In this class, we will become practitioners of cultural criticism, augmenting more traditional ways of interpreting meaning and value in literary texts. This method of reading will allow us to mine the cultural assumptions and myths sometimes deeply embedded in an author’s or filmmaker’s text, relate those assumptions to real-world social contexts, and, finally, decide to what degree the textual representation of that culture invites us to cultivate, critique, or even condemn its frames of reference and mythologies.

By the end of July, then, you should be able to:

• Define the discipline of cultural studies

• “Close read” as well as contextually interpret “literary,” film, and Internet texts from critical and cultural points of view

• Understand the value of employing these dual approaches when reading both traditional and nontraditional (“literary” and ‘popular”) texts--cultural criticism crosses and collapses borders between “literary” and “popular” genres—so-called “high” and “low” arts--validating the study of traditional as well as less traditional forms of aesthetic expression.