SMITH COLLEGE
American Studies
Spring 2015
AMS 202
Time: M/W. 2.40-4
Location: Seelye 107
Prof. Kevin Rozario
krozario@smith.edu
Wright 233; phone X3531
Off hrs: M 10-11, Tu 10-11
and by appointment
METHODS IN AMERICAN STUDIES
So, what is American Studies, anyway? If you are taking this course you have already
declared as a major and are now no doubt trying to fend off questions from friends, peers, and
family members who want to know what you are actually majoring in. What is AMS for? What
does it do? How is it different from traditional disciplines like History and English? What skills
do you learn here? This course takes a step toward answering those questions.
Put most simply: AMS studies American culture. This is not as simple a formulation as it
might seem. For one thing, there has been, and continues to be, lively and intense disagreement
about what “America” actually is: who is a real American; who speaks for America; what does
America stand for? We give plenty of attention here to questions of citizenship and national
belonging (and unbelonging), and ask how these identifications are changing in the age of
globalization. The concept of “culture” might be even more complicated. There was a time
when culture meant “great” or “classic” works of literature, music, or art. Indeed, the idea of the
liberal arts college was to provide exposure to the best works in order to become a “cultured”
person. We pay heed to canonical works here, asking how they came to be considered so special
in the first place. But we are most interested in studying culture(s) as a way of life, looking at all
of the cultural forms and practices that make our world meaningful: not just literature but also
cartoons, movies, popular songs, experimental videos, clothing, buildings, and so forth.
This course introduces you to many of the methods (sometimes called theories) used by
AMS scholars to interpret American culture. Contemporary culture tends to present itself as a
series of surfaces (TV images, advertisements, paintings, building facades) and sounds (music,
jingles, radio chatter). As a result it is easy to consume cultural forms as a series of sense
impressions, concerned only with how they make us feel (“I love those shoes”; “that video upsets
me”; “this garden soothes my soul,” etc.) In AMS we ask why we have these feelings; we ask
how our culture (fragmented as it is across lines of race, gender, class, region, etc.) shapes our
identities; we ask where cultural forms come from; we ask how economic or political interests
influence forms of cultural expression; we ask why everyone is always going on about “culture
wars.” In short, we restore context and history to culture. We step back and take cultural texts
and practices seriously, analyzing what they mean, how they work, whose desires they satisfy,
who they harm and who they serve.
This requires us to pay close attention to the conditions under which culture is
produced—and thus we consider in turn the influence of social struggles, new technologies (from
mass production to the internet), globalization (the movement of people, commodities, and ideas
across national boundaries), multinational corporate power (“the culture industry”), law and other
such structures on the culture we consume. Indeed, we ponder what happens to “culture” when it
comes to be produced and consumed primarily as a commodity in a market economy. What are
the prospects for art and pleasure in such a society? Throughout the course, we keep in mind the
political dimensions of culture—that is to say the way it works ideologically to produce and
mediate struggles over gender, race, class, religion, public policy, and economics. And we keep
in mind the signal transformations of our own time: shifts in economic organization, the rise of
neoliberalism, the privatization of risk, the “financialization” of the economy, and so forth, that
are reshaping identities and opportunities in the corporate information age. We seek, in short, a
critical vocabulary that enables us to make connections between topics that are too often treated
in isolation, to fulfill the interdisciplinary ambitions of our field.
Format: This is mostly a discussion class. You are expected to complete readings on time
and to participate in discussions. Out of respect for each other please arrive on time for classes.
Evaluations: You will be evaluated on the basis of a research paper (worth 35% of the
grade), a short essay (25%), an oral presentation on your paper (10%), 5 two-page journal essays
(20%), and class participation (10%). At least three of the journals must be submitted by
Oct. 25. You will be graded down for unexcused absences from class. Be aware of strict
enforcement of plagiarism rules.
Notice: at the end of the semester you will be required to submit a portfolio that
includes all of your written work for the semester: papers and drafts (the versions with my
comments), and all journals (with my comments). So please do not throw away returned work!
Readings: These books are available on reserve at the library and can be bought online or
in bookstores of your choice.
Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1963)
Peggy Parish, Amelia Bedelia (1992)
Other books and essays are available through the course Moodle site or through electronic
links via the Five College Library Catalogue (hunt by title of journal or book).
Schedule of Classes and Assignments
M., Jan. 26
Introduction: What is American Studies?
“In-class Video: “Precious Knowledge” trailer (2012): http://vimeo.com/15062646
W., Jan. 28
Why College? What Knowledge?
Andrew Delbanco, College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be (2112), 9-35
(Moodle)
Sunaina Maira and Julie Sze, “Dispatches from Pepper Spray University:
Privatization, Repression, and Revolts,” American Quarterly, 64, 2 (June,
2012), 315-330 (Moodle)
M., Feb. 2
What’s “American” About American Studies?
Kirsten Silva Gruesz, “America,” from Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, eds.,
Keywords for American Cultural Studies (2007) [Available on E-books
through 5 College Catalog]
Lauren Berlant, “Citizenship,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 33-42
[Available on E-books through 5 College Catalog]
Devon W. Carbado, “Racial Naturalization,” American Quarterly, 57, 3
[September, 2005), 633-658, available online through Five College Library
Catalogue]
W., Feb. 4
Falling Into Culture: The Words We Speak…
George F. Will, “Literary Politics,” & Steven Greenblatt, “The Politics of
Culture,” from Falling Into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading
Literature (1994), 286-290 (Moodle)
Barry, Beginning Theory, “Structuralism,” 39-49 (Moodle)
Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination,
preface, 3-28
M., Feb 9
…And The Words That Speak Us
Barry, Beginning Theory, “Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction,” 61-68
Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark, 29-91 (Moodle)
W., Feb. 11
Language, Laughter, and Instruction: The Case of Amelia Bedelia
Peggy Parish, Amelia Bedelia (1963)
Kyle Boyd, “The Color of Help,” Center for American Progress,” June 17, 2011, at
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2011/06/17/9783/thecolor-of-help/
Manohla Dargis, “The Help,” New York Times, August 9, 2011. Available at
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/movies/the-help-spans-two-worldswhite-and-black-review.html
M., Feb. 16
Speaking at the Margins: The Borders of American Studies
Mary Pat Brady, “Border,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 29-32
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), “Preface,” “The Homeland,
Aztlán,” “Movimientos de Rebeldía,” “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” 1945, 75-86 (Moodle)
W. Feb. 18
RALLY DAY
Fri., Feb 20
Short paper due 4pm in my box (Wright Hall)
M., Feb. 23
The Racial Formations of American Culture (1)
George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People
Profit From Identity Politics (2006), 2nd Edition, 1-23, 105-117 (Moodle)
Pamela Perry, “White,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 242-246 [Ebook]
In-Class Video Clip: Race: The Power of an Illusion (PBS, 2003) episode 3: “The
House We Live In”
W, Feb. 25
AUTUMN RECESS
M., Mar. 2
The Racial Formations of American Culture (2)
Junot Diaz, “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie,” Drown
(1996), 143-149 (Moodle)
Carla Kaplan, “Identity,” from Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, eds., Keywords
for American Cultural Studies (2007), 123-127
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formations in the United States:
From the 1960s to the 1980s (1994), 53-76 (Moodle)
W., Mar. 4
Culture After Marx: Ideology, Class, and Hegemony
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), 5-19 (Available on EBooks through the Five College Catalog)
M., Mar. 9
The Semiotics of Street Culture
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 1-4, 23-29, 46-70, 90-127
Thomas Frank, “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent” and “Alternative to What?” from
Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland, eds., Commodify Your Dissent: The
Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age (1997), 31-45, 145-161
(Moodle)
In-Class Video: “History of Rock and Roll” Vol. 9 “Punk”: 26.30-33.30 & 36.5541.04
W., Mar. 11
OK, It’s Culture, But is it Art?
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 128-140
Pierre Bourdieu, from Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste
(1979) excerpted in Vincent B. Leitch, ed., The Norton Anthology of Theory
and Criticism (2001), 1806-1814 (Moodle)
In-Class Video: “Ways of Seeing” (BBC, 1971), Part 1, (15 minutes)
M., Mar. 16
SPRING BREAK
W. Mar. 18
SPRING BREAK
M., Mar. 23
Postmodernity, Simulation, and the Commodification of Everything
Barry, “Postmodernism,” 81-91
Jennifer Price, “Looking for Nature at the Mall,” in William Cronon, ed.,
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
(1995), 186-203 (Moodle)
W., Mar. 25
Therapeutic Culture
Bruce Burgett, “Sex,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 217-221
On Sigmund Freud, in Leitch, ed., The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism, 913-918 [Moodle]
Janice Peck, “The Mediated Talking Cure: Therapeutic Framing of Autobiography
in TV Talk Shows,” Gail Dimes ed., Gender, Race, and Class in Media
(2003), 2nd edition, 534-547 [Moodle]
In–Class Text: “The Sopranos” (HBO), Series 1, episode 1, excerpt
M., Mar. 30
Power, Discourse, and the Carceral Society
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975), excerpted in Norton Anthology
of Theory and Criticism, 1615-1621, 1636-1647
Angela Davis, “Racialized Prison and Prison Abolition,” (1998) The Angela Y.
Davis Reader, 96-107 at http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/Racialized-Punishment.pdf
Michelle Alexander, “The New Jim Crow,” Mother Jones, March 8, 2012.
Retrieved from http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/new-jimcrow-war-on-drugs
In–Class Text: “Oz” (HBO), Series 1, episode 1, excerpt
W., Apr. 2
Body Politics 1: Power and Desire
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality (1976) and “Truth and Power” (1977)
excerpted in Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 1648-1670
M., Apr. 6
Body Politics 2: Performing Bodies
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990),
excerpted in Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 2485-2501
Siobhan B. Somerville, “Queer,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 187-191
Friday, Nov. 16
Paper topic proposal due via email by 4pm
W., Apr. 8
Body Politics 3: Disability Studies
Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, “Disability,” Keywords for American Cultural Studies,
85-88
Tobin Siebers, Disability Theory (University of Michigan Press, 2008), 1-33
In-Class Video 1: “Examined Life,” Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor
(2010) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE
In-Class Video 2: Aimee Mullins, “How My Legs Give Me Super
Powers,” TED talk, 2009, at
http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics?lan
guage=en
M. Apr. 13
THANKSGIVING
W., Apr. 15
Technology and the Posthuman Self
Joel Dinnerstein, “Technology and Its Discontents: On the Verge of the
Posthuman,” American Quarterly, 58, 3 (September 2006), 569-596
M., Apr 20
Knowledge in the Digital Age 1
Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should
Worry) (2001), 1-12, 51-114 (Available on E-Books through the Five
College Catalog)
W., Apr. 22
Knowledge in the Digital Age 2
Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should
Worry) (2001), 149-210 (Available on E-Books through the Five College
Catalog)
M., Apr. 27
Student Presentations
Draft Due in class
W., Apr. 29
Student Presentations
Final Paper Due at the end of exam period