Culture, Desire, Power, & Ideology
An Introduction to Interdisciplinary
Studies/Cultural Studies
MALAS-601
Schedule# 22198
CULTR DESIRE PWR IDEOLGY
3.0 units; Seminar 1530-1810 THURSDAYS
ARTN-300B
How do cultural objects, ideas, practices, and values come into being, gain meaning and significance, get reproduced, and undergo transformations? How do certain cultural ideas and practices both reflect and reinforce the social structures of which they form a part? Who produces culture and who consumes it – and on what basis? Is there a difference between ‘mass’ and ‘high’ culture? Is culture a serious or a playful area of study? Is there room for resistance against oppressive forms of culture? Do forms of culture themselves work to subvert taken-for-granted ways of life? What is the relationship between forms of culture and the intersecting social locations of class, race, gender, and sexuality? What methods or means of exploring are best suited to questions raised in the broad interdisciplinary area that is cultural studies? What is cultural studies? These are some of the questions that our introduction to cultural studies seminar will consider. In considering these questions, this seminar has as its master theme the question of culture in relation to ideology, power, and desire. We will consider the significance of how different forms and sources of power – political, epistemological, physical, and psychological – inform culture, and we will reflect on whether and to what extent the role of conscious or unconscious desires are bound up with expressions of power and culture.
Simply put, are cultural forms reflecting or expressing something that we need or want? The answers to such questions will then lead us to finally consider if and how cultural ideas, practices, and objects might be transformed in the service of particular political, practical, ethical, and aesthetic aims. Our overall objective is to explore analyses and critiques of culture from a number of theoretical perspectives in order to approach our cultural worlds from both a more critical and a more curious fashion. The topics and viewpoints covered in our seminar provide continuous opportunities for thoughtful reflection and conversation. I look forward to exploring cultural studies together! Dr. Christine Payne completed her PhD in Sociology at USCD and has lectured on Cultural Studies and Sociology at SDSU and UCSD.
Dr. Christine Payne
christine.payne@sdsu.edu
Fall 2018 Office Hours: 2:00-4:00
No comments:
Post a Comment