Feminist Research of Popular Culture and the Media
Erzsébet Barát
zsazsa@lit.u-szeged.hu
4 credits
CEU Department of Gender Sudies 2014-15 Winter
Course description:
This course is an introduction to the materiality and particularity of power relations
of gender/sexuality in and through popular culture in general, and in various genres
in the media in particular, mostly related to television and advertising. The course
is an exploration of the emergence and the subsequent reconfigurations of ‘popular
culture’ as a distinct area of representation. The focus of discussion is on the impact
of gender relations on popular cultural products themselves as well as their effects
on the changes of the discipline of cultural and media studies. It is this
intersectional approach that will inform the discussion of the texts chosen for
discussion throughout the course. The course is designed to locate the recent
developments in the field and will pursue the genealogies of the relevant
disciplinary and cultural changes in the light of the emerging argumentations.
Ultimately, we would need to consider the differences between academic and
popular cultural discourses of post-feminism. Students will be encouraged to reread
the papers in the context of their own cultural contexts.
Assessment & requirements:
 Summary of the central argument in one of the readings (350-450 words) on a
weekly basis – the choice will depend on students’ interests/familiarity with the
given concepts/approach. Delivery and quality of summary will put the
assessment of the paper one notch up or down the scale. Late submission policy:
No papers are accepted if submitted later than the class when the text is
discussed. In exceptional cases (such as illness) the instructor should be notified
in an e-mail ahead of time (at least the previous day).
 A short analysis (1800-2300 words) of some chosen media event, or that of
tendencies of media research in the country of student’s origin. Date of
submission to be negotiated in class.
1. The Politics of Cultural Exclusion: Mass or popular culture/high culture
or art distinction and gendering
1.1. Huyssen, Andreas: “Mass Culture as Woman” in Modernism’s Other. Indiana
University Press, 1986.
1.2. Walkerdine, Valerie: "Psychology, Postmodernity and the Popular" in S. Pile
& N. Thrift (eds.) Mapping the Subject: Geographies of Cultural
Transformation, Routledge, 1995.
2.
Consumer Culture and Gender Relations
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2.1. Thornham, Sue: “Identity Shopping: Women and Consumer Culture” in
Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies, Arnold, 2000.
2.2. Lury, Celia: “Habitat and Habits” in Consumer Culture. Polity Press, 1996
.
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3. Institutional Strategies of Culturally Mediated power
3.1. John Storey: “Popular Culture as Popular or Mass Art” in Inventing Popular
Culture. Blackwell, 2003.
3.2. Smith, Dorothy: “Femininity as Discourse” in Texts, Facts, and Femininity.
Routledge, 1995.
4. Representation of Women in and through Media Images
4.1. Hall, Stuart: "Encoding/Decoding." S. During (ed.), The Cultural Studies
Reader. London and NY: Routledge. 1993.
4.2. Thornham, Sue: “Fixing into Images” in Women, Feminism, and Media.
Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
5. Subcultures, Fashion and Age
5.1. Holland, Samantha: “Background Reading” and
5.2. “Categories of Unconventional” in Alternative Femininities. Berg, 2004.
6 -7. Genre and Gender: Feminization
6.1. Judith Mane: “L.A. Law and prime-time feminism” in Framed. Lesbians,
Feminists, and Media Culture. University of Minnesota, 2000.
6.2. Probyn, Elspeth: “New Traditionalism and Postfeminism: TV Does the Home”
in C. Brunsdon et al. (eds.) Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader. Clarendon
Press, 1997.
7.1. Brunsdon, Charlotte: “The feminist in the kitchen: Martha, Martha and Nigella”
in Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley (eds.) Feminism in Popular Culture. Berg,
2006.
7.2. Negra, Diane: “Structural Integrity, Historical Reversion, and the Post-9/11
Chick Flick”, in Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 8, No 1, March 2008, pp. 51-68.
8. (Im)possibility of participation: Feminism on TV?
8.1. Gil, Rosalind: “Talk-shows: Feminism on TV?” in Gender and the Media.
Polity Press, 2007.
8.2. Hellman, H: “Legitimations of Television Programme Policies: Patterns of
Argumentations and Discursive Convergences in a Multi-channel Age” in Petri
Alasuutari: Rethinking the Media Audience. Sage, 1999.
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9. Cultural Citizenship and the Media
9.1.Van Zoonen, Liesbet: “ Politics as Soap Opera” and
9.2. “Connections: The Fan Democracy” in Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics
and Popular Culture Converge. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2005.
10. Contesting Post-feminism
10.1. Gorton, Kristyn: “The Politics of Equity and the Media: The Example of
Feminism” in Elizabeth Deeds Ermath (ed.) Rewriting Democracy: Cultural
Politics in Postmodernity. Ashgate, 2007.
10.2. McRobbie, Angela: “Top Girls? Young Women and Post-Feminist Symbolic
Violence” in The Aftermath of Feminism. Sage, 2009.
11. Discussion of Students’ seminar papers.
12. Disorders and Body Image
11.1. Whelehan, Imelda: “Identity crisis?: ‘Post-feminism’, the Media and
‘Feminist Superstars’” in Modern Feminist Thought: From Second Wave to ‘PostFeminism’. Edinburgh University Press, 1995.
11.2. McRobbie, Angela: “Illegible Rage: Post-Feminist Disorders” in The
Aftermath of Feminism. Sage, 2009.
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