Central European University

Department of Gender Studies

Gender, popular ,

MA course

2 credits

2012-13 winter term

Instructor:

Zuzana Kepplova

Aims:

Divided into two thematic threads, this course aims to provide students with some of the key concepts and discussions in the field of and studies. The overview is organized around the themes of labor and consumption. First, the story of can be read as a narrative of economic integration of new identities structured around leisure and of new forms of creativity. We move from the delinquent boys in metropolises through the boom of Youth Culture after WWII to subculture industries and creative business. Second line presents perspectives on consumption: from critiques of capitalist „culture factories‟ through the conception of consumption as a right in the late socialist context to the „resisting consumer‟ of late capitalism. Along these two lines, we ask: How did Bohemian and countercultural identities and practices become central to the neo-liberal „creative economy‟ and lifestyle ?

Objectives:

Throughout these lines of investigation, we focus on the construction of gendered identities: urban lifestyles, new occupations, new styles of clothing and types of leisure-time activities. At the same time, we aim to keep in mind the East-West ax around which many of the pop cultural debates and Youth Culture criticism had been revolving.

The main objective is to suggest conceptual frameworks with the help of which students will be able to problematize not just the hegemonic popular culture but also seemingly resisting subcultures and liberating lifestyles. Moreover, they will be able to perceive how popular and youth cultures participate in formulation of gendered as well as classed, raced and sexed identities.

Assignments:

Before week 6, students are expected to hand in (e-submission) one short reaction paper (up to 3 pgs.). The idea of a reaction paper is to make a critical reading of any number of texts (ideally more than one) and outline an argumentative line which could potentially be developed into an essay. We will clarify the assignment in details during the first session. [20%]

Midterm sharp, students are invited to present on a topic of their choice which speaks to the material we read or will deal with. Ideally, they chose a topic which they elaborate in the final essay. They present orally on what problem they identified and how they see popular culture/youth helping them deal with the issue (around 10 min.). Again, exact rules for the presentation will be discussed. [30%] Finally (date TBA), students submit an essay (10-15 pgs., double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12). It would be a good idea to think strategically and incorporate the reaction paper and the presentation material into the essay. However, it is the coherence of argument and the clarity of style which are graded. [50%]

Submissions to my mailbox: [email protected]

I. Learning to Labor

1) What is subculture?: new urban ethnographies Readings: Gelder, K., 2005. The Field of Subcultural Studies and Introduction to part one. In: The Subcultures Reader. London: Routledge, 1-24. Park, R.E., 2005[1925]. The City: Suggestions for the investigation of human behavior in the urban environment. In: K. Gelder, ed. The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 25- 34. Cressey, P.G., 2005[1932]. The Life-cycle of the taxi-dancer. In: K. Gelder, ed. The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 35-45.

2) Youth as a metaphor of changes: popular culture vs. counterculture Spots: Barbarella (1968) – trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xo6FaypcpY Kdo chce zabít Jessie (1966) – “what a man!” sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUcoCaFGMPg&feature=relmfu The Graduate – “One word: Plastics”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk Pelíšky – plastics sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2CFejMe8U Zabriskie point – intro and final scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK0g_J1hhDc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJsW6ta4X8o

Readings: Roszak, T., 1973[1968]. Chapter 1: Technocracy’s children. In: The making of a counter culture: reflections on the technocratic society and its youthful opposition. London: Faber and Faber, 1-41. Herzog,D., 2006. Between Coitus and Commodification: Young West German Women and the Impact of the Pill. In: A. Schildt & D. Siegfried, eds. Between Marx and Coca-Cola: youth cultures changing European society, 1960-1980. New York: Berghahn Books, 261-286. Yinger, J.M., 1960. Contra and subculture. American Sociological Review, 25(5), 625-635.

3) Working-class boys: locating resistance, explaining reproduction of class formations Readings: Cohen, P., 2005[1972]. Subcultural conflict and working-class community. In: K. Gelder, ed. The Subcultures Reader, 86-93. Hall, S. & Jefferson, T. & Clark, J. & Roberts, B. 2002[1976]. Subcultures, Cultures and Class. In: Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain. London: Routledge, 9-74. Willis, P. 1981[1977]. 1 Introduction & 2 Elements of a culture & 8 Notes towards a theory of cultural forms and social reproduction. In: Learning to labor: how working class kids get working class jobs, Aldershot : Ashgate, 1-51 & 171-184.

4) Music and style: spectacular gestures of resistance Readings: Hebdige, D., 2005[1979]. Excerpts from Subculture: The Meaning of Style. In: K. Gelder, ed. The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 121-131. Becker, H.S., 2005[1963]. The Culture of a Deviant Group: The dance musician. In: The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 438-447. Cosgrove, S., 2002[1984]. Excerpts from The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare. In: The Cultural Resistance Reader, London: Verso, 157-165. Riot grrrl, 2002[1991]. Riot Grrrl Is… and from an Interview with Kathleen Hanna. In: The Cultural Resistance Reader, London: Verso, 178-182. Online sources on FEMEN: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2012-07-03-rubchak-en.html, http://workthatmatters.blogspot.hu/2011/08/interview-with-femens-founder-anna.html and http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/2729841-bare-breasts-heads-high

5) From ‘common culture’ to creative economy Readings: Willis, P. 1990. Symbolic creativity. In: Common Culture. Milton Keynes : Open University Press, 1-29. McRobbie, A., 2005[…]. Second-hand dresses and the role of the ragmarket. In: K. Gelder, ed. The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 132-139. Lloyd, R., 2010. Part III: Artists as Useful Labor and 10 The Bohemian Ethic and the Spirit of Flexibility. In: Neo-Bohemia: art and commerce in the postindustrial city. New York: Routledge, 157-208 and 239-250.

6) Students’ presentations

II. Learning to Consume

7) Birth of ‘mass culture’ critique Readings: Adorno, T.W. & Horkheimer, M., 2002[1944]. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In: Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 94-136. McLuhan, M. 1951. From The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. […]: Vanguard Press. Kracauer, S., 1995. The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies. In: The Mass Ornament. Cambridge. London: Harvard University Press, 291-304. Sanders, L.S., 2006. Introduction. In: Consuming Fantasies: Labor, Leisure, & the London Shopgirl, 1880-1920. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1-19.

8) Resistance through consumption and interrogating the ‘romance of resistance’ Readings: Modleski, T., 1988[1982]. The Disappearing Act: Harlequin Romances. In: Loving with a vengeance: mass-produced fantasies for women. New York: Routledge27-49. OR Radway, J., 1984. [1987] Chapter 6: Language and Narrative Discourse: The Ideology of Female Identity. In: Reading the romance: women, patriarchy, and popular literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 187-208. Fiske, J., 1989. Madonna. In: Reading Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 95-113. See Dahl, U. & del Lagrace, V., 2008. Femmes of power: exploding queer femininities. London : Serpent's Tail. Abu-Lughod, L., 1990. The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women. American Ethnologist, 17(1), 41-55.

9) Perverse consumerism and the global hegemony of pop Clips: Crash (1996) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c_HOZFFZFU Readings: Kundera, M., 1984. The Tragedy of Central Europe. New York Review of Books, 31(7), Available at: http://www.euroculture.upol.cz/dokumenty/sylaby/Kundera_Tragedy_(18).pdf [Accessed 31 October 2012]. Masłowska, D., […]. From Snow White and Russian Red. […]. Lukose, R., 2008. The Children of Liberalization: Youth Agency and Globalization in India. In: N. Dolby & F. Rizvi, eds. Youth moves: identities and education in global perspective. New York: Routledge, 133-149. Farrer, J., 1999. Disco ‘Super-Culture’: Consuming Foreign Sex in the Chinese Disco. Sexualities, 2, 147-166.

10) The right to consume: securing the ‘normal life’ Clips: Malinkaja Vera (1988) – intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3UoUny-YRU ASSA (1987) – Nick Cave and Gagarin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMqYvQPZVLA&feature=related and the final perestroika song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9gVMuAC2cs Stilyagi – Komsomol song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7IGVCR6bo4&feature=related and final parade song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMzK7t6Pdu4&feature=related Readings: Drakulić, S., 2007. Bathroom Tales: How We Mistook Normality for Paradise. Available at: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-10-04-drakulic-en.html [Accessed 26 October 2012]. Fehérváry, K., 2002. American Kitchens, Luxury Bathrooms, and the Search for a ‘Normal’ Life in Postsocialist Hungary. Ethnos, 67(3), 369–400. Yurchak, A., 2006. Chapter 5: Imaginary West: The Elsewhere of Late Socialism. In: Everything was Forever, Until it Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 158-206. Klaniczay, G. & Trenczényi, B., 2011. Mapping the Merry Ghetto: Musical Countercultures in East Central Europe. East Central Europe. 38(2-3), 169-179.

11) Countercultural disappointment across the Wall Clips: from The Wild One (1953) “Always going somewhere… crazy, excited” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCENBce_dls, “Hey Johnny, what‟re you rebelling against?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4NkkAQllfo Easy Riders intro “Born to Be Wild”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCEeg6-ax6Y vs. Ford ad with Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2oRTkE6rI

Readings: Szemere, A., 2001. Introduction and 5 The Countercultural Past: Symbolic Capital or Sacred Domain? In: Up From the Underground: The Culture of Rock Music in Postsocialist Hungary. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1-27 and 179- 213. Frank, T., 1997. Chapter 7: Varieties of Hip: Advertisements of the 1960s. In: The Conquest of Cool: Bussiness Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 133-167. Fraser, N., 2009. Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History. New Left Review, 56 (3-4), 97-117.

12) Course assessment, final remarks