CSUN – FALL 2013 – SOC 368&368S – KARAGEORGIS

EXAM 4 – Topic/Question Menu

Select ONE of the following topics/questions and write an essay of no more than 1600 words in response. Save your essay in .docx. .doc or .rtf format and e-mail it to stavros.karageorgis@csun.edu by 12 noon on Thursday, December 12, 2013 (at the latest, you may e-mail it earlier if you wish). Limit the use of outside sources and make sure that you properly cite those outside sources.

1. Present and critically evaluate Gilman’s views on human (in general), and her own, society’s “sexuo-economic” relation. Be sure to present and address her argument as to the rationale for instituting and perpetuating excessive (or ‘unnatural’) “sex-distinction”. Is (excessive) differentiation of individuals and their activities, thoughts, attitudes etc by sex a/the cause of inequality and oppression based on sex-category? Is it a/the effect of the latter? Both? Discuss.

2. Compare and contrast Gilman and (Marx and) Engels on the causes/bases and mechanisms of gendered inequality and oppression. Pay particular attention to those causes/bases and mechanisms (if any) that are present (absent) in one and absent (present) in the other.

3. Compare and contrast Mead’s conception of the relationship between the individual and society to that of at least two other theorists (e.g. Marx and Weber, Durkheim and Simmel, Weber and Du Bois, etc.) we have covered in this class.

4. How does Mead define self-consciousness? What role does language play in the development of self-consciousness? What role does self-consciousness play in social interaction? Support your answers drawing primarily from the excerpts from Mead’s work in STCE and secondarily from the discussion offered by Edles and Applerouth in STCE.

5. Discuss Du Bois’s concepts of the color line, the veil, and double consciousness using concrete examples. What theoretical issue/s do these concepts raise and help him/us address?

6. Discuss the implications of color/race and sex/gender differentiation and inequality (as discussed and theorized by Du Bois and Gilman) for Mead’s theory of communication and consequent vision of a universal society, and vice-versa (pay particular attention to Mead’s discussion of the limits to individuals taking the attitude of others whom they are affecting, STCE: 414-415).