First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-22)
Topic
2000s Pop Culture and Politics
Instructors
Johana Staza Godfrey
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Flip-phones, Tabloids, Juicy Couture: 2000s Pop Culture and Politics
Picture this: it's 2005. You've got "1, 2 Step" by Ciara and "Pon de Replay" by Rihanna loaded on your iPod mini, and your dad has promised to take you to the brand-new Bubble tea place in the mall if you join him at the Iraq War protest. In this class, we'll take an honest look at the 2000s, a decade shaped by the tension between conspicuous consumption and political awareness. We'll focus our critique on the media and pop culture sandstorms that shaped your (early) childhood: Kanye West's comments on Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, the infamous tabloid photograph of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears titled "Bimbo Summit." We'll form our own cultural account and critique of the 2000s, reading between the lines to grapple with the economic inequality, racial disparity, and exaggerated and limiting gender roles that shaped popular culture. How can we account for our own recent history, and how does nostalgia warp our perception of the past? Each class will be anchored by broadcast news clips, news articles, and tabloid headlines, and ads, and we'll watch selections from reality classics Laguna Beach, America's Next Top Model, and Jackass; TV shows like Friday Night Lights and The Wire; Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko; Alice Wu's Saving Face; Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums; Gurinder Chadha's Bend it Like Beckham; and music videos by Destiny's Child, Green Day, and Outkast, among others.
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion, group exercises.
Evaluation Method
Participation, discussion posts, short analytical paper, final project.
Class Materials (Required)
Selections from Friday Night Lights, The Wire, The Sopranos, Laguna Beach, Jackass, and the Daily Show; Alice Wu's Saving Face; Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko; Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums; Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network; excerpts from Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and Claudia Rankine's "Citizen."
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar