230265 Popular Culture (S) (SoSe 2024)

Literary and cultural studies scholars are no longer writing in a context where ‘the popular’ is widely assumed to be unworthy of serious intellectual or political attention. More than four decades after Stuart Hall’s influential 1981 essay “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’”, it almost goes without saying that ‘the popular’ is intertwined with ‘the political’. In this reading-intensive class, we will study theoretical texts by Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, John Storey and others to explore varied and, at times, conflicting ideas of ‘the popular’. In the second half of the semester, we will apply these ideas to a wide range of case studies, such as Shakespeare’s plays and performances, the rise of contemporary writers to (international) fame, or the interplay of pattern and variation in genre fiction (e.g. crime narratives). Students are welcome to suggest further case studies.

Requirements for participation, required level

Students should be well-acquainted with the basics of literary studies; they should be able to analyse and interpret Anglophone literary texts by drawing on the genre-specific analytical categories. This knowledge and expertise is usually acquired through the successful completion of Basic Module 2.

Students enrolled in FsB 2022: successful completion of Basic Module 1 (LPT)

Bibliography

The theoretical texts will be made available.