AJLA27086 Topics in American Culture: Cultural Politics and Political Cultures of the United States

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2021
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Fri 8:00–9:40 G31
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 7 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/7, only registered: 0/7
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course examines various events and episodes in the interaction between culture and politics in America. Likely topics include the origins and emergence of distinctive regional and ethnic cultures; political orientations and conflicts associated with these; changing cultural and artistic styles over the course of US history; cultural "levels" and categories of evaluation (e.g. “highbrow,” “lowbrow” and “middlebrow”); the influence of ethnic styles, arts and subcultures on the cultural mainstream; "countercultures," challenges to prevailing cultural authority, and "culture wars" past and present; and the controversies and “moral panics” associated with cultural change, including the rise of new media.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will be able to relate current events and controversies in America, especially those regarding cultural matters, to the larger history of such controversies in earlier eras. They will be able to apply a specific vocabulary of cultural evaluation and analysis to explain the underlying cultural causes and dimensions of America's political conflicts, and the ways in which controversies over culture and art tend to be politicized.
Syllabus
  • NOTE: Assigned readings, and links to assigned films / videos / music, are posted to the week-by-week folders on the course ELF page. Assignments listed below should be read or viewed before the class meeting for that week. They are provisional and subject to revision or supplementing up to one week before that class meeting.
  • WEEK 1: Course Introduction: Culture, Politics, and "Cultural Politics"
  • In class: Dreher, “Generation Greta: Too Afraid to Live”
  • WEEK 2: The Search for a National Culture
  • Read: Freneau, The Rising Glory of America, and Snowden, The American Revolution, excerpts posted; Weems, The Life of Washington, excerpts posted; “The Star-Spangl’d Banner” and “Yankee Doodle” (lyrics); Whitman, Democratic Vistas, excerpts posted
  • WEEK 3: Regional Cultures and their Origins
  • Read: Woodard, American Nations, introduction; Tyler, The Contrast, excerpts posted; Harkin, Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, introduction; Cobb, Away Down South, excerpts posted
  • WEEK 4: American “Genius” and the “American Renaissance”
  • READ: Posted excerpts from Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life; Smith, The Letters of Jack Downing; Goetzmann, “The Wild Jacksonian Age”; Bergmann, God in the Street; American Renaissance writings (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman)
  • WEEK 5: Racial Archetypes and Stereotypes
  • Read: Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, chapter 1; Robinson, Regimes of Race, chapter 3
  • WEEK 6: Cultural Hierarchies (1)
  • View: Singin' in the Rain; The Music Man
  • WEEK 7: Cultural Hierarchies (2)
  • Read: Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow, excerpts posted; Scruton, “A Fine Line Between Art and Kitsch”; Macdonald, “Masscult and Midcult,” excerpts posted; Postman, “The Medium is the Metaphor”
  • WEEK 8: Identity Groups and Cultural Styles
  • Read: Censoring Racial Ridicule, excerpt posted; Finkelstein, Jewish Comedy Stars, excerpts posted; Leibovitz, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”; Mailer, “The White Negro,” excerpts posted; Ford, “Hip Sensibility in an Age of Mass Counterculture,” excerpts posted; VOX, “What is Camp?”; Frum, “Halloween and gay culture”
  • Week 9: Reading Week; no class meeting
  • WEEK 10: Utopianism and the Counterculture
  • Read: Berman, A Tale of Two Utopias, excerpts posted; Regarding music (1) and (2); Sirius, Counterculture Through the Ages, excerpts posted
  • View: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Hair
  • WEEK 11: Objections from Left and Right
  • Read: Doherty, “Homosexuality, Anticommunism, and Television,” excerpt posted; Hochschild, “When Dissent Became Treason,” excerpts posted; Wilson, “Betrayal of the Future,” excerpts posted; Wolin, “Site of Catastrophe,” excerpts posted
  • WEEK 12: Moral Panics and Culture Wars
  • Read: "A history of wokeness" and "The second wave of 'cancel culture'"; Sawchuck, "What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?"; "Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History"; French, "The Threat from the Anti-Woke Right"; Levitz, "When Keeping It 'Woke' Gets Racist, Liberals Should Say So"; Dreher, "A Speech for the American Zemmour"
  • WEEK 13: TBA
Teaching methods
Lecture / discussion, readings, film and video viewings.
Assessment methods
Final exam, plus short essay responses and/or online postings. Details to be announced at the start of the term.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
General note: This course is NOT designated for Erasmus students! List of courses offerd by the Department of English and American studies for Erasmsus students is available at http://www.phil.muni.cz/wkaa/ under "Information for Erasmus students".
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