Music, Art, Film and TV

Music, Art, Film and TV - Syllabus

Sociology of Music, Art, Film and TV

GHIS 5131 Poetry and Protest: Local Cultural Identities in a Global World - Fall 2004. New School University - Eiko Ikegami
Arts, poetry, and cultural practices often express sentiments of protest. The term poetry is used as a metaphor for various forms of aesthetic practices manifested in such forms as fiction, stories, poetry, performing arts, music, and fashion. Poetry can be a form of expressing protest in a variety of ways; direct expressions of political contention are only one way of connecting the dimensions of aesthetics and politics. Consequently, this seminar explores the dynamic relationships between poetry and politics from a variety of sociological viewpoints. Drawing from cases in various areas such as East India, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe, this course explores the dynamics of forming local cultural identities expressed in the medium of popular cultural practices and aesthetics against the contexts of global and regional cultural intersections. The focus of our exploration lies in the dynamic cultural interactions between local and global in the formation of identities.

SOCIOLOGY OF THE ARTS - Emory University - Soc 561; Spring 2005
Sociological consideration of the arts has a long history. It extends back to the works of such classical writers as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel and weaves its way to contemporary work by such scholars as Paul DiMaggio, Wendy Griswold, and Tia DeNora. In this advanced seminar, we seek a purchase on this literature by attending to a number of themes and exemplar works within these themes. As a result, we will examine theoretical traditions associated with, among others, Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno, and we will explore such topics as artistic careers, cultural capital, and the globalization of the arts.

Soc 71: Sociology of popular music. Prof. Dipannita Basu dbasu@pitzer.edu
This course concentrates on primarily reggae, dancehall, hip-hop and dance music (house to UK underground garage). These genres provide the sonic prism through which to examine: the societal conditions in which music emerges; authenticity and appropriation (how popular music thrives on borrowing customizing and reinterpreting other people's cultural property); the representation/production and consumption of music (i.e. the media and music industry), and the political and social implications of popular music (gender, race, globalization).

Wellesley College - Sociology of Film - wellesley.edu/Sociology/syllabi/SOC332.html

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will examine movie-going and the experience of spectatorship within a comparative and historical frame.
Focus will be on the relationship between the spectator and the cultural product and the evolution of the culture of
reception. Beginning with an exploration of the origins of cinema and its links to the consumer revolution in the 19th
century, the course will follow the evolution of cinema through its itinerant, nickelodeon and movie palace eras and
beyond with particular emphasis on reception settings, film exhibition and audiences.

The larger objective is to examine movie-going in the contemporary United States through a comparative lens and to
analyse the audiences’ experiences of movie-going keeping in mind cultural variations.

There will be a field assignment which will involve going to the movies. To that end we will survey existing methods to
study movie-going and movie audiences.

Course requirements
Books
Herbert Gans. Popular Culture and High Culture. An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste. Baisc Books. 1999 (edition).
Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby (eds). American Movie Audiences. From the turn of the century to the early sound
era. British Film Institute Press. 1999.
Douglas Gomery. Shared Pleasures. U of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Kathryn Fuller. At the Picture Show. Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture. Smithsonian
Institution Press. 1996.
Will Wright. Sixguns and Society. University of California Press, Berkeley.1975

*Please note that most if not all of the required books will be available on reserve in the library

Reserve readings in library. These book chapters and journal articles are marked Ž in the syllabus.

The class will have a final examination (30% of total grade), a term paper (40% of grade) due the last week of classes
and a midterm assignment. Students will be required to hand in weekly questions or comments on the readings for 10 %
of the grade. Only questions that I receive before the class meeting will count for the grade.

I have a strict policy of not accepting late assignments. Any work handed in late will receive a grade penalty. Make-up
exams will only be given in the case of medical emergencies.

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Wellesley College and wish to have a reasonable
accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.

Please note changes may be made to the syllabus as the semester proceeds. Changes will be announced in lecture.

SYLLABUS

Week 1. Sept. 4th

Distribution of syllabus and introduction to the course

Week 2. Sept. 11th
Mass culture and society; Mass society thesis.

Gans.. Introduction. Mass culture, popular culture, high culture
Gans. Chapters 1 & 2: "The critique of mass culture" and "A comparative analysis of popular and high culture".
Wanderer,Jules. "In defense of popular taste: film ratings among professionals and lay audiences". American Journal of
Sociology.Ž
Eliashberg, J. and Shugan. Film critics. Influencers or Predictors? Journal of Marketing Ž

Week 3. Sept. 18th
Making sense of movies: textual analysis versus reception analysis

Will Wright. Ch. 1,2,3.
Shiveley. Cowboys and Indians. Perceptions of Western Films Among American Indians and Anglos. American
Sociological Review. 1992. Ž
Powdermaker. Chapter. Going to the movies. Ž

Week 4. Sept. 25th
Origins of mass culture and early cinema

Rosalind Williams. "Dream Worlds of Mass Consumption", chapter 3 in Dream Worlds. Mass Consumption in Late 19th
century France. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. 1982. Ž
Vanessa Schwartz. "Cinematic spectatorship before the apparatus: The public taste for reality in fin-de-siecle
Paris".pp.297-319. in Charney and Schwartz. Ž
Kracauer. Basic Concepts. From the Theory of Film. In Film Theory and Criticism (ed) Braudy and Cohen. Ž
Tom Gunning. "The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant Garde" .pp56-61.in Early Cinema.
Space, Frame, Narrative. (ed). Thomas Elsaesser. 1990. BFI Publishing. Ž
Video: The Movies Begin.

Recommended:
Simmel. "The metropolis and mental life". pp.409-424. in The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Trans. Kurt Wolff. Ž

Week 5. Oct. 2nd
Early cinema and its audience

Charles Musser selected chapters in "Before the Nickleodeon", Berkeley, Univ. of California Press. 1991. Ž
Video: Before the Nickelodeon.
Tom Gunning. " An aesthetic of astonishment: Early Film, and the (In)credulous Spectator", pp. 818-832. in Art and Text
34. Spring 1989. Ž
Video: The Movies Begin (contd).
Garth S. Jowett. "The First Motion Picture Audiences". J of Popular Film.pp.39-54. Ž
Kathryn Fuller. " The Cook and Harris High Class Moving Picture Company" Chapter 1. in At the Picture Show.
Smithsonian Institution Press. 1996.
Douglas Gomery. "The Movie Show Begins", Ch. 1. in Shared Pleasures. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1992.

Week 6: Oct. 9th. NO CLASSES

Week 7. Oct. 16th
Nickelodeons

Larry May. Chapter 2: The Decline of Progress (Nickleodeon) Ž
Fuller. Chapter 3: The Nickleodeon
Russell Merritt. Nickelodeons Theaters 1905-1914: Building an Audience for the Movies.Ž
Gomery. "The Nickelodeon Era", Chapter 2.
Film: The Great Train Robbery

Midterm assignment due

Week 8. Oct. 23rd
Contemporary movie-going in the United States

Douglas Gomery "Contemporary Movie-going". Chapter 6. in Shared Pleasures.
Epstein, ‘Multiplexities’. The New Yorker. 1998. Ž
‘A Theater Near You’. Time magazine. 9/13/99
Philip Lentz.‘Word of Mouth can make or break a movie’. The Bulletin. 1979.
Strauss Zelnick. "Twentieth Century Fox".in Making and Selling Culture. 1996. Ž
Article ‘Big Tease’. Sight and Sound. Ž
Videos: Depictions of movie-going in the movies

Week 9: Oct. 30th
Studying movie audiences

Jason E. Squire. ‘Industry Economic and Profile’. In The Movie Business Book. 1992. Ž
Handel. Ch.1 "The development and nature of film audience research". Ž
Bruce Austin. Ch.1 "The film industry and audience research".Ž
Ch. 2 "Movies and Leisure". Ž
Jowett and Linton. "Giving the people what they want" Ž
" Keeping them in the dark" Ž
Fuller. Ch. "Coming of Age at the Picture Show".
Blumer. "Movies and Conduct—Table of content and excerpts". Ž

Discussion of term paper

Week 10: Nov. 6th
Interactive audiences

1. Theater audiences
Mittman. Spectators on the Paris Stage in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Chapter 1. Stage seating (17th and 18 century theater in France) Ž
Chapter 2. Social and aesthetic practices Ž
Chapter 5.; p. 106-108. Ž
Papp and Kirkland. ‘Shakespeare Alive’. Ch.7 ‘The Revolution of 1576: The theatre is born’. Ž
And pp. 141-145 Ž

Silent film audiences
"This is where we came in: the Audible Screen and the Voluble Audience of Early Sound Cinema" Ch.9 in Stokes and
Maltby. American Movie Audiences.

Non-western audiences
Powdermaker. Re-read
Srinivas. 1998. Active Viewing: An Ethnography of the Indian Cinema Audience. Visual Anthropology. Ž
Larkin. Indian films and Nigerian lovers. In Africa. Ž

Visuals on movie-going in India

Weeks 11-12. Ethnicity and movie-going in the United States.

Week 11. Nov. 13th

1. Immigrant audiences
Judith Thiessen "Jewish immigrant audiences in New York City, 1905-14". Ch. 1 in American Movie Audiences. Ž
Miriam Hansen. Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film. Ž
Chapter 2: Early Cinema: Myths and Models
Judith Mayne "Immigrants and spectators." Wide Angle. Ž
Ewen. City Lights Ž

Film: The Immigrant (Chaplin).

Week 12: Nov. 20th

2. Movies and African Americans
Mary Carbine. "The Finest Outside the Loop": Motion Picture Exhibition in Chicago’s Black Metropolis, 1905-1928.
Camera Obscura. 23 (1990):8-41. Ž
Douglas Gomery. Ch 8. "Movie theaters for Black Americans".
Gregory A. Waller. "Another Audience: Black Movie-going, 1907-16". Cinema Journal. 31.No.2 Winter 1992. Ž
"Film and Ethnic Identity in Harlem, 1896-1915" Ch.3 in American Movie Audiences.
Kathryn Fuller: Chapter 2: "Regional Diversity of Movie-going"
Blackface, White Noise. Selected chapters Ž

Film: The Jazz Singer

Nov. 21-26th THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 13: Nov. 27th
Upward mobility

Miriam Hansen. "New Universal Language" pp.76-89.
Lary May. Chapter 6. You are the Star: The Evolution of the Theater Palace
Fuller. Chapter 5: Movie Palaces
Shelley Stamp. "Spare me one evening: cultivating cinema’s female audiences’ from Movie Struck Girls Ch.1

Week 14: Dec. 4th review

Term paper due in class

Social reform and upward mobility

Miriam Hansen."Women’s Passion for the Cinema: The Erosion of Separate Spheres"pp.114-125 in Babel and Babylon.
Shelley Stamp."Is Any Girl Safe?" Ch.2 in Movie-Struck Girls.
"The House of Dreams" 1909. Jane Addams
Cheap Thrillers (1911), Chicago Vice Commission
Censoring the 5cent drama (1910) Charles V. Tevis

Film: Traffic in Souls