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In this MA seminar, we will take a close look at products and commodities produced by the culture industry (of, mainly, Hollywood and the US) in the context of Gramsci’s concept of ‘hegemony’. The aim is to investigate into the possibilities of developing counter-hegemonic readings by the audience thus turning the late capitalist consumer of popular cultural commodities into a producer of subversive meanings: “Hegemonic culture attempts to define culture from top down, in terms of the system’s own needs for legitimization, productivism and consumerism. Counter-hegemonic culture resists these definitions and instead proposes alternative formulations of the good life” (Agger, Cultural Studies as Critical Theory 10). Based on a semiotic understanding of culture and its processes, our investigation into this matter will proceed by means of a combination of reading and discussing theoretical texts and the application / testing of the theoretical concepts thus introduced via analyses of current popular cultural artefacts. Every theoretical reading will thus be accompanied by a hands-on reading of currents media texts. We will concentrate on examples from TV and film while taking other media texts to support / widen our approach.
In the first half of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with concepts such as “the post-modern,” strategies of post-modernity, and features of post-modernism, “popular culture”, “popular economy” and “producerly text”. We will also discuss the difference between hegemony and ideology, drawing on Foucault’s concept of doctrines (among others) to theorize ways of hegemony to utilize people’s ideologies. These reading will be accompanied by analyses of overt, classical examples from popular TV and film which we will attempt to describe thickly (cf. Geertz) to open up its counter-hegemonic semiotic potential.
In the second half of the seminar, we will try to formulate our own methodology and strategies of reading popular culture counter-hegemonically by weaving together theory with an in-depth practical application on selected current texts.
PLEASE NOTE: This is an MA-only course. Consequently, the seminar has been conceptualised for Master-level students. BA students that are interested are welcome to contact me during my office hour to discuss possible participation. |
