Cultural Theory Cultural Studies

Kulturwissenschaft erforscht die vom Menschen hervorgebrachten Einrichtungen, die zwischenmenschlichen, insbesondere die medial vermittelten Handlungs- und Konfliktformen sowie deren Werte- und Normenhorizonte. (Böhme/Matussek/Müller 2000) One of the most notoriously difficult tasks in the study of literature and culture is the application of theoretical texts to cultural products, practices and institutions. This class starts from the assumption that rather than accumulating information on a given area, cultural studies will equip students with the tools to interpret and analyse cultures. This lecture course thus aims at providing a rough (and necessarily sketchy) overview over cultural theory, which is located somewhat uneasily on the fence between sociology and literary studies. We will start with definitions of the elusive concepts ‘culture’ and ‘theory’ and by looking at exemplary introductions to cultural studies in English Studies. Although this class will not offer a narrow Landeskunde (area studies) of Great Britain or the United Kingdom, the focus will consistently be on examples from the English-speaking world, with a special emphasis on the area of the British isles. We will begin with the classics of 19th-century cultural theory (Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin) and cover culturalism (Richard Hoggart), Marxism (E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Frankfurt school), structuralism (Stuart Hall), narratology and semiotics (Umberto Eco, Seymour Chatman, David Bordwell), discourse analysis (Michel Foucault), postmodernism (Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson), phenomenology and hermeneutics (Ernst Cassirer, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Mikhail Bakhtin), anthropology (Clifford Geertz), new historicism (Stephen Greenblatt), psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva), media convergence / participatory culture (Henry Jenkins, Pierre Bourdieu), gender studies (Laura Mulvey, Judith Butler) and postcolonial / intercultural studies (Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri C. Spivak) and biologism / bio-politics. We will also seek to link the reading of theoretical texts consistently to exemplary texts, issues and institutions, so that, in the end, you will be equipped to 'read' cultural forms and norms. Anglistik - Literaturwissenschaft Universität Siegen SoSe 2012 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Voigts Virchow Eckart