SF-1207 American Popular Culture

In this course we will be spending a lot of time reading / viewing, analyzing, and discussing different forms of popular culture in the United States from a variety of different time periods. We will also consider a variety of media and genres, from documentary film, feature film, television and podcast to literary genres such as the novel, the autobiography, and the graphic memoir to analytical nonfiction writing about history, art history, politics, and culture. Three key themes we will explore are: 1) The American Dream 2) Passing and 3) Self-Invention / Self-Creation. Of course, not only should we be prepared to encounter thought-provoking syntheses between these three themes but we should also expect to discover plenty of other themes and throughways in our course materials, especially as they pertain to the role that the popular cultural imaginary plays in producing cultural meaning and its relationship to power at its intersections of class, age, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. We will lean upon our own expertise as producers and consumers of popular culture as a starting point for exploring the numerous ways that it influences how we see ourselves, other people, and the world around us.