230649 Liberal Arts, Media & Culture in a Postcolonial Context (S) (WiSe 2016/2017)

This course offers students an introduction to methods of critically analyzing contemporary forms of media for the pleasures, meanings and identities they offer, and the social and cultural processes of which they are part. We will explore a body of theoretical literature to help us unpack the meaning, value, experiences, politics and ideologies embedded in media images, stories and spectacles from the South Asian-Afghanistan region in case studies ranging from popular Bollywood films, Pakistan satellite news broadcasts, TIME magazine covers to Pakistan diasporas music videos in cyberspace. Approaching these texts through diverse critical perspectives, in readings of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, post modernity, imperialism and globalization, we will ask pertinent questions about the power, the influence of media upon social worlds. The particular focus of the course is on the Cultural dimension of Gender Studies, Art & Literature and Post Colonial Studies using Media space.

Learning Outcomes:

This course will enable students to:
- Examine media’s embedded social and cultural dynamics.
- Identify and apply academic theories and concepts to discuss and analyze media and culture through different critical intentions.

Course Content:

- Introductions:
1. Media in Socio-Cultural Contexts
2. Social Construction of Cultural Dimension of Gender & Sexuality (Focus on Media and Literature)
3. Introduction to Postcolonial Studies, Theory and Literature
- Film Screening & Discussion: Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog (1997)
- Media Power and Powers Over the Media
- Media Texts and Users
- Oriental Imagining of Muslim Women in International Print Media
- Construction of Class/ taste Distinctions in Pakistani Theatre
- The Spectacle of Violence in Television News
- Dialogism and the Interplay between Outsiders and Insiders in Pakistan’s Infotainment Sphere
- Nationalism or Dissidence in popular Bollywood Film Narrative
- Under Western Eyes and Oppositional Politics: Documenting Devdasis in Cyber democracy
- Global Agendas or Domestic Concerns: The Rise of New Pakistani Cinema
- Stereotypes and Post Modern Parody: Recreating Barbie Doll in Queer Diaspora Culture
- Postcolonial Literature (Fiction, Drama and Poetry from South Asia and Africa)
The course tutor reserves the right to make adjustments to course content.