Master
2023/2024
Critical and Cultural Theory
Type:
Elective course (Critical Media Studies)
Area of studies:
Media Communications
Delivered by:
Institute of Media
When:
1 year, 4 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Master’s programme:
Критические медиаисследования
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
28
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course will be examining key texts in contemporary critical theory through collective practices of presenting, studying, and learning. The purpose is to encourage deep, analytical, cover-to-cover readings that help immerse within the author’s arguments, theories and methods. The course aims at re-animating the practice of book reading in academic and intellectual contexts, since books, in contrast to journal articles, are media for offering more enhanced expressive possibilities both to the reader as well as the writer. The books this course offers for selection include key texts in the area of cultural theory of the last decade suggesting concrete yet multilayered concepts that can be applicable for thinking through different spheres of social life. Each week a group of students will be presenting each week a book of their interest (chosen by a list of readings suggested by the instructors)
Learning Objectives
- Acquaint students with key scholars and theories of cultural studies
- Acquaint students with the history of cultural studies and the current state of art in cultural studies
- Study important and up-to-date works in cultural studies
- Practice the art of presenting complex theoretical concepts
- Understand the cultural dimensions of questions related to social class and ethnicity
- Examine contemporary cultural phenomena through the lens of theory
- Master the ability to deploy cultural theory in the study of social phenomena
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Assesses major cultural theory works
- Determines the history of the development of critical theory and cultural studies
- Develops research questions on social and media-related phenomena from cultural studies perspectives
- Presents theoretical concepts in class and explains them through the use of relevant examples
- Uses cultural theories for the analysis of social phenomena and problems
Course Contents
- Introduction of the course
- Eva Illouz (2013) Cold Intimacies
- Shani Orgad, Rosalind Gill (2022) Confidence Culture
- Angela McRobbie (2016) Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries
- Sara Ahmed (2000) Strange encounters: embodied others in post-coloniality
- Beverley Skeggs (2003/ 2013) Class, Self, Culture
- Poell, Thomas, Nieborg, David and Duffy, .Erin (2021). Platforms and cultural production
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- McRobbie, A. (2015). Be Creative : Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Chicester: Polity. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1158829
- Olga Goriunova. (2012). Art Platforms and Cultural Production on the Internet. Routledge.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Illouz, E. (2007). Cold Intimacies : The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=572564
- Skeggs, B. (2004). Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=661332