HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Cultural Studies-Individual Graduate Prog.

Semester: Yearly

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Carola Hilfrich

Coordinator Email: carola.hilfrich@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Tuesdays: 10.00-11.00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Carola Hilfrich

Course/Module description:
We discuss traditional approaches in critical theory, which understand culture in binary terms of control / resistance and commodification / authenticity, as well as advanced and recent approaches that suggest a more complex blending of innovation, creativity, and restructured power relations in culture. We ask about tensions between theories of culture and cultural practices, the emergence of theoretical shifts in moments of crisis, cultural sites and modalities of critique, the contemporary moment in culture.
More specifically, we study analyses of the cultural genetics of power in Marxist and psychoanalytic theory as well as attempts at their systematic integration and/or reformulation by the Frankfurt School of critical theory, on the one hand, and postcolonial theory, on the other. We set these against more recent explorations in feminist and queer theories, cultural materialism, ethnohistory, globalization studies, visual anthropology, and more.

Course/Module aims:
• to promote a deep understanding of theoretical and critical approaches in the study of culture (genealogies, key terms and questions, perspectives)
• to advance critical analyses of historical and contemporary cultural phenomena

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
• analyze specific cultural phenomena (practices, institutions, sites, etc.) in theoretical and critical terms
• engage critical thought for the understanding of past and present moments in culture
* mobilize modes of cultural expression for an active understanding of critical theory

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Frontal teaching, lectures, social learning, peer learning and instruction (group projects; social annotation; peer reviews); flipped classroom discussions; guided workshops on individual/group projects

Course/Module Content:
1: Introduction
2: Contemporary Concerns
3: Why Marx?
4: Genealogies: Marx, historical materialism, and the theory of alienation
5: Genealogies: Marx, commodity fetishism, and value consciousness
6: Other Materialities and New Materialisms
7: Genealogies: Freud, crowd psychology, and the sociology of the self
8: "Crowds" - Stanford Humanities Laboratory
9: Culture Industry
10:The Colonial Situation of Culture
11: Cultural Materialism
12: Power and Bodily Disciplines
13: Power, Sexuality, Gender
14: Spaces of Power
15: The Power of the Archive and its Limits

For contents in each section, see Hebrew version

Required Reading:
see Hebrew version of course contents

Additional Reading Material:
Agger, Ben, Cultural Studies as Critical Theory, London and New York: Routledge 1992
Azzmanova, Albena, "Crisis? Capitalism is Doing Very Well. How is Critical Theory?," Constellations 21, no. 3 (2014): 351-365
Bhabha, Homi, “The Commitment to Theory,” Locations of Culture, London and New York: Routledge 1994, 19-39
Bourdieu, Pierre, “Structures, Habitus, Power: Basis for a Theory of Symbolic Power,” in Culture / Power / History, edited by N.B.Dirks, G.Eley, S.B.Ortner. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994: 155-199
Jonathan Culler, Introduction: “What’s the point?,” in The Point of Theory. Practices of Cultural Analysis, edited by M. Bal and I. E. Boer, New York: Continuum 1994: 13–17
Douglas, Mary, How Institutions Think. London: Routledge and K.Paul 1987
Godzich, Wlad,” Foreword: ‘The Tiger on the Paper Mat.’” In Paul de Man: The Resistance to Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1986, ix-xviii
Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith, New York: International Publishers 1971
גרמשי, אנטוניו, על ההגמוניה. מבחר מתוך "מחברות הכלא",תל אביב: רסלינג 2005
Grossberg, Lawrence, "The Conversation of Cultural Studies," Cultural Studies 23, no. 2 (2009): 177-182
Gunster, Shane, Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultural Studies, Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2004
Hall, Stuart (Ed.), Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972-79, London: Hutchinson and CCCS 1981
---------- “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms,” in Culture / Power / History, edited by N.B.Dirks, G.Eley, S.B.Ortner. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994: 520-538
Hesmondhalgh, David, "What Cultural, Critical, and Communication Might Mean: Why Cultural Studies is a Bit Like Rave Culture," Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 10, Nos 2/3 (September 2013): 280-284
Marianne Hirsch, “Masking the Subject: Practicing Theory,” in in The Point of Theory. Practices of Cultural Analysis, edited by M. Bal and I. E. Boer, New York: Continuum 1994: 109-124
Jameson, Frederic Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke University Press 1991
Kellner, Douglas, Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1989
---------- "Toward a Critical Media/Cultural Studies," in: Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches, ed. by Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner, New York: Peter Lang 2009: 5-24
Nelson, Cary and Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, Disciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studies, New York: Routledge 1996
Ono, Kent A., "Critical: A Finer Edge," Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 8, no. 1 (March 2011): 93-96
Rasmussen, David, "Critical Theory Then and Now," The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 26, no. 2 (2012): 291-298
Turner, Graeme, British Cultural Studies, London and New York: Routledge1996
Williams, Raymond, ”Conclusion,” Culture and Society 1780-1950, London: Chatto and Windus, 1967: 295-338
---------- Keywords. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Oxford University Press 1985

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 50 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 25 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture 25 %

Additional information:
none