COMS 604:  Seminar in Textual Studies

• Jessica Chalmers, "I Would Have Liked to Give a Paper at this Conference," The Drama Review [TDR] 46 (Winter 2002), 5-7.

Textuality and cultural processes.  Varieties of text. 
Issues of meaning (Where does meaning come from? How are meanings generated? Whose meanings are they?)
Issues of voice (Who gets to speak? On whose behalf?)
Issues of interpretation, authority and value. 

Introductions of your chosen texts.

• Negus & Pickering, Creativity, Communication, & Cultural Value [N & P] - Preface, Chapters 1 & 2   
• Mikko Lehtonen, The Cultural Analysis of Texts[Lehtonen] - Preface, Chapters 1 & 2
• Susanne K. Langer -- [3 separate links:] “Expressiveness,” “Living Form,” and “Artistic Perception & 'Natural Light,'",” from Problems of Art: Ten Philosophical Lectures. Scribner’s, 1957.
  

• N & P - Chapters 3 & 4  
• Lehtonen - Chapters 3, 4 & 5
• Marouf Hasian, Jr., Nostalgic Longings, Memories of the 'Good War', and Cinematic Representations in Saving Private Ryan, CSMC 19 (2002), 338-58

The Pull of the Text continued
  
Expressiveness and Agency Papers due -
10 minute presentations.

The Dynamics of Reading - Accommodation and Resistance

• Lehtonen - Chapters 6 &7
• N & P - Chapters 5 & 6
• Louw, Chapter 1
• Naomi R. Rockler, "Race, Whiteness, 'Lightness,' and Relevance: African American and European American Interpretations of Jump Start and The Boondocks," CSMC 19 (December 2002), 398-418.
• Review & Criticism: CSMC 18 (December 2001):
  • S. Grey, Reading Racism: A Reflection on the Politics of the Production of Knowledge, pp. 466-70
  • Ramsey, Achter, & Condit, "Reading Audiences: A Reflection on the Politics of the Production of Racism, pp. 471-74

• Lehtonen - Chapter 8
• Louw, Chapter 2
• Nicholas Mirzoeff, Watching Babylon: the War in Iraq and Global Visual Culture [Mirzoeff], Prologue & Section 1
• recommended: Linda Park-Fuller, “Voices: Bakhtin’s Heteroglossia and Polyphony, and the Performance of Narrative Literature,” Literature in Performance 7 (1986): 1-12.    available online here
  

• N & P - Chapter 7
• Louw, Chapters 3, 4 & 5
• Douglas Kellner, "The Media and the Crisis of Democracy in the Age of Bush-2," Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies [CCS], 1 (March 2004), 29-58.

Mediations

Dynamics of Meaning Papers due. 
10 minute presentations.

Mediating Interpretive Power

• Louw, chapters 6,7,8 & 9 *new*
• Mirzoeff, Section 2
• *new* Tony Perucci, Performance Complexes: Abu Ghraib and the Culture of Neoliberalism. Paper presented at the NCA Annual Convention in Boston, November 2005.

Ideology, Representation & Struggles over Meaning

• Louw, chapter 10 *new*
• Foucault Reader [FR] - Introduction, 3-29
• [FR] - Truth and Power, 51-75; What is an Author, 101-20
• FR - Docile Bodies, 179-87
• [recommended site] - Ben Attias's Foucault Pages
• Mirzoeff, Section 3

• recommended: A.Susan Owen, 'Memory, War & American Identity: Saving Private Ryan as Cinematic Jeremiad," CSMC 19 (September 2000), 249-82.

The Gaze: Issues of Spectatorship

• FR - Panopticism, 206-13; Space, Knowledge & Power, 239-56.
• Reginald Twigg, “The Performative Dimension of Surveillance: Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half  Lives,” TPQ 12 (1992):    305-28.
• also look at the hypertext version of Riis's book - http://www.cis.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html
• [recommended]  Review by Neal Ascherson of Susan Sontag's new book, Regarding the Pain of Others

Critical Issues in Textuality

• Mirzoeff, Afterword
• Henry A. Giroux, "Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals," Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 1 (March, 2004), 59-79.
• other readings provided by class members

Critical Issues in Textuality cont'd



readings TBA [provided by class members]

Culminating Analysis Papers due. 
10 - 15 minute presentations.