmental refugees, and potential terrorists. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to current forms, practical problems of, as well as theoretical debates on migration by exploring the social, cultural, psychological, geopolitical, legal, and economic implications of specific international migration movements in the Americas and Europe. The course will concentrate on the following topics: globalization, international trade agreements,the geopolitics of borders; plurinational lives and transcultural identity formations; current social, economic, political, and environmental push and pull factors; the migration of elites; developing nations and the Western welfare state; undocumented migrant workers, border violence, and human rights debates along the U.S.-Mexican border; migration and gender (sex-trafficking);changes in international refugee laws and immigration policy measures in the U.S. and Europe after 9/11; debates on citizenship, social cohesion, integration, and assimilation; the pros and cons of open borders;the role of the media in the production of discourses on migration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5 | North & South Americans I | LAX043P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an in-depth interdisciplinary introduction to the peoples, cultures, and societies of Central and South America, with a special emphasis on nations, regions, developments, events, and movements that have a particular relevance for the United States. We will study this rich and diverse region from a variety of different disciplines and perspectives, frequently adopting a comparative (inter-American) perspective. Part I focuses on Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements, including Simon Bolívar and the Spanish American wars of independence, the Mexican Revolution, the world revolutionary Che Guevara and his protests against imperialism and capitalist exploitation, indigenous movements, the Castros and Cuban-U.S. relations throughout the 20th and 21st century, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Lula da Silva and the “pink tide” in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil, as well as the current crisis in Venezuela. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 6 | North & South Americans II | LAX044P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an in-depth interdisciplinary introduction to the peoples, cultures, and societies in Latin America, and in relationship to North America, with a special emphasis on nations, regions, developments, events, and movements that have a particular relevance for the United States. We will study this rich and diverse region from a variety of different disciplines and perspectives, frequently adopting a comparative (inter-American) perspective. NSA II focuses on culture and society. By concentrating on topics such as drug trafficking and violence, legacies of dictatorships, ecological justice and environmental security, tourism, Magical Realism and the Boom, we will explore the ways that contemporary Latin American cultures and societies reflect the historical patterns and categories we identified in NSA I. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 7 | Political Culture | LAX041B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political culture is what embeds and informs our political behavior. It can be defined as a set of attitudes, values, beliefs and practices shared by a people and shaping their political perceptions and actions. As such, involves moral judgments, political myths, and ideas about what makes for a good citizen, a good society, and a good government. Political cultures vary from state to state (and sometimes even within one state), but they tend to be fairly stable over time. This course examines American political culture. Drawing on a wide range of historical and theoretical readings, it familiarizes students with some of its guiding ideas, including liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity. Moreover, we will study how political debates in the U.S. tend to be over how these ideas can be realized, not over whether they are worth striving for in the first place. We will explore how American political culture—through debates, public protest, and the circulation of values and myths—intersects with American media and popular culture. And we will try to assess what the election of Donald Trump means for American political culture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 8 | Rhetoric and Composition Ia | LAX048P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 9 | Rhetoric and Composition Ib | LAX049P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 10 | Rhetoric and Composition IIa | LAX047B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This second-year course completes the departmental program in Rhetoric and Composition. Building on the foundations of academic writing laid in Rhetoric and Composition I, Rhetoric and Composition II offers rigorous consolidation and additional practice in various forms of academic English while also intensifying the focus on the subject-specific demands faced by students writing and speaking argumentatively in an American Studies setting. Students will deepen their understanding of formal argumentation and produce a series of argumentative essays (ranging in length from 1000 to 2500 words) to demonstrate their grasp of scholarly language, argument, and structure; their ability to deal with historical and theoretical contexts; and the quality of their research skills. Through the analysis of a selection of academic articles and argumentative essays, students will study and learn to reproduce diverse modes of scholarly rhetoric in both written and oral form. In the second half of the course, they give individual oral presentations based on the arguments articulated in their final research essays. Throughout the course, students are asked to reflect critically on their own writing and the writing of others, with the aim of furnishing them with the skills that will be required for third-year research seminars and the composition of their B.A. theses in the final year of the American Studies program. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 11 | Rhetoric and Composition IIb | LAX050B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This second-year course completes the departmental program in Rhetoric and Composition. Building on the foundations of academic writing laid in Rhetoric and Composition I, Rhetoric and Composition II offers rigorous consolidation and additional practice in various forms of academic English while also intensifying the focus on the subject-specific demands faced by students writing and speaking argumentatively in an American Studies setting. Students will deepen their understanding of formal argumentation and produce a series of argumentative essays (ranging in length from 1000 to 2500 words) to demonstrate their grasp of scholarly language, argument, and structure; their ability to deal with historical and theoretical contexts; and the quality of their research skills. Through the analysis of a selection of academic articles and argumentative essays, students will study and learn to reproduce diverse modes of scholarly rhetoric in both written and oral form. In the second half of the course, they give individual oral presentations based on the arguments articulated in their final research essays. Throughout the course, students are asked to reflect critically on their own writing and the writing of others, with the aim of furnishing them with the skills that will be required for third-year research seminars and the composition of their B.A. theses in the final year of the American Studies program. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 12 | Special Topics 1a: Canada and the US | LAX050P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course unit students are introduced to Canadian society from a historical and comparative perspective, focusing on transatlantic relationships with Europe as well as on the convergences and (cultural) differences between Canada and the U.S. By examining a variety of topics such as the connection between Francophone and Anglophone Canada and bilingualism, Free Trade Agreements, popular culture, media and national identity, representations of space and identity, federal and provincial politics in relation to Indigenous peoples, students will gain insight in the complexity of Canadian society and questions of identity, Canada's transatlantic allegiance, and its dynamic relationship with the U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13 | Special Topics 1a: TBA | LAX052P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| When is a story more than just a story? Can stories ever attain the status of critique? Contemporary U.S. society has seen a boom in examples of (popular) narrative culture that appear to take deeply critical positions vis-à-vis dominant political and economic structures. Think, for example, of the way TV shows like Mr. Robot and Black Mirror overtly criticize the technocratic financial sectors of society, echoing Marxist theories of commodification, or how computer games like Inside and Mirrors Edge echo the Orwellian understanding of advanced capitalist societies as draconian surveillance states. This introductory level course considers the relationship(s) between critiques of race, class, and identity struggle in contemporary U.S. narrative culture. It also fosters knowledge about the ways in which stories function (and have functioned) politically in the U.S. We will look at the history of the politically engaged story, its reception in its historical context, and contemporary perspectives on them, as well as at contemporary iterations of, and interactions with, critical narrative culture. We will learn to discern and analyze the critical components of stories from different forms of media: games, novels, films and television series, as well as learning to criticize the critical components themselves. As the course continues we will constantly be asking ourselves, can a story ever really be more than just a story? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 14 | Special Topics 1a: Voice of America | LAX051P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Special Topics Ib: Voice of America: Sound and the Public Sphere From the sermon, to the radio play, to the podcast; from popular music to Public Radio; from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” to Rush Limbaugh’s inflammatory rhetoric; catching America’s ear has shaped public opinion and moved people to action. Sound is a relatively neglected medium in theories of the contemporary--and yet, sound media continue to play a central role in American politics and democratic culture. This course has three main aims. First, to contextualize contemporary sound media like podcasts and satellite radio within U.S. cultural and political history, as well as the history of technology. Second, to hone students’ critical listening skills with the help of vocabularies from media theory. Third, to encourage creative experimentation with sound media. As a final assignment, students will produce their own podcast episode, thinking carefully about genre and the persuasive powers of voice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 15 | Special Topics 1b: Canada's Cult. Mosaic | LAX053P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| One of the most important elements of Canadian federal policy was the introduction of official multiculturalism in the 1970s. In 1988, the federal government passed the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Central to this policy was the official recognition of the diverse cultures in a plural society. In understanding official multiculturalism in a broader context, it is necessary to first examine its basic values. This examination will be followed by a critical discussion of the situation of cultural and linguistic minorities within Canada, which will for example touch upon questions of liberal multiculturalism, multicultural theory and practices, postcolonialism, mixed race and so-called visible minorities. The course also includes a comparative perspective,examining immigration policies and issues of citizenship in Canada, Europe and the U.S. and discussing the Canadian mosaic in relation to the U.S. melting pot. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 16 | Special Topics 1b: TBA | LAX055P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 17 | Special Topics 1b: United States of TV | LAX054P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At the beginning of the 21st century TV critic Dean J. DeFino proclaimed that television had become the “pre-eminent narrative medium of our time.” In the same vein, American Studies scholar Christopher Bigsby argued in his 2013 book Viewing America that TV series offer the means for “interrogating the myths and values of a society moving into a new century.” In this introductory level course, we follow these critics’ cues to consider the history of television in the United States, both with regard to technical developments, audience numbers, and societal discourses and controversies. We will explore the scholarly history of studying television in American Studies and the wider academic field and engage with key theoretical texts from Film Studies, Cultural Studies, and Media Studies. The newly gained knowledge and terminologies will form the background for examining prominent examples from the rich history of U.S. TV series, from the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best, via the 1980s’ The Cosby Show to the nostalgic prestigious TV series Mad Men, set in the 1950s. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 18 | Special Topics 2: Early America & Orient | LAX037B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Since the late Middle Ages, the Orient has been an enchanted space for the West: a space inspired by the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, at once seductive and sensual— albeit at times threatening. Strange and exotic in the eyes of the Westerner who turns his fascinated gaze towards the East, the vision encompasses much that departs from the European ‘norm,’ including aspects that are projections of the entirety. The various geographical and imagined Orients have been represented in a variety of ways by writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, ranging from a fantasized and eroticized escape from Western morals and conventions to an ideological battleground on which alternative political systems were inscribed. This course examines various representations of and about the Orient starting from the 1760s. It explores the political, cultural, and economic conditions of the Revolutionary period and the early decades of the republic and the meanings and purposes of 'imagined' Orients in American imagination. We will play special attention as to how the Orient was used as an analytical tool to nuance the struggles and debates that characterized the decades of instability in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 19 | Special Topics 2: TBA | LAX051B10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 20 | The Americas Ia: The American Century | LAX025P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to cultural, historical, political, social, and economic developments in the Americas from the 1890s until the 1970s. While our main focus will be on the United States, we will frequently adopt a comparative, hemispheric perspective due to the U.S.’s substantial involvement in Latin America and the Caribbean during the first half of the twentieth century. We will focus in particular on the following themes: the Spanish-American War and the rise of the U.S. as a global power; expansionism and empire; pan-Americanism and transatlanticism; U.S. diplomatic and military responses to developments in Latin America and the Caribbean; immigration and demographic shifts; WWII; the Cold War; Castro and the Cuban Revolution; the Vietnam War; the Civil Rights Movement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 21 | The Americas Ib: The American Century | LAX026P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to cultural, historical, political, social, and economic developments in the Americas from the 1970s to the present. While our main focus will be on the United States, we will frequently adopt a comparative, hemispheric perspective due to the increasing economic, political, and military integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada since the 1990s. We will focus in particular on the following themes: 9/11 and the war on terror; the war on drugs; party polarization and the rise of the New Right; family politics in the Americas; environmental concerns; Inter-American economic relations; the US’s current cross-national and international relations and trade networks; strategies of world leadership and power. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 22 | The Americas IIa: New Frontiers | LAX032P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to cultural, historical, political, social, and economic developments in the Americas in the 19th century, with a specific focus on the position of the U.S within a hemispheric framework. Among the many topics we will address are the consolidation of the nation, the impact of Caribbean slave revolts on national identity construction, expansionism to the West and South, the American Borderlands, slavery, immigration, mobility, religious movements, industrialization, architecture, urbanization and changing gender roles. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 23 | The Americas IIb: New Frontiers | LAX033P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to cultural, historical, political, social, and economic developments in the Americas in the 19th century, with a specific focus on the position of the U.S within a hemispheric framework. Among the many topics we will address are the consolidation of the nation, the impact of Caribbean slave revolts on national identity construction, expansionism to the West and South, the American Borderlands, slavery, immigration, mobility, religious movements, industrialization, architecture, urbanization and changing gender roles. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 24 | The Americas IIIa | LAX046B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 25 | The Americas IIIb | LAX049B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 26 | Theories of Culture Ia | LAX039P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and cultural texts as well as visual materials, this course will offer an interdisciplinary introduction to central concepts, major theorists, and current controversies about the notions of identity in the context of contemporary U.S.-American society. In particular, we will study contemporary notions of American identity as multi-dimensional political, social, cultural, and ideological constructs based on two interrelated theory-modules: theories of social class and theories of race/ethnicity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 27 | Theories of Culture Ib | LAX041P05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and cultural texts as well as visual materials, this course will offer an interdisciplinary introduction to central concepts, major theorists, and current controversies about the notions of identity in the context of contemporary U.S.-American society. In particular, we will study contemporary notions of American identity as multi-dimensional political, social, cultural, and ideological constructs based on gender and region. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 28 | Theories of Culture IIa: Politic. Theory | LAX045B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course introduces students to a range of political theories relevant to the study and analysis of American political life. Theorists and thinkers we will study may include: Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, John Dewey, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, Wendy Brown, and Jodi Dean. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 29 | Theories of Culture IIb: Media Theory | LAX048B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course introduces students to a range of media theories relevant to the study and analysis of American social and cultural life. Theorists and thinkers we will study may include: Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Raymond Williams, Friedrich Kittler, Niklas Luhmann, Lev Manovic and Jason Mittell. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 30 | Theories of Culture IIIa | LAX052B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historians of the twentieth-century United States have described a definitive shift in the economic life: from a society primarily engaged in production, to one overwhelmingly dedicated to consumption. What impact did this change have on society and culture, both within the U.S. and beyond its borders? How have scholars studied and conceptualized the relationship among economics, politics, social behavior, and culture? This course approaches the theme of “consumer nation” from a variety of theoretical paradigms, historical moments, and cultural texts. We begin with nineteenth-century classics: Marx’s account of the relationship between economy and ideology, followed by Veblen’s wry theory of conspicuous consumption. In ToC-IIIb, we will read applications of Marxist ideas to popular culture, modernism, and postmodernism, as well as challenges to and extensions of the Marxist paradigm from the perspectives of feminism, post-colonialism, and critical ecology. We end with a consideration of the New Media ecosystem, in which distinctions between consumption and production, work and leisure, capital and culture are blurrier than ever. The course is designed to build on the themes and concepts studied in TOC-I and II, and to complement the research and writing of the BA thesis in American Studies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 31 | Theories of Culture IIIb | LAX053B05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historians of the twentieth-century United States have described a definitive shift in the economic life: from a society primarily engaged in production, to one overwhelmingly dedicated to consumption. What impact did this change have on society and culture, both within the U.S. and beyond its borders? How have scholars studied and conceptualized the relationship among economics, politics, social behavior, and culture? This course approaches the theme of “consumer nation” from a variety of theoretical paradigms, historical moments, and cultural texts. We begin with nineteenth-century classics: Marx’s account of the relationship between economy and ideology, followed by Veblen’s wry theory of conspicuous consumption. In ToC-IIIb, we will read applications of Marxist ideas to popular culture, modernism, and postmodernism, as well as challenges to and extensions of the Marxist paradigm from the perspectives of feminism, post-colonialism, and critical ecology. We end with a consideration of the New Media ecosystem, in which distinctions between consumption and production, work and leisure, capital and culture are blurrier than ever. The course is designed to build on the themes and concepts studied in TOC-I and II, and to complement the research and writing of the BA thesis in American Studies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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