045:250:001
Seminar: Topics in
American Studies:
American
Subcultures
Course Times: Mondays, 6:00-8:30 pm, in 216 EPB
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1-2:30 PM, in 472
EPB
E-mail/Phone: rob-latham@uiowa.edu; 335-0035
Required Texts (available at Prairie Lights Bookstore):
Stuart Hall & Tony Jefferson, eds., Resistance
through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Postwar Britain
Dick Hebdige, Subculture:
The Meaning of Style
Aimee Cooper, Coloring
Outside the Lines
Mark Andersen and
Mark Jenkins, Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital
Don De Grazia, American Skin
Alan
Warner, Morvern Callar
Chuck D and Yusuf
Jah, Chuck D: Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary
Adam
Mansbach, Angry Black White Boy
Douglas
Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Also Required (on library reserve):
Course
Reader (two expanding files organized into nine weekly folders)
Screenings: There will be a series of film screenings starting in
week 6 and ending in week 11. The screenings will be held on Tuesday evenings,
from 8-10 PM, in E105 Adler (save for the October 2 screening, which will be in
E120 Adler). I will do my best to make copies of the films available on reserve
at the library’s media center for those who are unable to attend.
Description: This course will offer a solid grounding in
cultural studies methods by means of an exploration of theories and practices
of subcultures. We will begin by examining the influential work of the
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the 1970s, whose
powerful models of subcultural analysis integrated marxist and semiotic
approaches in order to investigate working-class youth movements in postwar
Britain. We will then move to consider rethinkings of this schema by prominent
members of the CCCS in the 1980s and even more radical critiques by “post-subculturalist”
thinkers in the 1990s and after.
Following this immersion in subculture
theory, we will proceed to a series of case studies of subcultural movements
and issues. Our primary materials will relate to youth subcultural movements,
principally though not exclusively American, of the 1970s-1990s (punks,
skinheads, rappers, etc.). An abiding concern will be to see how youth
subcultures, as popular generational forms of identification, intersect with
other compelling markers of collective identity, especially race, class,
gender, and sexuality. To this end, we will survey relevant texts from various
media and genres, including fiction, sociology, film, music, and popular
fashion, among others.
Although the course, as noted, will focus
specifically on youth subcultures, I am open to final research projects that
apply the theoretical perspectives we canvass to other subcultural movements,
broadly construed.
Requirements and Assignments: The first requirement
is preparation and attendance. Because we meet only once per week, and
because the material we will cover builds cumulatively, missing class for any
reason short of serious illness or other emergency is not a good idea. Also, I
am committed to conducting this course as a genuine seminar, so your consistent
participation in dialogue—based on a focused and critical engagement with the
course materials—is absolutely essential to its success. An evaluation of your
contribution to class discussion will form a major part of my assessment of
your final grade.
The
required writing consists of a series of brief (1-2 page) response papers, a
book review (with related in-class report), and a final 25-page research paper.
The response papers, which should focus on the texts we have read in common,
can be expository (explaining some issue or implication in the texts), critical
(arraigning the texts on the basis of ideological concerns), and/or quizzical
(formulating questions to be addressed in our collective response to the
texts). Your responses need not address all of the texts assigned in a given
week, but they should make an effort to be as synthetic as possible. Feel free
to use these papers to stake out strong positions, though knee-jerk emotional
responses should be avoided. You’re required to produce a total of eight of
these responses (out of a potential ten) over the course of the semester; these
responses will not be graded individually, but a cumulative grade will be
assigned to them at semester’s end. I’ll write extensive comments on the
responses and return them promptly, so you should have a good sense of how
you’re doing from week to week. The responses will be collected at the
beginning of each class session.
Starting
in week 5 and ending in week 12, two books relevant to the weekly topics will
be assigned for review. (These books, with a couple of exceptions, are
available on reserve at the main library.) Each of you will need to prepare
both a book review and an in-class report on your selected title. The reviews should
be conceived and drafted as if for professional publication; briefly, each
review should contextualize the work under discussion theoretically and/or
historically, summarize its basic organization and main line of argument,
critically analyze selected topics in some depth, and evaluate the volume’s
overall merits and defects—all within roughly 2000-2500 words (about 8-10
double-spaced pages). I plan to
circulate these reviews to the entire class, so I will need to receive them,
via email, by the Sunday evening prior to the relevant meeting so that I can
send them along to everybody. The in-class report should be distinct from the
review in that it should directly bring the argument of the book to bear on the
session topic and/or the texts we have read in common. Because there will be two
reports per class session, the presenters should consult with one another in
advance so that your individual remarks about the books can be effectively
dovetailed with our general discussion. These co-operative reports should run
no longer than 12 minutes, but their particular structure is up to the
presenters: you can speak serially, or engage in critical dialogue, or
whatever. I do ask, though, that your comments, however structured, be largely
extemporaneous; in other words, you may work from notes, but please do not
simply read prepared remarks.
The
final requirement for the semester is a seminar paper (or its equivalent
in electronic form) incorporating original research. You are strongly
encouraged to begin developing these projects as early as possible during the
term, and obviously I will be available throughout the semester to help you
refine your ideas, narrow your research, and gather your arguments into a final
form. Our last three class sessions will be given over to discussions of your
individual projects in roughly 20-minute blocks. These final presentations
should involve a capsule overview of your project and an indication of any
questions or concerns you may have regarding it, leaving time for feedback from
the rest of the class.
Grading: The distribution of your grade will be as follows: 20%
class participation (including reports); 20% response papers; 20% book review;
and 40% final paper.
Week Two. (9/3) Labor Day Holiday
Part I: Theories, Methods, Concepts
Week Three. (9/10) Birmingham School: Foundations
Hall and Jefferson, Resistance
through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Postwar Britain (1975)
Hebdige,
Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979)
Week
Four. (9/17)
Birmingham School: Second Thoughts
Angela McRobbie,
“Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique” (1980)
Stanley
Cohen, “Symbols of Trouble” (1980)
Gary
Clarke, “Defending Ski-Jumpers: A Critique of Theories of Youth Subcultures”
(1981)
Phil Cohen,
“Rethinking the Youth Question” (1986)
Angela
McRobbie, “Second-Hand Dresses and the Role of the Ragmarket” (1989)
Week Five. (9/24) Post-Subcultures?
David
Muggleton, “The Post-Subculturalist” (1997)
Geoff
Stahl, “
Still ‘Winning Space’?: Updating Subcultural Theory” (1999)
Andy
Bennett, “Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the Relationship between Youth,
Style, and Musical Taste” (1999)
Oliver Marchant, “Bridging the Micro-Macro
Gap: Is There Such a Thing as a Post-Subcultural Politics?” (2003)
David
Chaney, “Fragmented Culture and Subcultures” (2004)
Reports on:
David
Muggleton, Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style (2000)
Rupa Huq, Beyond
Subculture: Pop, Youth & Identity in a Postcolonial World (2006)
Week Six. (10/1) Sites and Sounds
Will Straw,
“Communities and Scenes in Popular Music” (1991)
Sarah Thornton, “The
Social Logic of Subcultural Capital” (1995)
Doreen
Massey, “The Spatial Construction of Youth Cultures” (1997)
Martina
Böse, “‘Race’ and Class in the ‘Post-subcultural’ Economy” (2003)
Martin
Roberts, “Notes on the Global Underground: Subcultures and Globalization”
(2004)
Reports on:
Tracey Skelton and
Gill Valentine, eds., Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures (1997)
Sunaina Maira and
Elisabeth Soep, eds., Youthscapes: The Popular, the National, the Global (2005)
Screening: Afro-Punk (2003), plus clips
from The Decline of Western Civilization (1981), Another
State of Mind (1984), and American Hardcore (2006)—to be
discussed next week
Part II. Case Studies: Tribes, Genres, Generations
Week Seven. (10/8) Punk/Hardcore
Primary
Texts:
Aimee Cooper, Coloring
Outside the Lines (2002)
Afro-Punk (2003)
Secondary
Texts:
Susan
Willis, “Hardcore: Subculture American Style” (1993)
Mark
Andersen and Mark Jenkins, Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the
Nation’s Capital (2001)—excerpts
Ryan Moore, “Postmodernism
and Punk Subculture: Cultures of Authenticity and Deconstruction” (2004)
Reports on:
Lauraine Leblanc, Pretty in Punk: Girls’
Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture (1999)
Ross Haenfler, Straight-Edge: Clean-Living
Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change (2006)
Screening: Romper Stomper (1992), plus clips
from Made in Britain (1981), Blood in the Face (1991), and American
History X (1998)—to be discussed next week
Week Eight. (10/15) Skinheads
Primary
Texts:
Romper Stomper (1992)
William T. Vollmann,
“The White Knights” (1992)
Don De Grazia, American Skin (2000)
Secondary
Texts:
Dick
Hebdige, “Hiding in the Light: Youth Surveillance and Display” (1988)
George Marshall, Skinhead Nation —excerpts
Reports on:
Jack B. Moore, Skinheads Shaved for
Battle: A Cultural History of American Skinheads (1993)
Steven Blush, American Hardcore: A Tribal
History (2001)
Screening: Groove (2000), plus clips
from Better Living through Circuitry (1999), Human Traffic (2000), & Party
Monster (2003)—to be discussed next week
Week Nine. (10/22) Club/Dance Cultures
Primary
Texts:
Groove (2000)
Alan Warner, Morvern
Callar
(1997)
Secondary
Texts:
Sarah Thornton, “The Media
Development of ‘Subcultures’ (or the Sensational Story of ‘Acid House’)” (1996)
Simon Reynolds,
“America the Rave: US Rave Culture, 1990-92” (1998)
Ben
Malbon, “Moments of Ecstasy: Oceanic and Ecstatic Experiences in Clubbing”
(1999)
Reports on:
Fiona Buckland, Impossible
Dance: Club Culture and Queer World-Making (2002)
Robin
Sylvan, Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global
Rave Subculture (2005)
Screening: Menace II
Society (1993), with clips clips from Colors (1988), Boyz in
the Hood (1991), & Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991)—to be
discussed next week
Week Ten. (10/29) Rap/Hip-Hop
Primary
Texts:
Menace II Society (1993)
Chuck
D and Yusuf Jah, Chuck D: Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary (2007)—excerpts
Adam Mansbach, Angry
Black White Boy (2005)
Secondary
Texts:
Mike Davis, “The
Hammer and the Rock” (1990)
Tricia Rose, “Bad
Sistas: Black Women Rappers and Sexual Politics in Black Music” (1994)
Eric K. Watts, “An
Exploration of Spectacular Consumption: Gangsta Rap as Cultural Commodity”
(1997)
Reports on:
S. Craig Watkins, Representing: Hip Hop
Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (1998)
Jeff Chang, Can’t
Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (2005)
Screening: Slacker (1991), plus clips from My Own Private
Idaho
(1991), Roadside Prophets (1992), and Clerks (1994)—to be
discussed next week
Week Eleven. (11/5) Generation X
Primary
Texts:
Slacker (1991)
Douglas
Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991)
Alexandra
Koslow, Slacker Girl (2006)—excerpt
Secondary Texts:
Nathaniel Wice,
“Generalization X” (1993)
Rob Latham, “Fast Sofas and Cyborg Couch
Potatoes: Generation X on the Infobahn” (2002)
Leslie
Haynsworth, “‘Alternative’ Music and the Oppositional Potential of Generation X
Culture” (2003)
Reports on:
John M. Ulrich and Andrea L. Harris, GenXegesis:
Essays on “Alternative” Youth (Sub)Culture (2003)
Tom Lutz, Doing Nothing: A History of
Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America (2006)
Screening: River’s Edge (1986) and Heathers (1989), plus clips
from Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Clueless (1995)
Week Twelve. (11/12) Teenpics
Primary
Texts:
River’s Edge (1986)
Heathers (1989)
Secondary Texts:
Charles R. Acland,
“The Body by the River: Youth Movies and the Adult Gaze” (1995)
Catherine Driscoll,
“Distraction: Girls and Mass Culture” (2002)
Leerom Medovoi,
“Identity Hits the Screen: Teenpics and the Boying of Rebellion” (2005)
Reports on:
Timothy Shary, Generation Multiplex: The
Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema (2004)
Roz Kaveney, Teen
Dreams: Reading Teen Film and Television from “Heathers” to “Veronica Mars” (2006)
Week Thirteen. (11/19) Thanksgiving break
Week Fourteen. (11/26) Final Presentations
Week Sixteen. (12/10) Final Presentations, cont’d
Seminar
papers due in my mailbox in EPB 310 by 5 PM Thursday