Introduction to Criticism and Theory:

Youth Subculture Studies

 

Instructor: Rob Latham

 

Course Times: Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays, 2:30-3:20 PM, in EPB 107

Office Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 3:30-4:30 PM and by app't, in EPB 455

Phone: 335-0465 (office); 337-3364 (home); Robert-Latham@uiowa.edu (e-mail)

 

Required Texts (all at Prairie Lights Bookstore):

Description: This course will introduce cultural studies methods and materials by means of an extended case study of contemporary youth subcultures in Britain and the United States. We will begin by examining the influential work of British theorists of the 1970s (e.g. Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige) who developed powerful models of subcultural analysis, integrating Marxist and semiotic approaches, in order to investigate post-war working-class youth movements (Teddy Boys, punks, skinheads). After attending to the limitations of these models, we will proceed to a comparative anatomy of major U.S. youth subcultures of the 1980s and '90s: "slackers," "gangbangers," "metalheads," 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. Unlike most theory classes, which tend to focus exclusively on "secondary" texts, we will take a cultural studies approach, not only reading critical/theoretical works but also surveying, in an eclectic and interdisciplinary fashion, relevant materials from various media and genres, including fiction, sociology, film, music, and so on. This method should provide an exciting, but also complex and challenging, set of perspectives on contemporary youth subcultures.

 

Requirements and Assignments: The first requirement is preparation and attendance; you must be here for every class meeting with the day's reading completed. Because of our cultural studies method, with its expanded focus of attention, you are likely to find the reading burden to be, in terms of difficulty as well as total pages, rather heavier than you are perhaps accustomed to; from the outset, you must be willing and able to undertake this load, or else you should consider dropping. Because we have only 50 minutes per class session, you must also be on time; class will begin promptly at 2:30, and late arrivers will not be admitted. There will be four mandatory film screenings in addition to the regular class meetings; the times and locations of these screenings will be announced. If you miss more than four class sessions, you will receive an automatic F for your attendance grade; if you miss more than seven sessions, you will fail the class.

The required writing is as follows: a weekly reading journal; two take-home mid-term essay exams; and a final exam. Students who would like to substitute a topic paper for the second exam are encouraged to do so. The reading journal should briefly (1-2 handwritten pages) record observations, ideas, questions, and/or criticisms inspired by the assigned texts; these journals are due in class on Fridays. No late journals will be accepted, and if you miss handing in more than two of them, your journal grade will be an F. These journals will not be graded individually, but a grade will be assigned to them in total at semester's end. The two take-home exams will be essay-format responses to a handful of questions distributed in class one week before each exam is due; you must choose two of these questions, and write 4-5 page responses on each. The completed essays are to be handed in on the Friday class meetings of the exam weeks; late exams will be marked down by 1/2 grade for every day they are late. The topic paper option, as a substitute for the second exam, permits you to focus on a single issue relating to youth subcultures in greater depth than the mid-term exams allow. This 8-10 page paper must be synthetic, treating at least five texts (of which three must be from the syllabus; the other two may be material of your own choosing); the paper may take any angle of approach to these texts and may argue any point of view. The paper is due when the second exam would normally be handed in, and the late policy covering exams also applies. If you elect the paper option, you must notify me at least two weeks in advance, and your topic must be cleared by me before you begin writing. The text of the exams and/or topic paper must be double-spaced on 8 1/2 x 11-inch unruled paper, with one-inch margins all around and no font size larger than 12-point type. The papers must be proofread for typos, misspellings, and minor grammatical errors; 1/2 grade will be deducted for those that are not. The final exam will include objective and essay sections and will be held in class during the scheduled time on exam week. There will also be occasional unannounced quizzes sprung upon you at my whim.

 

Grading: Attendance and participation: 10%; weekly reading journals plus quizzes: 15%; mid-term exams and/or topic paper: 25%; final exam: 25%. All grades will be numerical; the final grade will average and convert these to letter form, on the following scale: 97-99 = A+; 93-96 = A; 90-92 = A-; 87-89 = B+; 83-86 = B; 80-82 = B-; 77-79 = C+; 73-76 = C; 70-72 = C-; 67-69 = D+; 63-66 = D; 60-62 = D-; below 60 = F. Regarding participation: I expect all students to contribute, however modestly, to class discussion; if I feel that too many students are consistently remaining silent, I will freely call on people at random.

 

Schedule of Readings:

 

Week 1.

Mon. 8/26:

Wed. 8/28:

Fri. 8/30 :

 

Week 2.

Mon. 9/2:

Wed. 9/4:

Fri. 9/6:

 

Week 3.

Mon 9/9.:

Wed. 9/11:

Fri. 9/13:

 

Week 4.

Mon. 9/16:

Wed. 9/18:

Fri. 9/20:

 

Week 5.

Mon. 9/23:

Wed. 9/25:

Fri. 9/27:

 

Week 6.

Mon. 9/30:

Wed. 10/2:

Fri. 10/4:

 

Week 7.

Mon. 10/7:

Wed. 10/9:

Fri. 10/11:

 

Week 8.

Mon. 10/14:

Wed. 10/16:

Fri. 10/18:

 

Week 9.

Mon. 10/21:

Wed. 10/23:

Fri. 10/25:

 

Week 10.

Mon. 10/28:

Wed. 10/30:

Fri. 11/1:

 

Week 11.

Mon. 11/4:

Wed. 11/6:

Fri. 11/8:

 

Week 12.

Mon. 11/11:

Wed. 11/13:

Fri. 11/15:

 

Week 13.

Mon. 11/18:

Wed. 11/20:

Fri. 11/22:

 

Week 14.

Mon. 11/25:

Wed. 11/27-Fri. 11/29:

 

Week 15.

Mon. 12/2:

Wed. 12/4:

Fri. 12/6:

 

Week 16.

Mon. 12/9:

Wed. 12/11:

Fri. 12/13:

 

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