Dr. Angela M. S. Nelson, Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403-0226, (419) 372-0284; e-mail: anelson@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Course Description:
Popular Culture of the twentieth century, including mass media, is the
major cultural environment to which almost all Americans have experienced
and can relate. The popular environment both shapes and is shaped by all
of us. Consequently, our cultural heritage and our present cultural
identity are both intimately related to Popular Culture. This introductory
course is designed to facilitate the recognition, understanding,
utilization, and appreciation of the basic theories of, approaches to, and
topics within Popular Culture. In addition, this course will serve as a
beginning point for documenting a personal cultural self-awareness of
American Popular Culture.
Required Books and Materials:
Nachbar, Jack and Kevin Lause, ed. Popular Culture: An Introductory Text.
Bowling Green, OH: BGSU Popular Press, 1992.
Nelson. POPC 160 (Introduction to Popular Culture) Course Packet, 1994.
Course Exams and Materials Overview:
Two Exams (45%)
Exams will include material from lectures, textbook readings, and
audiovisual presentations. Both exams to a minimal extent will be
cumulative.
Short Assignments (35%)
Short assignments will include such items as video reports, in-class group
exercises (from the Course Packet), and study questions. Only handwritten
assignments written on looseleaf paper or on spiral notebook paper with the
edges cut off will be accepted. Since some of the short assignments are
located in the Course Packets, at times they will be collected for grading.
Paper (20%)
One paper focusing on the application of the "tools" of Popular Culture
studies will be submitted by each student.
Paper Topic: Describe ONE important (a) myth, belief, or value, (b) icon,
(c) celebrity, (d) stereotype, and (e) ritual that existed in American
culture in 1954.
Procedure:
a. Choose a SINGLE ISSUE from one of the following magazines or
newspapers published in the year 1954:
(1) The Ladies Home Journal
(2) Life
(3) The Saturday Evening Post
(4) Ebony
(5) Toledo Bronze Raven (August-December only)
b. Study the entire newspaper or magazine in minute detail. Read the
articles, editorials, ads, letters to the editor, short stories, photo
features and, comic strips. In other words, read carefully EVERYTHING in
the periodical.
c. Consult and incorporate the following pages of the textbook in
order to substantiate your arguments concerning each of the "tools"
listed above: myths, beliefs, values (pp. 22-23, 82-109); icons (pp.
23-27, 172-174, 178-182); celebrities (pp. 23-27, 326-327); stereotypes
(pp. 23-27, 236-237); and rituals (pp. 27-28, 376-382, 385-386).
Class Agenda and Reading Assignment Schedule:
January 11 Brief introduction to course: What is Popular Culture?
January 13 Getting To Know Us 1-20
January 18 20-35
January 20 Section 2 Myths, Beliefs, Values 82-109
January 25 110-120
January 27 121-133
February 1 134-148
February 3 149-166
February 8 Section 3 Icons 169-185
February 10 186-210
February 15 211-234
February 17 Review
February 22 Exam #1 (1-234; 40 points)
February 24 NO CLASS
March 1 Section 4 Stereotypes 236-261
March 3 262-291
March 8 View: Ethnic Notions
March 10 292-311
March 15 Section 5 Heroes/Celebrities 312, 314-343
March 17 345-365
March 21-25 NO CLASS Spring Recess
March 29 366-373
March 31 Paper proposal due
Section 6 Rituals 376-402
April 5 403-411
April 7 Section 7 Formulas/Popular Arts 414-429
Section 1 Taking Popular Culture Seriously 38-54
April 12 430-444
Origins and Development of Rap Music (Course
Packet)
April 14 445-462
April 19 463-488
April 21 Paper due
Situation Comedy (Course Packet)
April 26 Section 8 490-504
April 28 Review
May 2-6 Exam #2 (235-504; 60 points)
Final Examinations Week