Modes of Cultural Analysis (402-0-1)

Instructors

Dilip Gaonkar
847/491-5853
2240 Campus Dr. Rm 2-148 Frances Searle Building

Meeting Info

Frances Searle Building 1483: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This seminar is designed to introduce students to the opportunities and challenges involved in the cultural analysis of communicative forms, genres, and practices as situated in given contexts and historical moments. Given the complexity of such a task, the course aims not for theoretical or methodological mastery but initiates a process of mapping relevant traditions and literatures that have influenced recent attempts to connect rhetoric, media, publics, and culture. This seminar will examine how "culture"(or "cultural"), taken broadly in its multiple renditions, motivates and shapes the constitution and consequences of communicative actions in rhetoric, media and publics. Specifically, we will focus on the cultural theory and critical practice of the following thinkers/scholars: Clifford Geertz, Lauren Berlant, Sianne Ngai, Hayden White, Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, and Kenneth Burke. If time permits, we might briefly engage with the works of Pierre Bourdieu, Walter Benjamin, and Jacques Rancière.

Class Materials (Required)

No textbook required.

Class Attributes

Graduate Students Only