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Amer
Pop
Cul/Modern
America
(Fall
2013)
Syllabus
H
AMST201
American Popular Culture
Fall 2013
T Th 11:00-12:20
Instructor: Kosanovich/Neff
E-Mail: acneff@wm.edu;
kwkosa@email.wm.edu
Office: 8B College Apartments; 5A
College Apts.
Office Hours: T Th 1-3p.m., W
(appts.)
Overview
Since the origins of the American nation, and increasingly since
the Civil War, Americans have created, embraced and used
different forms and practices of popular culture to understand
their world, chart their visions for society, and make claims for
themselves as residents in, citizens of, or nations in
conversation with the Americas. In addition, American popular
culture has become synonymous with American life, both at
home and abroad. By examining the ways in which Americans
have made, re-made, adapted, used and fought over popular
culture, this course introduces us to the complex history of
being American, and coincidentally, offers an introduction to
methods, materials and concerns in American Studies.
This course traces the relationships of American peoples and
their popular culture since 1865. The course is interdisciplinary,
touching upon ideas, art, commerce and beliefs, made and
practiced across the broad social spectrum. Focusing on the
social origins of cultural expressions, we examine popular
culture in its settings, paying specific attention to the elements
of place, race, class and commerce in that history. In so doing
we will explore significant questions posed by Americans of all
backgrounds. What does it mean to be American? Do people
in the United States share a meaningful common sense of their
American identity? Is such a shared sense possible or
desirable? Do differences in culture strengthen the bonds of
society? Can popular culture play a significant role in defining
Materials
Course materials for this
multimedia course can be found by
class date in this syllabus.
Most materials are available
as articles through our
Blackboard site, or e-books
through Swem Library
Many online media and
readings wil be included,
especailly for Thursday
classes. Treat these with the
level of engagement you
would more traditional texts.
I recommend printing these
materials and marking them
up, and to engage them
specifically in class
discussion. If you keep these
files on your computer, be
sure to make accessible
notes for yourself in order to
cite them for class
Syllabus Syllabus
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or redefining the common beliefs and ideas about American-
ness? At the heart of this course then is an inquiry into the ways
in which people in the Americas have defined themselves, one
another and their nation.
Goals
In this course, we work toward engaging a series of
methodologies in becoming critical scholars on pressing topics in
American Studies, while sharpening our skills as critical thinkers
and writers.
By the end of the term, students should
Be able to analyze an example of American popular
culture in a variety of critical approaches and contexts
Understand the workings of cultural forms, industries
and movements in social and historical context
Hone their critical literacy through examination and
discussion of specific figures, genres or works.
We will gauge our progress toward these goals by checking in
with course keywords (listed for each week) and through a series
of discursive writing assignments leading to our final research
project.
Requirements
You will be graded on a series of four written assignments, a final
exam, the leading of a discussion group meeting, and course
participation.
Complete and critically engage all required reading and media
Complete all assignments on time and with intellectual and
academic integrity
Participate fully in the classroom community
Communicate your needs and issues with your classmates and
teachers responsibly.
Turn off all internet and social media when in the classroom
(very important)
Grow intellectually, as an emerging authority on the world of
culture, and as a critical thinker and writer
As citizens of the William and Mary academic community,
please keep in mind that you are bound by our honor code
Evaluation
Grading Rubric for written work:
discussion.
Milestones
Unit One
Think critically about how "Who
You Are--Identity, Subjectivity,
Ethnicity, and Representation"
shape and are shaped by
movements in American Popular
Culture.
Unit Two
Articulate how space--"sense of
place," location, community, and
geography --shapes and is
shaped by movements in
American popular culture.
Unit Three
Use the notion of time--in
processes of history,
geneaology, change and
emergence--to think about how
popular cultures are formed,
move, and change with the world
around them.
Attendance, Parti ci pati on, Attendance, Parti ci pati on,
Del ays Del ays
Attendance is required at all
lectures and discussion sections;
more than two unexcused
absences will result in a full final
grade letter grade deduction
While all students prefer different
modes of engagement,
participation in classroom
discussion is a must; communicate
with me if you have issues
Late work will, unless excused by a
documented medical emergency,
be docked a full letter grade per
day
As a rule, communicate responsibly
and mindfully about any issues
ahead of time
DI SABI LI TI ES AND NEEDS DI SABI LI TI ES AND NEEDS
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NeedsWork/Improving/Good/Excellent
Creativity
______________________________
Critical Thinking
______________________________
Keywords/Ideas
_______________________________
Course Readings
_______________________________
Increasing Understanding of
Pop____________________________
Poetry (eloquence)
_______________________________
Flow (thoughtful outline)
________________________________
Mechanics
________________________________
Any student with a disability or specific need
should see me as soon as possible. Every
effort will be made to accommodate you.
It is essential that you adhere to the scheduled due dates. Mark them in your personal calendar.
Establish a plan for reading, study, discussion, and writing that enables you to meet the deadlines.
Course Schedule: American Popular Culture
Lecture Issues/Keywords/Themes Thursday Materials
8/29-
8/30
Course/Personal Introductions, Syllabus Fostering Class Discussion
KEYWORDS: American Studies, the popular, culture, Cultural Studies, citizenship, nation, practices
9/2-
9/6
Methodologies and Materials in American Studies: One
contemporary discourse illustrated (Hip-Hop)
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Lawrence Levine, from Highbrow-Lowbrow:
Shakespeare in America
2. Stuart Hall, Notes on deconstructing the Popular
3. George Lipsitz, Diasporic Noise: History, Hip-Hop and
the Postcolonial Politics of Sound.
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings:
1. The commercial trailers for Jay Z's
MCHG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYCKOaxRWO4
And:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujZro-aVeUE
And "Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMG2oNqBy-Y
2. The National performing "Sorrow" for 6 hours for MoMA PS1:
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4. Warhol documentary
5. P.T. Barnum, The Art of Money Getting
4. Warren Susman, from "Culture as History," pp 101-103,
ch. 7 "Culture and Civilization: The 1920s," and ch. 9
"The Culture of the Thirties"
NOTE: PDFs of articles are located in the appropriate
week's folder on Blackboard under the "Content" menu to
the left of the course homepage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elKqiiqQfEk
3. NYT: "Jay-Z is Rhyming Picasso and Rothko," July 12, 2013:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/fashion/jay-z-is-rhyming-
picasso-and-rothko.html?pagewanted=all
4. Article about The National performing at MoMA PS1 in the
New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/05/the-
national-performance-art-sorrow-ps1.html
KEYWORDS: the popular, highbrow/lowbrow, diaspora, the market, postcoloniality, politics, discourse, pop art,
construction/deconstruction, aesthetics, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism
Unit One: Who You Are--Identity, Subjectivity, Ethnicity, Representation
9/9-
9/13
Declaring, Slipping, Reconfiguring Identities
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. David Roediger. from Working Toward Whiteness,
ch. 1 New Immigrants, Race and Ethnicity, pp. 10-34
2. Charlie McGovern, from Sold American, the
introduction
3. Tricia Rose, from Black Noise : Prophets of Rage:
Rap Music and the Politics of Black Cultural
Expression, Bad Sistahs: Black Women Rappers and
Sexual Politics in rap Music
4. Barbara Tomlinson, George Lipsitz American
Studies as Accompaniment American Quarterly,
Volume 65, Number 1, March 2013, pp. 1-30
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. bell hooks: Cultural Criticism and Transformation. Watch the
entire 6-part series available on youtube (60 minutes or so) ,
starting with part 1:
Part 1: On Cultural Criticism
Part 2: Motivated Representations
Part 3: Enlightened Witness
Part 4: Dealing with O.J.
Part 5: Madonna: From Feminism to Patriarchy
Part 6: Spike Lee: Hollywoods Fall-Guy
Part 8: Rap Music
KEYWORDS: binary, identity, race/ethnicity, whiteness, blackness, brownness, diaspora, power/empowerment/disempowerment, New
Immigrants, inbetweeness
9/16-
9/20
Camp, Vaudeville, comedy and the American other
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp
2. John Waters interview with Gary Indiana from
Interview Magazine:
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/john-
waters/#_
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Watch Louis CK in class
2. http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/dave-chappelle-hartford-
does-it-hurt-him.html
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3. Barbara Babcock, from The Reversible World:
Symbolic Inversion in Art and Society
4. Susan Glenn, from Female Spectacle, ch. 2,
"Mirth and Girth"
5. Omi & Winant, from Racial Formation in the US,
Introduction
6. Robert M. Lewis, from From Travelling Show to
Vaudeville, pp. 340-349.
KEYWORDS: camp, vaudeville, signifying, social structure, hierarchy, symbolic inversion, resistance, class,
other
Short Keyword Essay Due Tuesday 9/17 (Assignment 1)
9/23-
9/27
Suffragettes, Blues Women and Riot Girls
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Angela Davis, Selections from Blues Women and
Black Feminism
2. OPTIONAL: Shelley Stamp, from Movie Struck
Girls ch. 4, Civic Housekeeping: Womens Suffrage,
Female Viewers, and the Body Politic
3. SKIM: Howard Zinn,Peoples History: Voices,
Primary sources from suffragettes
4. bell hooks, from Aint I a Woman?, ch. 4 "Racism
and Feminism"
5. Glenn, from Female Spectacle, ch. Nationally
Advertised Legs
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
Zulu Queen Lisa Lee visit materials:
1. Zulu Nation Throwdown lyrics
2. Song: Zulu Nation Throwdown
3. Beat Street: Us Girls
4. Wild Style: Lisa Lee
5. The Real Queens of Hip Hop
KEYWORDS: labor, marketing, self-definition, subculture, intervention, first/second/third wave feminism, popular media,
representation, hidden practitioners, cultural politics
9/30-
10/4
Minstrelsy
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Eric Lott, from Love and Theft, ch. 1 "Blackface
and Blackness"
2. Louis Chude-Sokei, from The Last Darky: Bert
Williams . . . ch. 1, Black Minstrel, Black
Modernism
3. Adam Green, from Selling the Race, ch. 4,
Selling the Race
4. Robert Cantwell, from When We Were Good,
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Watch Spike Lees. Bamboozled. Available free online
here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhnsaMLtQM8
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chapters 1 and 3
KEYWORDS: binary, mimesis, performance studies, appropriation, spectacle, stereotype. modernism
Unit Two: Where Youre From--Geography
10/7-
10/11
Case Study: Detroit
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Thomas Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis chs.
1 & 2, "Arsenal of Democracy" & "Detroit's Time
Bomb: Race and Housing in the 1940s"
2. Suzanne E. Smith, from Dancing in the Streets
ch. 6, "What's Going On?": Motown and New
Detroit"
3. Simon Reynolds, from Energy Flash, ch. 8 "The
Future Sound of Detroit"
4. George Lipsitz, "Possessive Investment in
Whiteness"
5. Piece from Salon.com, My Happy Detroit
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/28/my_happy_detroit/
Thursday, October 10
th
: African and global perspectives on
American Pop culture (readings includ Dr. Neff's piece on the
Global South)
We will meet in the Botetourt Theater in Swem Library.
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Dr. Neff's piece on Transatlantic Hip-hop
2. (Optional) This piece on Dave Chapelle as a follow-up to
last week's
lessons: http://www.believermag.com/issues/201310/?
read=article_ghansah
KEYWORDS: labor, Fordism, postfordism, mobility, urban/rural/suburban, agrarian/industrial, economy, socioeconomy, great
migration, working class, geography
Fall Break 10/12-10/15
10/16-
18
Case Study: Atlanta and its suburbs
Read/Watch/Consider for today, THURSDAY:
1. DuBois, Souls of Black Folks, ch. v "Of the Wings
of Atlanta"
2. Paul Gaston, The New South Creed: A Study in
Southern Mythmaking, Prologue: "The New
South Symbol"
3. Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the
Making of Modern Conservatism, ch. 9, "City
Limits: Urban Separatism and Suburban
Secession"
This is a one-class week; scan the following readings.
1. Matthew Lassiter, The Silent Majority, ch. 2, "HOPE in
the New South"
2.. Robert A Yarbrough, "Becoming 'Hispanic' in the "New
South": Central American Immigrants Racialization
experiences in Atlanta, GA, US"
(ln-class materials: OutKast, Rosa Parks; Kriss Kross, I
Missed the Bus Scenes from Gone With the
Wind; Scenes from Real Housewives of Atlanta )
KEYWORDS: ethnicity, southernness, old south, new south, reverse migration, city
Mid-semester Essay Due Thursday 10/24 (Assignment 2)
10/21-
25
Case Study: Bakersfield Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
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Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Park Fenster, "Buck Owens, Country Music, and
the Struggle for Discursive Control"
2. Peter La Chapelle, from Proud to be an Okie, Ch.
6 "Fighting Sides: 'Okie From Muskogee,'
Conservative Populism, and the Uses of Migrant
Identity"
3. Devra Weber, from Dark Sweat White Gold, ch. 2
"Sin Fronteras: Mexican Workers"
4. George J. Sanchez, from Becoming Mexican
American, ch. 9 "Workers and Consumers: A
Community Emerges"
1. Carlan Arnett, "from Bakersfield"
2. Photos from the Farm Security Administration
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html
3. Cheech Marin, "What is a
Chicano?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cheech-
marin/what-is-a-chicano_b_1472227.html
KEYWORDS: migrant labor, farm industry, the West, cultural syncretism, chicano, remittance, homelands, settlements, labor camp,
borderlands, transnationalism
10/28-
11/1
Case Study: Virginia Beach
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. John J. Accordino, Captives of the Cold War
Economy: the Struggle for Defense Conversion in
American Communities, Ch. 3 "the Military
Metroplois: Boosters, Bases and Shipbuilding in
Hampton Roads"
2. Charles W. Johnson "V is for Virginia: The
Commonwealth Goes to War"
3. From The Beach: A History of Virginia Beach, ch.
1 Native Virgninans, ch. 11 Virginia Beach: The
Birth of a Resort, ch. 13, The Military, and ch. 14,
The Merger.
4. Amy Waters Yarsinke, Lost Virginia Beach, ch. 3,
A Little Town Named Virginia Beach
Swem Library Special Collections Visit
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Vidoe: Public Enemy "Brothers Gonna Work it Out"
2. Daily Press Artcile from 1990
3. Virginian-Pilot article from 2009
4. Ira Berlin, from Many Thousands Gone, Part 1
Introduction Societies with Slaves: The Charter
Generations, and a short selection from ch. 1, Emergence
of Atlantic Creoles in the Chesapeake
KEYWORDS: defense industry, youth culture, Coastal south, transitional cultures, sense of place, syncretism, tourism, charter
generations
Unit Three: What Time It Is--Genealogies
11/4-
11/8
Tracing Texts and Objects
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Mark Anthony Neal Pullman Porters (TBA)
2. Scott Nelson, from Steel Driving Man, ch. 8
Trains-and texts about trains!
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Duke Ellington, Take the A-Train
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Communist Strongman
3. Joel Dinerstein, from Swinging the Machine, ch.
4, Swinging the Machine; Big Bands and
Streamliner Trains
4. Kerouac
2. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, This Train
3. Kamau Brathwaite, Trane
4. Watch, Jimmie Rodgers, "Waiting For a Train"
KEYWORDS: Reconstruction, rocking and rolling, space, place, time, movements
11/11-
15
Tracing Diasporas
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Philip Delorea, selections from Indians in
unexpected Places, ch. 2, Representation, ch. 3,
Athletics, ch. 4 Technology
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. A Tribe Called Red, First Nations DJ group, website
http://atribecalledred.com
2. Watch Smoke Signals
KEYWORDS: nativism, first nation, forced migration, reservation, reparation, self-identification, self-representation,
11/18-
22
Tracing Practices
Read/Watch/Consider for today:
1. Kasson, from Rudeness and Civility, ch 3
Reading the City and ch 6, Table Manners!
2. Meaghan Morris, notes from a mall
3. Lawrence Glickman, from A Living Wage, ch. 2,
Idle Men and Fallen Women
4. Kristin L. Hoganson, from Consumers Imperium,
Conclusion: The Global Production of American
Domesticity
5. Jason Chambers, from Madison Avenue and the
Color Line, ch. 3, Civil Rights and the Advertising
Industry
Read/consider all of these today, and revisit Mondays core
readings
1. Clash, Lost in a supermarket
2. Watch Repo Man
KEYWORDS: consumerism, the pubic, the market, commercialism, civilization, consumption, capitalism, the culture industry,
commodity
11/26 Screening Day--Thanksgiving Break 11/27-12/1
Revisit all of the week one readings during this screening and review timewe will loop back to discuss them in class again as
it comes to a close, and you are expected to know them well for the final. Also, be sure you have mastered the course keywords
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and concepts.
Final Paper Due Thursday 12/5 (Assignment 3)
Review
12/2-
12/6
Review: culture, the popular, Americannness Revisit materials from the top of class
Final Exam: Monday, December 9
th
, 2-5 p.m.
Graded Item Number of points (of 100 total)
1,000-word writing assignment due Tuesday, 9/17 (Assignment 1) See the full instructions
for this assignment (and the others) after this table, at the end of the syllabus.
10
1,200-1,500 word mid-semester essay due Thursday, 10/24 (Assignment 2)
To be distributed approx. week before the paper is due (10/24)
15
12/5 Final project due (Assignment 4)
This substantial research project--including a 15-page research paper and accompanyimg
multimedia (optional) will allow you to engage multiple methodologies in the study of a sample of
a particular sample of American popular culture of your choice. An assignment sheet detailing this
assignment will be provided for you by Tuesday, September 17th.
35
12/9 Final Exam (Use course keywords to unpack a sample from American popular culture) 15
Discussion Leading and participation, Friday sessions 15
Course Participation 10
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Assignment 1: 1,000-word writing assignment due in hard copy, in class, Tuesday, 9/17
"Be serious, be passionate, wake up." --Susan Sontag, on cultural criticism
This introductory essay will give you the opportunity to exercise your critical pen in the practice of American Studies.
You will choose any *specific* object of cultural study and use it to explore, animate, and trouble the notion of what
"the popular" is and isn't. Convince your classmates that this object is, in fact an example of American popular culture,
even as it overlaps with the folk, the highbrow, the lowbrow, the classical, the foreign, the subcultural, or any other
classification that could come in tension with the popular. You will tell us why it matters.
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Choose an object/sample of study:
*An "object" of study can be any cultural sample, from a material commercial, kitchen, collector's, or functional
object, to a performance, song, lyric, sports play, commerical, talk show segment, etc. Anything counts, and
anything that has special meaning to some people and different or no meaning to others is by definition cultural.
*Always, always, always zoom into a field, sample or object to choose a very specific object to study...
...as you carefully observe and think about your object, let its specificities inform your work...
...ask, Why does this matter in the bigger picture? If my audience does not particularly care about this object
itself, what can it still inform them about larger issues in American popular culture? ...
...what can this head of a pin tell me about how the broader world works? How does this small sample
exemplify big issues, historical forces, discourses, or ...
...are there issues of power at play in how this object is formed/used/represented/talked about/bough-
sold/discarded that my close study can uncover?
Think critically:
Ask yourself: How does this resonate with some of the classic examples of American popular
culture weve looked at thus far in this class, and how is it different?
What about it is beyond language/description, and what about it is expected? What makes it
unique?
Why does this object appeal to me as a subject of study, when others might find it less engaging?
What can the keywords and readings we've encountered thus far in class tell me about this object?
Craft an argument:
You will draw from your keywords from the first week of class in shaping an argument about this
relationship that will convince your readers (in this case, think of your audience as your classmates, me,
and a smart/likeminded friend from home) that this object and the culture it relates to challenges the
mainstream or dominant status quo.
Check in: what, exactly, are you trying to prove in your essay, and to whom?
Engage in cultural criticism:
In this class, and in the fields related to cultural studies, being a critic is never about deciding whether an object
is good or bad. Instead, it is always about uncovering hidden complexities in a cultural sample, bringing to light
relations of power as they surround objects that seem to be more straightforward, and asking how this cultural
sample or object can either be improved to better change the status quo, or used/talked abut in such a way that
makes this object more capable of changing the world around it. How can you use evidence, taken from a very
careful study of the object itself and informed by the course keywords and perspectives, to make us look past
common-sense understandings and instead engage insightful, critical understandings of the object? In teh case
of this assignment, you'll want to show your readers that this object counts as an object of popular culture even
when it seems like it might be something else.
Think about style:
How do you imagine your readers?
Who are YOU as a critic?
What are your best features as a communicator?
What are some pieces you can look to for inspiration?
Some inspiration:
Greg Tate's work is always fun to read because his critical style is so strong, and he tends to choose to
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analyze artists and albums that defy expectations
Pauline Kael, the feminist film critic, was adept at finding the real issues of interest and power luring in
popular film.
This is a Susan Sontag archive. Her work is engaging, detailed, and incredibly insightful. Excellent work.
Assignment 2: 1,200-1,500-word mid-term writing assignment due in hard copy, in class,
Thursday, 10/24
"Be serious, be passionate, wake up." --Susan Sontag, on cultural criticism
This mid-term essay focuses on the keyword, "signifying."
Consider the following media from Maya Angelou on signifying as a way of gaining power-from-
below by hiding oppositional words or actions within a friendly, pleasant, silly, crazy, or otherwise
nonthreatening persona, communication, work of art or performance. The concept of signifying is
both closely related to other forms of performed work with mutiple meanings and multiple
audiences (like satire, irony, metaphor and much comedy) _and_ distinct in that it carries a hint of
aggression in the face of (potential) disempowerment. She says that she finds that only some
people can properly signify, but remember that her speech is itself signified and meant to egg on
her listeners--we know from throughout American history that signifying is a form that is used
across regions and ethnicities by eloquent and powerful speakers to "get away with" an
uncomfortable critique, disagreement and/or threat.
Write a rigorously-researched essay, citing at least two readings of our course and at least one
academic book or article of your own (try the Swem search function for academic articles or
consulting a reference librarian for help to find an appropriate one) about one example of
signifying from American popular culture. Think of how the example allows the
speaker/performer/maker to say something important that he or she might not otherwise have the
power to say.
Develop a solid main argument toward the beginning of the essay. Your argument will make the
point that the cultural sample you have chosen represents an example of signifying in that it uses a
hidden message that allows him or her to gain power without outward confrontation. You will then,
in your essay, give 2, 3, or 4 points of evidence by which you demonstrate how the overt meaning
and the hidden meaning differ and how this difference is useful to the artist/speaker/maker and
his/her community. Finish your essay with an argument for why it matters that we learn this about
your sample of choice--what does it tell us about this practice/form/artist/community that we may
not have realized before? This is your chance to do original cultural criticism.
Here is a way Josephine Baker uses signifying practices to make a mockery of racist representations
of plantation life and its associated art form, minstrelsy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MsXyDrf9HO0
Here is an example of signifying from Ellen DeGeneres--allowing her to make an important critique
about the ways in which gay people are "othered" without making the straight audience feel
defensive, thereby helping to normalize queerness in American popular culture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5IzWgZzcY
Camp, Motown, Warhol, and many other examples we've looked at in class have moments in which
signifying is a method of locating power from below.
Important tip:
10/28/13 3:11 PM Syllabus
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The definition of signifying we are using for this class is drawn from the work of Henry Louis Gates,
Jr, in his classic work, _The Signifying Monkey_ (Here is a PDF of the chapter in which he describes
how he theorized this; feel free to consult or cite this if
necessary): http://www.westga.edu/~jmasters/Sig%20Monkey.pdf).
It is important that you use the keyword as described above, in this assignment description, rather
than rely on another online definition of signifying or signifyin' . This keyword should be used to
help open up your subject of choice and illuminate the depth of its hidden meaning(s) rather than
function as a vocabulary word to be used in a sentence.
Polish your essay and visit the writing center for advice on arguing, structuring and/or editing your
essay, or if you are learning how to use an critical essay, rather than a descriptive or strictly
informational, format.
Final Paper: 15-page Resarch Paper due in hard copy, in class, Thursday, 12/5
"Be serious, be passionate, wake up." --Susan Sontag, on cultural criticism
Your final paper will involve performing a genealogy--a critically-constructed alternative history--
of a contemporary cultural object, form, artist, genre, practice, style, or product. We wil talk about
the genealogical method in class. You will take a course concept or keyword--say "pop art" and
use it to look at a current sample of American popular culture--say Jay'Z's gallery performance--in
an original way. While a standard history of Jay-Z's performance might line up his work with his
other albums as an artist and/or with the changes in hip-hop performance since its inception, you
would instead look at the popular art of self-promotion (for example) that has accompanied the
American popular arts from P.T. Barnum through Mark Twain through Andy Warhol and Jay-Z. By
lining up these four objects through American history, you provide a perticular genealogy of Jay-
Z's work that is different from what most histories might do. You may choose to incporate more
objects/texts/performances (say, a geneaology of Miley Cyrus's VMAs performance as one of six
women's perfomances of deviant sexuality for the purpose of self-promotion in American pop
music), or only a few, very carefuly researched, examples.
You will also incorporate an online/digital component/companion to your written work where you
will gather links/embeds/otherwise permissible examples illustrating your chosen subject. This can
be in the form of a very simple blog entry.
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