The University of Alberta Revised January 7, 2014 Department of Human Ecology Dress and Culture - HECOL 360 Course Outline - Winter 2014 Instructor: Dr. Anne Bissonnette Office & Phone: HEB 325, Human Ecology Building, 780.492.3604 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: By appointment only. Requests to be made via e-mail 48 hrs. ahead of time. Students can usually expect a response to e-mails within 48 hrs., not including weekends when I do not read e-mails. Lectures Place & Time: Education Center South (ED) 265: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:50 p.m. COURSE INFORMATION Course Description: The complex phenomenon of bodily adornment is explored in relationship to values, attitudes, activities, beliefs, and forms of knowledge. Clothing is considered in terms of how it is expressive of various aspects of culture. Students develop analytical skills to help them understand the role played by clothing and adornment in different times, places, and contexts. Course Prerequisite: HECOL 201. Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course the student will have: 1) been introduced to a broad range of significant issues concerning the relationship between dress and culture; 2) gained an understanding of how dress functions as a response to wider cultural contexts; 3) been introduced to methods of analysis and critical debates relevant to the topic; 4) developed awareness of a range of scholarly literature concerning the subject of dress; 5) developed skills in critical thinking, research, and scholarly writing. REQUIRED READING Listed in individual class description (see next section). N.B. Modifications may be made to the required list (advance notice will be given). Other readings may be handed out or made available throughout the semester. It is extremely important that students keep up with readings. TO CONSULT: Costume (Journal) Published by Maney, held in Cameron Library or on the Internet. Dress (Journal) Published by the Costume Society of America, held in Cameron Library or on the Internet. Fashion Theory (Journal) Published by Berg; held in Cameron Library and on the Internet. Miller-Spillman, Kimberly A., Andrew Reilly and Patricia Hunt-Hurst eds. The Meaning of Dress. 3rd ed. New York: Fairchild Publications, 2012. The Chicago Manual of Style.16th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010. LECTURES SCHEDULE, ASSIGNMENTS, ACTIVITIES & EXAM Week Date Topic 1 T: Jan. 7 Introduction Explanation of the syllabus. Review of the reading summary template, exploration of “deep reading” methods. Debating format & the final exam. Th: Jan. 9 Dress as Visual Communication: Reading for this class: Fred Davis, Fashion, Culture, and Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), chapter 1 (Do Clothes Speak?), 3 -18. (14.5 pages of text) Student to access electronically For ALL READINGS: bring 2 copies of reading summary following the template (3 pages max: 2 rectos, 1 verso). 1 2 T: Jan. 14 Reading for this class: Québec’s proposed Bill 60: Charter of Values: access electronically (Second link entitled “Bill 60” leads to PDF document) (18 pages of text) Discussion: What is Bill 60 and what does it entail? How does it relate to dress behaviors explicitly and implicitly? What is the resolution that shall be addressed in the final exam? Th: Jan. 16* GUEST SPEAKER: Wade King, Advisor, Office of Safe Disclosure & Human Rights, University of Alberta. Workshop Topic: “What is Duty to Accommodate?” *Last day to add/drop winter term courses: Jan. 17, 2014 3 T: Jan. 21 Reading to discuss in class: Katarina Kuruc, “Fashion as Communication: A Semiotic Analysis of Fashion on ‘Sex and the City,” Semiotica 171 (2008), 193–214. (about 21 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. Debate practice #1 based on today’s reading 1) What is a debate? 2) The resolution to be debated is: “”Sex and the City” uses fashion to perpetuate superficial feminine stereotypes.” Th: Jan. 23 Reading for this class: Pamela Flores, “Fashion and Otherness: The Passionate Journey of Coppola’s Marie Antoinette from a Semiotic Perspective,” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 17, no. 5 (November 2013): 605-622. (about 15 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. 4 T: Jan. 28 Gender: Discussion on reading and on what we perceive as gender deviance. Reading for this class: Amelia F. Rauser, “Hair, Authenticity, and the Self-Made Macaroni,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 38, no. 1 (fall 2004): 101- 117. (17 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription (use “Project Muse Premium Collection” to get the PDF text). Debate practice #2 based on today’s reading The resolution to be debated is: “The ‘macaroni’s dress behavior was outside norms but foresaw individual practices deemed suspicious today.” Th: Jan. 30 GUEST SPEAKER: Michael Phair, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (ISMSS), University of Alberta. 5 T: Feb 4* Readings (ALL THESE TEXTS) for this class: 1. Elaine Sciolino, “The Chanel Under the Chador,” New York Times Magazine, May 4, 1997. (about 6 pages of text) Access electronically 2. Jenny Nordberg, “Afghan Boys are Prized, so Girls Live the Part,” The New York Times, September 20, 2010. (about 6 pages of text) Access electronically 3. “Hair, Beards, and Power: Taking it on the Chin,” The Economist, August 7, 2010. (1.75 pages of text) Access electronically *Winter term refund deadline: students withdrawing from courses after Feb 5, 2014, will be assessed full fees. Th: Feb 6 Reading to discuss in class: Christopher Breward, “Masculine Pleasures: Metropolitan Identities and the Commercial Sites of Dandyism, 1790–1840,” The London Journal, volume 28, number 1 (May 2003), pp. 60-72. (13 pages) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription (P.S.: search for “London Journal” in the UofA journal search (not “THE London Journal”)) 6 T: Feb.11 Debating quatuor 1 Reading for this class: Patricia A. Kimle and Mary Lynn Damhorst, “A Grounded Theory Model of the Ideal Business Image for Women,” in Symbolic Interaction 20, no. 1 (1997): 45-68. (about 20 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. The resolution to be debated is: “As part of a complex role-playing strategy, being too masculine in one’s dress can affect women’s performance in the corporate world more than being too feminine.” 2 Th: Feb. 13 Debating quatuor 2 Reading for this class: Steven Connor, “Men in Skirts,” in Women: A Cultural Review 13, no. 1 (2002): 257-271. (15 pages of text) Student to go online to Google Scholar: type “Men in Skirts” Click on the link that is subtitled “S Connor - Women: a cultural review, 2002 - Taylor & Francis” On that page click on the PDF icon with note besides “download full text” This should be free through the UofA but if you can’t succeed ask a librarian (you might have to log in from a university computer). The resolution to be debated is: “Men’s dress behaviors in the western world are more strongly affected by cultural norms than women’s.” 7 T: Feb. 18 Winter Term Reading Week 18-21: no classes Th: Feb. 20 Winter Term Reading Week 18-21: no classes 8 T: Feb. 25 The Self in Social Context: Age, Race and Religion Debating quatuor 3 Reading for this class: Twigg, Julia. “How Does Vogue Negotiate Age?: Fashion, the Body, and the Older Woman,” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 14, no. 4 (December 2010): 471-490. (20 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. The resolution to be debated is: “Representations of diverse populations in advertising are few and detrimental to commercial interests.” Th: Feb. 27 Debating quatuor 4 Michelman, Susan. “Changing Old Habits: Dress of Women Religious and Its Relationship to Personal and Social Identity.” Sociological Inquiry 67, no. 3 (1997): 350-363. (13 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. The resolution to be debated is: “In a subculture or group context, social identity is defined by particular dress behavior that strips away individuality.” 9 T: March 4 Debating quatuor (or duo) 5 Readings (ALL THESE TEXTS) for this class: 1. “Me?In That?,” Life Magazine, July 10, 1964, pp. 54-55. (0.25 page of text) 2. Shana Alexander, “Fashion’s Best Joke on Itself in Years,” Life Magazine, July 10, 1964, pp. 56-62. (2 p. of text) Access online for both of them. 3. Serge Desmarais, Dayna S. Fischtein and Edward S. Herold, “Canadian Attitudes Toward Female Topless Behaviour: A National Survey,” in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 14, no. 3-4 (Fall-Winter 2005): 63-75. (12 p. of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. The resolution to be debated is: “In our secular environment, perceptions of the body, in and out of clothing, remain deeply undermined by virtue, modesty and other moral values.” Th: March 6 Watching in class: Good hair [videorecording] / HBO Films, Zahrlo production and and an Urban Romances production; produced by Chris Rock, Kevin O'Donnell and Nelson George; written by Chris Rock, Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther, Chuck Sklar; directed by Jeff Stilson (2009). (96 minutes documentary) 10 T: March 11 Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Ardis Storm-Mathisen, “Reading Fashion as Age: Teenage Girls' and Grown Women's Accounts of Clothing as Body and Social Status,” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 9, no. 3 (September 2005) 323-342 (20 pages of text) Student to access electronically via the UofA electronic journal subscription. Th: March 13 Reading for this class: Cynthia L.