POPULAR CULTURE IN THE U. S. A. – TEXTS AND IMAGES
One semester optional course – BA, 4th year
This course will provide an upper-level introduction to critical approaches to the
study of contemporary American popular culture. It will be a continuation of the general
Introductory course in American Studies for 3rd year students and will further develop skills for
approaching cultural products from a critical perspective.
Its aim will be to explore the ways in which each of us is both a user of and is used by
popular culture. Popular culture influences us in a number of ways - by imposing on us stereotypes
and images after which we model ourselves, by affecting the way we think and the identity roles
we choose for ourselves. We will analyze how such critical factors as ethnicity, race, gender, class,
age, region, and sexuality in American multicultural society are shaped and reshaped by popular
culture.
For the purposes of analysis class discussion will focus on decoding advertisements,
discussing popular music (MTV culture, Madonna cult), films (cases of soap opera and Westerns),
celebrity icons (Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, etc.), texts and images of electronic culture
(electronic fiction) and popular fiction.
This course will rely on students’ own experience as consumers of popular culture for a
general research of the transplantation and invasion of American popular culture in our Bulgarian
context.
The discussions will be grounded in some basic theoretical texts in cultural studies (R.
Barthes, St. Hall, J. Baudrillard, J. Fiske).
Grading: class participation, oral presentation, term paper.
K. Slavova & A. Glavanakova
SYLLABUS
WEEK 1
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE AND
DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO IT ( Popular culture and
structuralism, marxism, feminism and postmodernism).
SCREENING
“Forrest Gump”
DISCUSSION
American myth-making
WEEK 2
REPRESENTATION, MEANING AND CULTURE: LANGUAGE,
SEMIOTICS, MAKING MEANING.
ASSIGNED TEXTS: R. Barthes, “Myth Today” (from St. Hall “Representation” pp. 68-9)
R. Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image” (same source)
J. Baudrillard, “Precession of Simulacra” (from J. Storey “Reader” p.
369)
DISCUSSION:
Images, signs and icons of Americanness (Coca-Cola, T-shirts,
Marlboro Man, etc.)
WEEK 3
THE CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION: THE ECONOMICS OF
PLEASURE AND ALIENATION.
ASSIGNED TEXTS: J. Baudrillard, “Jean Culture”
J. Fiske, “The Jeaning of America”
A. Wernick, “ Vehicles for Myth: The Shifting Image of the Modern
Car” (from S. Maasik (ed.) “Signs of Life in the US”)
DISCUSSION:
Analysis of cultural industry systems: car culture and fashion
WEEK 4
ADVERTISING
ASSIGNED TEXTS: St. Hall, “Encoding, decoding” (from S. During (ed.) “Cultural
Studies Reader”, p.320)
R. Williams, “Advertising – the magic system” (from the same
source)
G. Steinem, “ Sex, Lies and Advertising” (from S. Maasik (ed.)
“Signs of Life in the US”)
DISCUSSION
Reading ads critically – a sample of printed, TV and electronic ads.
WEEK 5
REPRESENTING DIFFERENCE: THE SPECTACLE OF THE
“OTHER”. STAGING RACIAL, GENDER AND CLASS
DIFFERENCE.
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
S. Gilman, “The Deep Structure of Stereotypes” (source?)
bell hooks, “Selling Hot Pussy” (from K. Conboy (ed.) “Writing on
the Body”, p.113)
E. Prager, “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (from S. Maasik (ed.) “Signs of
Life in the US”)
DISCUSSION:
Stereotyping as a signifying practice. (Tina Turner, Paul Robeson)
WEEK 6
CULTURAL ICONS: THE CELEBRITY CULTURE
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
J. Baudrillard, “America” (excerpts)
N. Postman, “The Age of Show business” (source?)
SCREENING:
“L.A & the Hollywood Glitz. Academy Awards Ceremony”
(American Center)
DISCUSSION:
Cult figures of American culture from showbiz, sports and politics.
WEEK 7
INTERPETING TV CULTURE
ASSIGNED TEXT:
M. McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message”
J. Fiske, “Reading Television” (excerpts, p.13)
SCREENING:
talk show
DISCUSSION
Signs, codes and functions of TV
WEEK 8
MASS CULTURE AND GENDERED CULTURE: GENRE AND
GENDER
FEMININITY: THE CASE OF SOAP OPERA
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
T. Modlesk, “The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Opera”
(from St. Hall, “Representations”, p.385)
Ch. Geraghty, “Soap Opera and Utopia” (from Storey “Cultural
Theory, p. 317)
DISCUSSION:
“The Bold and the Beautiful”
WEEK 9
SAME TOPIC
MASCULINITY: THE CASE OF THE WESTERN
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
W. Wright, “The Structure of Myth and the Structure of the Western
Film” (from Storey “Cultural Theory”, p. 117)
DISCUSSION
“Shane”
WEEK 10
THE CULTURAL STUDY OF POPULAR MUSIC: THE CASE OF
MTV CULTURE
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
H. Brubach, “ Rock-and-Roll Vaudeville” (from S. Maasik (ed.)
“Signs of Life in the US”, p. 175)
bell hooks, “ Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister” (same
source, p.190)
L. Grossberg, “MTV: Swinging on the Postmodern Star”
DISCUSSION:
Samples of video clips of Madonna, M. Jackson, Prince, etc.
WEEK 11
ETHNIC IDENTITY AND POPULAR CULTURE: BLACK
POPULAR CULTURE
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
St. Hall, “What is the ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?” (from
“Black Popular Culture”, p. 21)
DISCUSSION:
Subverting or reinforcing stereotypes in the film “The Color Purple”
or “Do the Right Thing”
WEEK 12
NEW AGE TECHNOCLUTURE: FROM PRINTED TO
ELECTRONIC CULTURE
ASSIGNED TEXTS
R. Lanham, “The Electronic Word” (excerpts)
J. D. Bolter, “Degrees of Freedom” (excerpts: “Popular Culture and
the Visual”, “The Future of the Book”)
S. Birkets, “The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an
Electronic Age.” (Chapter 11: “Hypertext: Of Mouse and Man”)
DISCUSSION:
an electronic novel
WEEK 13
READING POPULAR FICTION: GENRE AND POPULAR
FICTION (thriller, crime fiction, success manual, romance, fantasy)
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
J. Radway, “The Functions of Romance Reading” (source?)
J. Radway, “Reading ‘Reading the Romance’” (from Storey
“Cultural Theory”, p. 380)
DISCUSSION:
Ideal or failed romances (Jackie Collins, Barbara Cartland)
WEEK 14
GLOBALIZATION AND AMERICANIZATION: THE
BULGARIAN RECEPTION
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
St. Hall, “The Local and the Global” (from A. King “
DISCUSSION:
The impact of Americanization on Bulgarian Culture - Students’
Portfolio
“)