Thomas Rickert <
Engl 680C-0101 Office
Phone: 494-3719
Cultural Studies®™, Rhetoric, and
Pedagogy Office
Hours: W:
Fall 2007: W:
Texts
Required
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno—Dialectic of Enlightenment (new trans. by Jephcott)
Michel de Certeau—The
Practice of Everyday Life
James Berlin—Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures
William Connolly—Neuropolitics
Simon During—Cultural
Studies: A Critical Introduction
Ralph Cintron—Angel's
Town
Thomas Rickert—Acts
of Enjoyment
Course
Packet (available at CopyMat)
Online
Bruno Latour—"From
Realpolitik to Dingpolitik" <http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/96-MTP-DING.pdf>
Ryan Claycomb and Rachel Weidner,
"Cultural Studies, Rhetorical studies, and Composition"
<http://enculturation.gmu.edu/5_2/claycomb-riedner.html>
Recommended
Ben Agger—Cultural Studies
as Critical Theory
Jere Paul Surber—Culture and Critique: An
Introduction to the Critical Discourses of Cultural Studies
John Storey—What is Cultural Studies: A Reader
Raymond Williams—Keywords; Culture and Society
Walter Benjamin—Illuminations
Martin Jay—The Dialectical Imagination: A History of
the
Francis Mulhern—Culture/Metaculture
Antonio Gramsci—Selections from the Prison Notebooks
Friedrich Nietzsche—Genealogy of Morals
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal
Mouffe—Hegemony and Socialist Strategy
Roland Barthes—Mythologies
Kobena Mercer—Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in
Black Cultural Studies
Laura Kipnis—Ecstasy Unlimited
Tricia Rose—Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in
Contemporary
Fredric Jameson—Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of
Late Capitalism
Terry Eagleton—Ideology: An Introduction; The Idea of Culture
Arjun Appadurai—Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of
Globalization
Janice Radway—Reading the Romance
bell hooks—Teaching to Transgress
Craig Saper—Artificial Mythologies
Gregory Ulmer—Teletheory and Heuretics
Judith Butler—Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter
Bruno Latour—We Have Never Been Modern
Henry Jenkins—Convergence Culture
Homi K. Bhaba—The Location of Culture
Karen Fitts and Alan France—Left Margins
James Berlin and Michael
Vivion—Cultural Studies in the English
Classroom
Situationist International
(Guy Debord) <www.nothingness.org>
Bruce McComiskey—"Social
Process Rhetorical Inquiry: Cultural Studies Methodologies for Critical Writing
about
Advertisements"
<http://jac.gsu.edu/jac/17.3/Articles/4/htm>
Various—Teaching Writing
for Social Change <http://www.hu.mtu.edu/cccc/98/social/social.htm>
Geoffrey Sirc—English Composition as a Happening; "Composition's
Eye, Orpheus's Gaze" <http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/sirc/conferencepapers/CCCC2003.pdf>
Objectives
Cultural critique has a long
and complex tradition going back at least to the ancient Greeks, and in this
sense, cultural studies as it has emerged in the last half of the 20th
Century is not particularly new. But in terms of its stated definition(s),
interests, orientations, and methodologies, it constitutes a break from (while
it also builds on) previous forms of cultural critique. One significant break
is cultural studies' recognition and embracement of popular (or mass) culture
as a legitimate object of study. Indeed, this focus on the popular often became
overt celebration, with the result that “critique” itself became hotly
contested. This tended to add confusion about what exactly cultural studies was
doing. Other significant breaks include its interdisciplinarity, its
(sometimes) inventive combining of various methodological/ideological strands
(Marxism, psychoanalysis, semiotics, sociology, ethnology, deconstruction, and
so on), and its will-to-intervene. It is the latter characteristic that
supplies cultural studies with its strong political (and predominately leftist
if not Marxist) flavor, and it also contributed mightily to the flames of the
1990s culture wars. In keeping with its roots, cultural studies continues to
dig deep into the phenomena and practices of everyday life and the popular as
well as continuing its expansion into global and multicultural issues.
Currently, concerns about media spectacle, gender, race, ethnicity, technology,
globalization, politics, and economics continue to dominate cultural studies
approaches. This course will look at a broad selection of cultural studies
texts in order to give us a grounding sense of what cultural studies is, what
it does, how it's taught, where it's been, and where it might be going. In
addition, we will be concerned with the ways cultural studies and rhetoric were
combined beginning in the late 1980s, and how the fruits of these theoretical
labors made their way into writing classrooms and textbooks throughout America
(although this process was not without controversy).
One somewhat confusing aspect
of cultural studies is its insistence that it can't be defined. Such claims are
similar in tone to the claims made by some theorists that postmodernism can't
be defined, and the goal is to avoid the disciplining framework and
pigeonholing that a definition creates. That is, cultural studies wants to
thrive on its conflicts and fragmentation, seeing in them not impediments to
its ongoing work but resources for growth and ingenuity. It will be an ongoing
question whether this claim has validity, though certainly cultural studies
tends to assume or assert a strong ethical component that gives even the more
disparate works a sense of commonality. This, I think, will become readily apparent
as the course progresses. In the meantime, we can still provide some
provisional understandings of cultural studies. We might think of cultural
studies as a wide-ranging, highly interdisciplinary group of methodological
approaches, focused on various aspects of culture, that more or less tend to:
a) theorize (what culture is,
what its parameters are, why culture takes the shape and trajectories that it
does, how it affects us as we affect it, what are its ethical and political
implications, etc.)
b) read (what is happening in
culture, what sense we are to make of it, what does it mean for us)
c) diagnose (what is right or
wrong, good or bad, healthy or sick, liberating or oppressive—and etc.—in
culture)
d) politicize (re/creating
conditions for better futures, greater participation, true justice and
equality, more liberty)
e) respond (formulating,
initiating, and—sometimes—conducting actions)
Our class approach to this
material will be to focus on reading selected primary texts and essays of
significant topical interest (I recommend Ben Agger's Cultural Studies as Critical Theory for filling in
historical/theoretical background). With so much material to be covered, we
will necessarily be excluding much that is important (Barthes is particularly
missed!) and neglecting to read each figure as thoroughly as we might want.
Nevertheless, we are reading enough primary and secondary material that you
should have a solid understanding of what cultural studies is, what kind of
work it does, and how it manifests itself in pedagogy—enough to work with,
build on, or move beyond it howsoever your interests might require. Lastly, you
will also gain a sense of some of the key debates in rhetoric and composition,
the humanities, and the university as they pertain to the emergent culture of
the New World Order, Ltd. We are all wired for the Culture Trust™.
Assignments
Two 12-15 Page Papers: These can be about any topic you wish, provided they
are grounded in the issues, texts, and debates of the class. Possibilities
range from theoretical/analytical treatments of the material itself,
extrapolations of key terms, debates, and issues; in-depth explorations of
particular theorists/schools; readings of cultural objects, practices, and
discourses; disciplinary questions about the material, such as explorations of
cultural studies in relation to rhetoric and composition, whether pedagogical,
theoretical, or some admixture; meta-disciplinary issues, such as how cultural
studies challenges or frames work in the field or the academy; and so forth. I
am happy to discuss your topic with you beforehand, help you develop a topic,
and so forth.
Two In-class Briefs: Shortly before the two mid-length papers are due, you will present on
your paper in class. Your presentation should be about ¾ of a page, give or
take a wee bit. It will be a synopsis/preview of your mid-length paper. You
will read it, perhaps supplementing it with props/examples, and we as a class
will discuss it briefly. Please make copies to distribute to everyone in the
class. These are important days, as we all get to hear how others are
addressing and utilizing the material from the course, and you also get the
opportunity for feedback. Because of the importance I place on all this, I have
extremely high expectations of attendance on this day. Do not miss unless
absolutely necessary and clearing it with me beforehand.
Two In-class Presentations: During the course of the semester, you will do two
short in class presentations. One, a presentation,
will be a discussion starter for the readings that day. You can bring a
prepared statement or notes, questions, props or cultural artifacts, class
exercises or boardwork, etc., but all with the goal of helping us grasp and
work through the readings of the day. The second, a project, works similarly to the first, except that rather than
address the readings directly, you are considering their pedagogical
implications: how can we bring this work into the classroom. Of special
interest here is the ability to move beyond simple, direct application. While
it may suffice in using Hebdige’s Subculture
to have a class write a semiotic analysis of a subculture, we must ask, is
that all we can do? (For instance, Berlin has already done this, in his
fashion, using TV shows; but note that in addition to direct classroom
exercises, he also utilized such cultural semiotic analysis to create a theory
for why pedagogy should do this in the first place, which he in turn suggested
might stand to transform the field of rhetoric and composition entirely . . .) A
goal of the project presentation, then, will be expand our range of what we
mean by the pedagogical, and demonstrate that pedagogy can, and indeed must, in
turn reflect back on our disciplinary field, in ways limited perhaps only by
our imaginations. My hope is that the project will open this terrain up for us
considerably.
Weekly Posts: Lastly, this course requires weekly posts
to the course bulletin board; look for the course title, English 680C, in the
main index, located here:
http://www.unconcealment.org/trickertbb
You will need to
make "one" post a week. There are a variety of ways you can fulfill
this commitment. First, your post should address the reading(s) for the coming
class, taking a concept, issue, conflict, theme, etc. and exploring it. Length
should be a minimum of one developed paragraph. Although I would prefer you to
remain focused on that week's readings, it may be useful to address texts from
previous weeks. Indeed, I am very much interested in your ability to make
connections among all the material, so consider this seriously. Yet another
possibility is a response to someone else's post. It is preferable that you
address a post concurrent with that week's readings, but again it may be useful
to return to older posts and re-visit an issue. Let me emphasize that prize
your engagement with ideas of others—dialogue enables learning. Only one post a
week is required, but further postings beyond the minimum are of course quite welcome—especially
responses to others. I add that the goal of this assignment is to foster
sustained intellectual inquiry and exchange, and I will expect you to treat
others with respect, regardless of the possible level of disagreement. Please
visit the site several times a week so that you stay current with the
discussions. Also, make sure your name is on your posts.
*The bulletin
board is phpBB, is a web-based forum that allows a user to post, edit, and
reply to messages. It also lets someone use HTML and images. The forum can be
accessed via a web browser (Firefox, Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.) at the
site I give above. Before someone can post, s/he will initially have to
register as a "User" and log-in each time thereafter. Please use an
ID name suitable enough for me to identify you as the poster.
Late Work:
Papers to be read aloud will not be excused. If you miss the due date, you will
be docked a letter grade (unless I excuse your absence beforehand) and required
to read your work the following week.
Assessment
Your grade will be determined
on a 100-point scale. The percentages break down like this:
Papers (2): 35% x 2 = 70%
In-Class work (2) 15%
Weekly posts (10) 15%
All assignments are required
to complete the course.
Although I will give brief
lectures regularly, this class is not a lecture course; accordingly, your
attendance and participation is crucial not only for you personally, but for
everyone in the class. I will expect you not to miss class. However, if a
problem does arise that requires your absence, please discuss the matter with
me beforehand to see if arrangements can be made.
If you have a disability that
requires special accommodations, please see me privately within the first week
of class to make arrangements.
Introductions
Horkheimer
and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment
During, pts. 2, 4, 7
Adorno, "Free Time"
Kellner, "The
Recommended: Steinart, "Approaching Culture
Industry"
Hebdige, Subculture:
The Meaning of Style (excerpts—Intro, Chs. 6, 7, 9, Concl)
Stuart
Hall"What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture"
Spivak,
"Scattered Speculations on the Question of Cultural Studies"
Eagleton,
"What is Ideology?"
à Presenting: Lars; Project: Morgan
Sep. 19—Wk. 5: CultStuds
1: Bang a Gong, Get it On: Cultural Studies Gets Down to Work
Grossberg, et al, Cultural
Studies—Introduction, Hall, hooks, Fiske, Chabram-Dernersesian, West
During, pt. 5
Sep. 26—Wk. 6: CultStuds 2: You Can't, You Won't, and You
Don't Stop: Culture, Culture Everywhere…
à Preview of
Upcoming Papers
Grossberg,
et al, Cultural Studies—Penley,
Probyn, Radway, Warner, Haraway, with Kipnis optional
During,
pt.6
de Certeau, The
Practice of Everyday Life
Michel
Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History”
à Presenting: Mark
P.; Project: Christina
Grossberg, "Mapping Popular Culture"
North,
"Rhetoric, Responsibility, and the 'Language of the Left'"
à Presenting: Mark
L.; Project: Mark P.
Oct. 24—Wk. 10: Pre-Millennium Tension:
Consolidation, Troubles, Cynicism
à Paper #1 Due
by Friday
Brodkey,
"Making a Federal Case out of Difference"
George and Shoos, "Issues of Subjectivity and
Resistance"
Giroux,
"Private Satisfactions and Public Disorders" + response by Sirc,
"The Difficult Politics of the Popular"
Gorzelsky, "Making Contact"
Claycomb and Weidner, "Cultural Studies,
Rhetorical studies, and Composition" (online)
Recommended: Olson, "Ideological Critique in
Rhetoric and Composition"
à Presenting: Morgan; Project:
Mark H.
Haraway, Modest
Witness@Second Millennium (excerpts—Ch.1 to pg. 39, Ch.2)
McCarthy, Ambient
Television (excerpts—Intro to pg. 20, Ch.4)
Halberstam,
"An Introduction to Female Masculinity"
Dean,
"I Want to Believe"
à Presenting: Mark
H.; Project: Rene
Nov. 7—Wk. 12: Everything That Rises Must
Converge
Cintron, Angel's
Town
Rakow, "The Return to Community in Cultural
Studies"
à Presenting: Christina; Project:
Amanda
Nov. 14—Wk. 13: Nerve Net
Connolly, Neuropolitics
Badmington, "Cultural Studies and the
Posthumanities"
à Presenting: Cat; Project: Mark
L.
Getting' Ziggy
with Siggy
Rickert, Acts
of Enjoyment
Recommended: Zizek, "The Seven Veils of Fantasy"
Nov. 28—Wk. 15: The Thing's the Thing
à Preview of
Upcoming Papers
Latour, "From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik"
(online)
Fuller, Media
Ecologies (excerpts—Intro to pg. 5, Ch.1, Inventory (concl.)
Denning, Culture
in the Age of Three Worlds (excerpts—Intro to pg.10, Ch.2, with Ch.6
optional)
Princen, The
Logic of Sufficiency (excerpts—Preface, Ch.4)
Wehner, "Ivory Arches and
à Presenting: Rene (on Latour and Fuller) and Amanda (on Denning
and Princen); Project: Cat
Paper #2
Hall and Birchall, "New Cultural Studies"
Recommended:
Szeman, "The Limits of Culture"
Dec. 15-20: Finals Week: Final Paper due Wednesday or Thursday of finals week