ARTH 723 — COMS 637 — EAST 564
Structures of Modernity:
CULTURE & CAPITAL
MW 11:30-13:00; FERR 230
Instructor: Thomas LAMARRE
Office: 3434 McTavish #401. Tel: 398-3926
Email: thomas.lamarre@mcgill.ca
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:30-14:30 or by appointment
Objectives: The goal of this course is to explore different lineages dealing with the
relationship between culture and capital, which at one level will entail tracing the impact
of Marx and Marxism across different lineages of social and culture theory, under the
rubrics of “culture and industry,” “symbolic exchange,” “work” and “desire.” Two
questions will be particularly important. How new is the new economy or the new
imperialism, and how is it new? How do new ways of thinking about modes of
production, commodity forms and their implicated social relations affect struggles against
capital today?
Methodology: Because this is an upper-level seminar, students are expected to read all the
materials assigned for class in advance, and to come to class prepared to pose questions
and discuss materials. Each unit develops a specific theoretical approach to the
relationship between culture and capital, and the goal is to learn and to work within
specific manners of thinking, to explore their parameters and limits. While the media
examples used in the course will range broadly, from Internet searches to comics and
cinema, each unit ends with a sort of case study drawn from contemporary Japan, both to
provide a continual locus of discussion and to challenge the continued dominance in
scholarship of examples from the North Atlantic.
Readings: The course packet will be available at Copie Nova.
Evaluation: At the end of each unit, on the dates indicated below, students will submit a
paper. There are two options.
1) A series of four response papers, one for each unit, of approximately 5 pages, due
October 4, November 1, November 22 and December 10. Each response is 20% of the
final grade, with an additional 20% for participation. For your responses, I would like
you to write a one-page ‘critical summary’ of four essays with an additional page or so of
response (total of roughly five pages). By critical summary, I mean an account of the
essay or interview that deals with its central problems, assumptions, aims, methods, and
conclusions. You need not mechanically elaborate an explanation of each of these
aspects, but a good summary should address what is at stake in an essay (or what the
project is) rather than begin with objections. This is not a critical summary in the sense
of a negative review, which means you will have to stick close to the essay. By page, I
mean about 250-350 words. Obviously, I don’t care if you are a few words in either
ARTH 723 — COMS 637 — EAST 564
direction, but the point of this exercise is to gain research skills in presenting arguments
concisely and precisely as possible.
2) A seminar paper of approximately 20-25 pages, with the proposal (10%) due on
October 4. The proposal will follow the structure of the response paper, with the final
page (or pages) providing the proposal for the seminar paper. In other words, I want to
see how the proposal will build on the four essays that you’ve chosen to summarize. The
easiest way to do this would be to select a case study or field of cultural analysis and to
approach it from the different angles offered in the different units, to see where the
material concerns of your particular instance lead you. The broader outline and
bibliography (15%) is due on November 1. The outline should either be in standard
extended outline form or a written overview; either is fine provided I can assess how you
are presenting and organizing the different parts of your analysis with respect to the
course materials. The preliminary draft (25%) is due on November 22, and the final paper
(30%) on December 10. The additional 20% is participation.
NOTE: (1) McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the
meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student
Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information). (2) In accord
with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in
English or in French any written work that is to be graded. (3) In the event of extraordinary circumstances
beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.
READING SCHEDULE
Sept 1
Introduction
—Nicolas Garham, “Political Economy and Cultural Studies:
Reconciliation or Divorce?”
—Lawrence Grossberg, “Cultural Studies versus Political Economy: Is
Anyone Else Bored with this Debate?”
Sept 6
Labour Day
UNIT ONE: CULTURE AND INDUSTRY
Sept 8
—Daniel Bensaïd, Marx for Our Times (Verso, 2002), 1-35
—Karl Marx, “Capital, Volume One,” from The Marx-Engels Reader, ed.
Robert C. Tucker, 2nd edition (W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), 294-336
Sept 13
—Karl Marx, “Capital, Volume One,” 336-438
Sept 15
—Massimo De Angelis, The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and
Global Capital (Pluto Press, 2007), chapters 12 and 17
—J. K. Gibson-Graham, “Introduction to the New Edition” from The End
of Capitalism (As We Knew It) (University of Minnesota Press, 2006), viixxxvi
ARTH 723 — COMS 637 — EAST 564
Sept 20
—Shane Gunster, “Revisiting the Culture Industry Thesis: Mass Culture
and Commodity Form,” Cultural Critique 45 (2000), 40-70
—Peter Slotterdijk, “Cynicism: The Twilight of False Consciousness,”
New German Critique 33 (1984), 190-206
Sept 22
—Henry Jenkins, “Quentin Tarrantino’s Star Wars?” from Convergence
Culture (New York University, 2006), 135-174
—Hai Ren, “Subculture as a Neo-Liberal Conduct of Life in Leisure and
Consumption,” rhizomes 10 (spring 2005)
Recommended:
—Edward Castronova, “The Economics of Fun: Behavior and Design,”
from Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
(University of Chicago Press, 2005), 170-204
Sept 27
—Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter, “Biopower Play: World of
Warcraft,” in Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games
(University of Minnesota, 2009), 123-152.
—Lisa Nakamura, “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The
Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft,” Critical Media 26:2 (2009):
128-144.
UNIT 2: SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE
Sept 29
—James Ferguson, “Cultural Exchange: New Developments in the
Anthropology of Commodities,” Cultural Anthropology 3:4 (1988), 488513
—Arjun Appadurai, “Commodities and the Politics of Value,” from The
Social Life of Things (Cambridge University Press,1986), 3-63
Oct 4
Assignment One Due
—Georges Bataille, “The Notion of Expenditure,” in Visions of Excess
(Minnesota, 1985), 116-129
Recommended:
—John Brenkman, “Introduction to Bataille,” New German Critique 16
(1979), 59-63
—Georges Bataille, “The Psychological Structure of Fascism,” trans. Carl
R. Lovitt, New German Critique 16 (1979), 64-87
Oct 6
—William Pawlett, “Utility and Excess: The Radical Sociology of Bataille
and Baudrillard,” Economy and Society 26: 1 (1997): 92-126
—Jean-Joseph Goux, “General Economics and Postmodern Capitalism,”
Yale French Studies 78 (1990), 206-224
—Leslie Anne Boldt-Irons, “Bataille and Baudrillard: From General
Economy to the Transparency of Evil,” Angelaki 6:2 (2010), 79-89
ARTH 723 — COMS 637 — EAST 564
Oct 11
Thanksgiving
Oct 18
—Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of
Collecting (Harvard University Press, 1994), 7-24
—William Pawlett, “The ‘Break’ with Marxism” and “Symbolic Exchange
and Death,” in Jean Baudrillard: Against Banality (Routledge, 2007), 2869
Oct 20
—Pierre Bourdieu, “Sport and social class,” Social Science Information
17:6 (1978): 819-840
—Pierre Lamaison and Pierre Bourdieu, “From Rules to Strategies: An
Interview with Pierre Bourdieu,” Cultural Anthropology 1:1 (Feb., 1986):
110-120
Recommended:
—Pierre Bourdieu, “The State, Economics, and Sport,” Sport in Society 1:
2 (1998): 15-21
Oct 25
—Michael Burawoy, “Does the Working Class Exist? Burawoy Meets
Bourdieu”
—Anthony King, “Thinking Bourdieu against Bourdieu: A ‘Practical’
Critique of the Habitus,” Sociological Theory 18:3 (2000): 417-433
Oct 27
Inui Sekihito, Komikku paati (Comic Party 2001-2005), excerpts
UNIT 3: WORK
Nov 1
Assignment Two Due
Film: Nakamura Yuki, Shirôto no ran (Amateur’s Riot 2008)
Nov 3
—Yoshihiko Ishida and Yann Moulier Boutang, “Against the Closure of
the World: What is at Stake in the Second Great Transformation,” Traces
5: Translation, Biopolitics, Colonial Difference (Hong Kong University
Press, 2006), 235-247
—Alberto Toscano, “From Pin Factories to Gold Farmers,” Historical
Materialism 15 (2007): 3-11
—Maurizio Lazzarato, “From Capital-Labour to Capital-Life,” ephemera
4:3 (2004): 187-208
Recommended:
—Maurizio Lazzarato, “Immaterial Labor,” in Radical Thought in Italy: A
Potential Politics (University of Minnesota), 133-149
—Paolo Virno, “General Intellect,” Historical Materialism 15 (2007): 3-8
ARTH 723 — COMS 637 — EAST 564
Nov 8
—Matteo Pasquinelli, “Google’s PageRank Algorithm: A Diagram of the
Cognitive Capitalism and the Rentier of the Common Intellect” Deep
Search: The Politics of Search beyond Google (Transaction Publishers
2009), 152-162
—Tiziana Terranova, “Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital
Economy,” Social Text 63 18:2 (2000): 33-58
Nov 10
—Franco “Bifo” Berardi, “Info-Labor and ‘Precarization’” and “Dark
Desire,” from Precious Rhapsody (Automedia, 2009), 30-54; 104-122
—Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter, “Precarity as a Political Concept, or,
Fordism as Exception,” Theory, Culture & Society 25: 7-8 (2008): 51-72
Nov 15
—Lauren Berlant, “Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency),”
Critical Inquiry 33 (2007): 754-780
—David H. Slater, “The Making of Japan’s New Work Class,” The AsiaPacific Journal 1-1-10 (January 4th, 2010)
Nov 17
Takimoto Tatsuhiko, N.H.K ni yokoso (Welcome to the N.H.K.), excerpts
UNIT 4: DESIRE
Nov 22
Assignment Three Due
—Daniel Smith, “The Inverse Side of Structure: Zizek on Deleuze on
Lacan,” Criticism 46:4 (2004): 635-650
—Eugene Holland, “Marx and Poststructuralist Philosophies of
Difference,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 96:3 (1997): 525-541
Nov 24
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia (University of Minnesota Press, 1983), 51-113
Nov 29
—Jason Read, “The Age of Cynicism: Deleuze and Guattari on the
Production of Subjectivity in Capitalism,” in Deleuze and Politics
(Edinburgh University Press, 2008), 139-159
—Jason Read, “A Universal History of Contingency: Deleuze and Guattari
on the History of Capitalism,” Borderlands 2:2 (2003): 1-17
Dec 1
—Mary Ann Doane, “The Economy of Desire: The Commodity Form
in/of Cinema,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 11 (1989): 23-33
—Lauren Berlant, “Nearly Utopian, Nearly Normal: Post-Fordist Affect in
La Promesse and Rosetta,” Public Culture 19:2 (2007): 273-301
Dec 3
Pentabu and Rize Shinba, Fujoshi kanojo (2007), excerpts
Dec 10
Final Assignment Due