Seminar Reading Television Cop and Gangsters in The Wire

Das Seminar findet am Samstag, den 23.10.2010 ab 11.00 Uhr statt im Raum 0104, Arnold-Bode-Str. 10!!! Television Studies, it is generally assumed, cannot tell us what the world is like; all we can get from analyzing television is how the world is constructed, how symbolic universes are produced and reproduced in television shows. The same might be true for science: it does not discover what the world is like, but is simply one voice constructing a symbolic universe. Chicago school sociology has often chosen to construct cops-and-gangsters stories, in Thrasher's The Gang, Whyte's Street Corner Society, Sutherland's Professional Thief, Venkatesh's Off the Books, Prus' Hookers, Rounders and Desk Clerks, and many, many more. Television also prefers to construct cops and-gangsters stories. The Wire is one of the more notable of these constructions, and it is openly and admittedly influenced by Chicago School sociology: it could be called a television version of Street Corner Society. The class will analyze this ethnographic study masquerading as entertainment, or entertainment masquerading as ethnographic study (or maybe something different entirely?) with the intention of studying how The Wire constructs -cops and gangsters- - and how its constructions differ from prevalent ones both on and off television. The class is held in English. Language proficiency is indispensable. The class will meet fpr a block term at the beginnking of the semester to watch -The Wire- together. After that, regular weekly classes will be held until Christmas. There are no limitations on participation (except for the language requirement). No registration with me is necessary. Seriously, DO NOT register with me. just show up. FB 05 Gesellschaftswissenschaften Uni Kassel WiSe 2010/11 Soziologie HF Dr. Dellwing Michael