INTRO CULTURE ST (Narratives of Social Movements in 20th Century Cultural Texts) | Boyd | M-Th 9:30-10:20 | 13182 |
Introduction to Cultural Studies: Narratives of Social Movements in 20th Century Cultural Texts
This course is interested in thinking about “culture” as a site where imaginations of liberation and social change are both organized and contested. It considers the role literature and other cultural texts have played historically in relation to the development of social movement practices, analytics and imaginations of alternative social formations. Broadly, we will use the methods, theories and practices championed by Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and others from the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies to explore and problematize the theorization of the relationship between social mobilization and cultural imaginaries throughout the 20th century. The primary questions animating this course include: What is the value of literature and cultural texts for social movements? What is the relationship between the political and the cultural? How has literature, art and music shaped social movements, historically? What are the possibilities and limitations of culture as a site for radical politics for subjects in differing social movements?
We will work from a selection of texts from thinkers such as Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Michael Denning, Paula Rabinowitz, Hazel Carby, and Walter Benjamin. Possible cultural texts include Salome of the Tenements, Quicksand, The Ways of White Folks, Caucausia, White Boy Shuffle, Corregidora, and Filter House.
There will be 2 final project options: 1) a more traditional research paper that deeply explores the animating themes and texts of the course; or 2) a cultural organizing project or “action.”