MW 9:30-10:45, Shanks 242

Books will be available for purchase at the University Bookstore. Articles are either available online through JSTOR, as handouts from Prof. Hausman, or in a course packet for purchase from Kopy Korner in Blacksburg. If the texts are not indicated to be handouts or available through JSTOR, then they are in the packet.

Recommended Background Texts:

John Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (University of Georgia Press, 4th ed., 2006)
Patrick Brantlinger, Crusoe's Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America (Routledge, 1990)

Course information:

Under General Course Info (another web page) you will find links to Prof. Hausman's teaching pages, including information about how to read for her classes, expectations for written work, feminist pedagogy, undergraduate academic policies (see esp. pages on plagiarism) and the honor code, etc. It is your responsibility as a student in Prof. Hausman's class to be familiar with these guidelines and expectations. Graduate students should understand that more is expected of them than of undergraduates and plan accordingly. Information about reading theory is especially pertinent to this class.

Statement on student accommodation:

Students who have a disability or other condition that requires accommodation should discuss the issue with Prof. Hausman early in the semester. Students need not disclose their condition with the professor, merely provide her with documentation from the Dean of Students Office concerning the necessary accommodation. Students may make an appointment or come to Prof. Hausman's office hours (posted on contact info page). All conversations between individual students and the professor will remain confidential.

Attendance Policy:

No absences are excused, but students have two allocated cuts that are "free"--use them wisely! More than two absences will affect your grade; each absence over two (one full week of class) will cause a diminishment in your grade. If there are ongoing issues that will affect your ability to attend this class, please see Professor Hausman early in the semester. Graduate students should know that attendance even in the absence of preparedness is helpful for keeping up with course readings.

Methods of evaluation:
1. Informal responses to readings--using Blackboard's discussion board feature. Each week there will be a new discussion board set up. By Friday each week, students will respond to the week's readings, class discussions, and each other's responses. (1 point each for 15 points)
2. Student presentations of materials read for class discussion--this will involve a short introduction to the main argument and then a focused presentation of one concept. The entire presentation should take 10 minutes, with handout for classmates. (10 points)
3. Short mid-term paper. This paper is a critical response to one of the theorists read so far for class. Summarize and discuss the author's ideas and arguments, and then provide a critique of these. The critique need not be negative, although glowing praise does not often make for interesting reading. The critique should demonstrate your understanding of the critical stakes of the author's argument and theoretical perspective. (10 pages, 25 points)
4. Lengthier term writing project, including a presentation to the class. This term writing project is an opportunity to use the theoretical works read for class to develop your own intellectual framework and perspective. For this paper, apply one or some of the theories learned in class to a topic of your choice. Focus on developing your interpretive, theoretical framework. This assignment will be most useful to you if you develop these ideas with reference to your dissertation or exam fields. (20-25 pages, 50 points)

Schedule of readings:
Patrick Brantlinger's Crusoe's Footprints is a basic reference source for the class, discussing cultural studies in the context of the "crisis in the humanities" and British and American influences. John Storey's Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction is a helpful textbook that may provide you background information and encyclopedic references if you have never encountered critical theory or cultural studies before. Other background texts and/or critical theory reference books may be necessary and students are encouraged to use these while reading and in preparation for presentations.

Jan. 14, 16: "The Culture Industry" (Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno) and "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (Louis Althusser)--handouts

Jan. 23: Mythologies (Roland Barthes)--if we can make it work, this class will begin earlier than usual

Jan. 28, 30: "The Passing of the Oedipus Complex," "Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes," "Female Sexuality," and "Femininity" (Sigmund Freud); "The Meaning of the Phallus" and "The Mirror Phase" (Jacques Lacan); and "Introduction--I" (Juliet Mitchell) and "Introduction--II (Jacqueline Rose)

Feb. 4, 6: History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 (Michel Foucault), "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power" (Sandra Bartky), "The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity" (Susan Bordo)

Feb. 11, 13: The Dialogic Imagination (Mikhail Bakhtin)

Feb. 18, 20: Of Grammatology (Jacques Derrida; selections, including introduction by Gayatri Spivak)

Feb. 25, 27: "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex" (Gayle Rubin), "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" [American Historical Review 91. 5 (1986): 1053-1075; available on JSTOR], preface and new chapter to the 1999 edition of Gender and the Politics of History, and "The Evidence of Experience" [Critical Inquiry 17.4 (1991): 773-797; available on JSTOR] (Joan Scott), selections from Gender Trouble (Judith Butler), and "Situated Knowledges" (Donna Haraway)

Mar. 10, 12: Paper #1 due March 10. "Race: The Floating Signifier" (Stuart Hall, dvd); "Editor's Introduction: Writing, 'Race,' and the Difference It Makes" [Critical Inquiry 12.a (1985): 1-20; available on JSTOR](Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)

Mar. 17, 19: Excitable Speech (Judith Butler)

Mar. 24, 25: The Long Revolution (Raymond Williams)

Mar. 31: Culture, Media, Language (Stuart Hall, ed.). As most students will be traveling to the 4C's conference April 2, we will cancel class that day. If we can make it work, we'll begin earlier than usual on March 31.

Apr. 7, 9: "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" [New Left Review I/146 (July-August 1984): 53-92; available from New Left Review website, www.newleftreview.org](Frederic Jameson), "The Precession of Simulacra" (Jean Baudrillard)

Apr. 14: Utopia Limited (Marianne DeKoven)--if we can make it work, this class will begin earlier than usual

Apr. 21, 23: Rwanda materials (handouts)

Apr. 28, 30: Rwanda materials (handouts)

Paper #2: due at final exam period

©Bernice L. Hausman, all rights reserved.