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Academic Year 2003/2004
Junior Colloquium: Cultural Studies and American Studies
AMST 204 FA
The aim of our colloquium is to place some contributions of British cultural studies and American Studies in a critical dialogue with one another. From this critical exchange we will develop a more rigorous grasp of
cultural
theory and a more complex understanding of what is at stake in cultural criticism and cultural history. Topics include the concepts of ideology, hegemony, and contradiction; the theorizing and historicizing of forms of
subjectivity;
marxist theories, feminist theories, antiracism work. A number of exercises (including field trips) and analyses of texts (literary, historical) will put our theoretical work into practice.
MAJOR READINGS
Terry Eagleton, "What is Ideology?" and "The
Significance of Theory"
Cornel West, "The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual"
Frederick Douglass, NARRATIVE
Lawrence Levine, BLACK CULTURE AND BLACK
CONSCIOUSNESS
Leroi Jones, (Amiri Baraka) THE
DUTCHMAN and THE SLAVE
Graeme Turner, "British Cultural Studies"
Allan Bloom, THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
Joel Pfister, "THE AMERICANIZATION OF CULTURAL STUDIES"
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "Sex as Symbol
in Victorian
Purity"
Thomas
Laqueur "Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of
Reproductive Biology"
Barbara Kruger, WE WON'T PLAY NATURE TO YOUR CULTURE
James Kavanagh, "Ideology"
Roland Barthes, MYTHOLOGIES
William Cronon, CHANGES IN
THE LAND: INDIANS, COLONISTS,
AND
THE ECOLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND
Benjamin Franklin, AUTOBIOGRPAHY
Max Weber, THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM
Michael Wallace, "Visiting the Past: History Museums in the
United
States"
Chris Weedon, FEMINIST PRACTICE AND
POSTSTRUCTURALIST THEORY
Spike Lee, DO THE RIGHT THING (film)
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Three five page papers plus some exercises. Each student will take a turn at leading class discussion.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Only American Studies majors may take this course.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
AMST151 OR AMST152 OR AMST155 OR AMST156
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459