Materials > Schedule > Foundations | Rituals | Marxism | Race | Gender | The Self | Postmodernism | Student Projects
PART I - FOUNDATIONS OF CULTURAL THEORY What is American Studies? What is culture? What is semiotics? What are structuralism and post-structuralism? What are the major theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault?
Aug. 24 (T)	Introductions I Reading: William H. Honan, "The College Lecture, Long Derided, May Be Failing" (html); Thomas H. Benton, "Remembering the Old Lions" (html) Discussion: What Is American Studies?
Aug. 26 (R)	Introductions II Reading: Robert Darton, The Great Cat Massacre, [excerpt] (pdf) Discussion: What Is Culture?
Aug. 31 (T)	Foundations I Reading: Laura Bohannan, "Shakespeare in the Bush" (html) Discussion: Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
Sept. 2 (R)	Foundations II Reading: John Fiske, "The Jeaning of America" (pdf) from Understanding Popular Culture Discussion: Semiotics
PART II - READING RITUALS What are rituals and what do they say about their practictioners? What inherent problems are there in studying ritual? What are the major theories of Clifford Geertz? Why should the theories of an anthropologist be applied to history? Is the past a foreign country? What does the etiquette of the duel say about the culture of the Old South? How are etiquette and manners articulators of class?
Sept. 7 (T)	Rituals I Reading: Clifford Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" (html or pdf) Discussion: The Past as Foreign Country
Sept. 9 (R)	Rituals II Reading: Kenneth S. Greenberg, "The Duel as Social Drama" (pdf) | Rules for the Government of Principals and Seconds in Dueling (html) | Burr-Hamilton Correspondence (html) Discussion: Deconstructing the Duel
Sept. 14 (T)	Rituals III Reading: John F. Kasson, Rudeness & Civility, pp. 182-214 (pdf) Discussion: Manners
Sept. 16 (R)	FIRST EXAM
PART III - MARXIST CULTURAL THEORY What were the central contentions of Karl Marx? How has Marxism been adapted to the study of culture? How does hegemony work? How have Mikhail Bakhtin's insights into the carnival been adapted to the study of other rituals? How and why did the Oneidans attempt to articulate an alternative culture? Why did they end up making flatware?
Sept. 21 (T)	Marxism I Reading: TBA Discussion: Introduction to Marxist Cultural Theory
Sept. 23 (R)	Marxism II Reading: Morris Bishop, "The Great Oneida Love-In" (pdf) Discussion: Power and Cultural Alternatives
PART IV - DECONSTRUCTING RACE How was power mediated in the master-slave relationship? How did slaves create their own culture, and what needs did it serve? How has the black image in the white mind changed with white self-perception? How are white racial fantasies and fears embodied in literature? What were the psychological dynamics of segregation and lynching?
Sept. 28 (T)	Race I Reading: Lawrence W. Levine, "The Animal Trickster" (pdf) Discussion: The Culture of Slavery
Sept. 30 (R)	Race II Reading: Alan Henry Rose, Demonic Vision, 25-38 (pdf) | Henry Clay Lewis, The Curious Widow | Henry Clay Lewis, Stealing a Baby | Image from Odd Leaves | Henry Clay Lewis, A Struggle for Life | Another image from Odd Leaves | Edgar Allan Poe, Hop-Frog Discussion: The Racial Grotesque
Oct. 5 (T)	NO CLASS
Oct. 7 (R)	Race III Reading: "The Waco Horror: A Report on Lynching" (html) Discussion: In Violence Veritas
PART V - FEMINIST THEORY What are the major tenets of feminist theory? How much does a gendered reading of myths, fairy tales, and other cultural "texts" reveal? What do you make of "men's studies"? What do you make of queer theory?
Oct. 12 (T)	Gender I Reading: Theda Perdue, "Columbus Meets Pocahontas in the American South" (pdf) Discussion: Myth of Woman: An Introduction to Feminist Theory
Oct. 14 (R)	NO CLASS / MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Oct. 19 (T)	Gender II Reading: "Becoming Marilyn" from Newsweek, September 16, 2002 (pdf or html) Discussion: Marilyn Monroe and the Feminine Ideal
Oct. 21 (R)	Gender III Reading: Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, pp. 3-47 (pdf) Discussion: Masculinity and Post-Feminism
Oct. 26 (T)	SECOND EXAM
PART VI - NARRATING THE SELF What is consciousness? What is the self? Can the very idea of self change? How do we use language and its tropes to order and explain our own lives? What happened to Hike Currin's attempt to narrate his experience in the trenches? Is his experience symptomatic of larger trends?
Oct. 28 (R)	The Storied Self I Reading: Kurt Kleiner's review of Drawing the Line (html); Matt Cartmill, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History [excerpt] (pdf) Discussion: The Animal in Man
Nov. 2 (T)	The Storied Self II Reading: Jon Gertner, The Futile Pursuit of Happiness, New York Times Magazine, September 7, 2003 (pdf) Discussion: The Self-Narrated Life
Nov. 4 (R)	NO CLASS / SHA
Nov. 9 (T)	The Storied Self III Reading: W.J. Currin letters (html); Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, pp. 3-35 (pdf) OR Eric J. Leed, No Man's Land: Combat & Identity in World War I, pp. 1-38 (pdf) Discussion: World War I and the Irony of Modern Life
PART VII - POSTMODERNISM What is postmodernism? What historical developments and circumstances helped usher in the postmodern period? What are the major theories of Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, and Fredric Jameson? How are television and the media central to postmodernism?
Nov. 11 (R)	Postmodernism Reading: David Halberstam, The Fifties, chapter 43 (pdf) Discussion: "Reality" Television and the Postmodern Age
PART VIII - STUDENT PROJECTS
Nov. 16 (T)	Student Project: Angela Harris Reading: Bill Bryson, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, [excerpts] (pdf) Discussion: The American Road
Nov. 18 (R)	Student Project: Rachel Glasson Reading: Ann Barrett Batson, Having it Y'all: The Official Handbook for Citizens of the South and Those Who Wish They Were, [excerpt] (off-site link) Discussion: Southern Culture
Nov. 23 (T)	Student Project: Brandon Baytops Reading: Manuel Valenzuela, "Inspired by Ronald Reagan: Of The Evil Empire, Imperialist Devastation of Peoples And the Evils Done in our Name" (html) Discussion: American Imperialism
Nov. 25 (R)	NO CLASS / HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Nov. 30 (T)	Student Project: Carrie Preston Reading: The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family (pdf) Discussion: "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all."
Dec. 2 (R)	Wrap Up
Dec. 7 (T)	FINAL EXAM (11:00-1:30)