University of St. Thomas

4 Credit Hours

In ACST 200, students learn about the historical and theoretical foundations of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline and use cultural theory to analyze a variety of cultural products and representations. In this course, students look specifically at dominant and subversive constructions of gender, race, ethnicity, national and sexual identities, and how these constructions are deployed through cultural practices and productions such as sports, film and television, folklore and popular culture, youth subcultures, music, and so on. For example, the course may contain units on "nation" and the creation of American mythologies; the process of hero-making in American history; stereotypes and the representation of race and ethnicity in television and film; representations of gender and sexuality in advertising; as well as a section on American music from jazz, blues, folk and roots music, to rock and roll, punk, and hip-hop. This course fulfills the Human Diversity requirement in the core curriculum.

4 Credit Hours

In ACST 200, students learn about the historical and theoretical foundations of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline and use cultural theory to analyze a variety of cultural products and representations. In this course, students look specifically at dominant and subversive constructions of gender, race, ethnicity, national and sexual identities, and how these constructions are deployed through cultural practices and productions such as sports, film and television, folklore and popular culture, youth subcultures, music, and so on. For example, the course may contain units on "nation" and the creation of American mythologies; the process of hero-making in American history; stereotypes and the representation of race and ethnicity in television and film; representations of gender and sexuality in advertising; as well as a section on American music from jazz, blues, folk and roots music, to rock and roll, punk, and hip-hop. This course fulfills the Human Diversity requirement in the core curriculum.

3 Credit Hours

In his landmark work, POSTMODERNISM, OR, THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF LATE CAPITALISM, Fredric Jameson argues that "aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally." Jameson's designation of the cultural object as commodity in the age of late capitalism is part of a rich and varied history of cultural readings within the Marxist tradition--readings that have viewed the cultural object as a means of political control, as a site for political possibilities, and as everything in between. In this course, we will begin with a sustained engagement with Marx's work, especially sections of ECONOMIC AND PHILOSOPHIC MANUSCRIPTS OF 1844, THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY, THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE OF LOUIS BONAPARTE, and CAPITAL. We will then study excerpts from Leon Trotsky's LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION and Antonio Gramsci's PRISON NOTEBOOKS. These foundational theories will inform the next segment of the course, where our focus will be on the debates in the 1930's about aesthetics and politics between Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Georg Lukacs. We will also read the works of prominent twentieth-century Marxists, such as Louis Althusser, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, and Raymond Williams. All along, we will interrogate these writers' ideas and place them within the context of issues of race, gender, and decolonization. We will study feminist readings of labor, patriarchy, and sexuality by critics like Rosemary Hennessey, Lillian Robinson, Barbara Smith, and Gayatri Spivak. Within the postcolonial tradition, we will look at theories of culture developed by, for instance, Amilcar Cabral, C. L. R. James, and Frantz Fanon. As the semester progresses, it will become evident that there is no single Marxist theory; in fact, there are debates and disagreements among critics based on context, history, region, and so on. Each student will write blog entries, a mid-term paper, and a final essay and will also be responsible for an extended presentation. This course counts as an elective course and a seminar. Prerequisite: GENG 513 or permission of the instructor.

3 Credit Hours

In his landmark work, POSTMODERNISM, OR, THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF LATE CAPITALISM, Fredric Jameson argues that "aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally." Jameson's designation of the cultural object as commodity in the age of late capitalism is part of a rich and varied history of cultural readings within the Marxist tradition--readings that have viewed the cultural object as a means of political control, as a site for political possibilities, and as everything in between. In this course, we will begin with a sustained engagement with Marx's work, especially sections of ECONOMIC AND PHILOSOPHIC MANUSCRIPTS OF 1844, THE GERMAN IDEOLOGY, THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE OF LOUIS BONAPARTE, and CAPITAL. We will then study excerpts from Leon Trotsky's LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION and Antonio Gramsci's PRISON NOTEBOOKS. These foundational theories will inform the next segment of the course, where our focus will be on the debates in the 1930's about aesthetics and politics between Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Georg Lukacs. We will also read the works of prominent twentieth-century Marxists, such as Louis Althusser, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, and Raymond Williams. All along, we will interrogate these writers' ideas and place them within the context of issues of race, gender, and decolonization. We will study feminist readings of labor, patriarchy, and sexuality by critics like Rosemary Hennessey, Lillian Robinson, Barbara Smith, and Gayatri Spivak. Within the postcolonial tradition, we will look at theories of culture developed by, for instance, Amilcar Cabral, C. L. R. James, and Frantz Fanon. As the semester progresses, it will become evident that there is no single Marxist theory; in fact, there are debates and disagreements among critics based on context, history, region, and so on. Each student will write blog entries, a mid-term paper, and a final essay and will also be responsible for an extended presentation. This course counts as an elective course and a seminar. Prerequisite: GENG 513 or permission of the instructor.