CULTURE AND POWER, Sociology 3056

Dr. Claire Raymond

University of Virginia

Class Hours

Mondays and Wednesdays: 2- 3.15 p.m.

in Maury 110

Professor’s Office Hours:

Tuesdays and Thursdays 12.30 until 2 pm

Fayerweather 209

This class will survey literature in the sociology of culture, with an emphasis on how culture is related to structures of power. We will explore major frameworks for understanding culture, including those of early sociologist Emil Durkheim, and Marxism. We will emphasize, in this course, the work of Michel Foucault, and we will also investigate how theories of culture and power illuminate social justice movements such as the Red Power movement. Although there are no formal prerequisites, students will feel more at home in this class if they have some background studying theory.

COURSE READING

The following books have been ordered for this class and are available at the UVA bookstore. All of the readings on the syllabus are required.

TEXTS

Required

Dirks, Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory

Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader

Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality: Volume 1

L. Smith, Hippies, Indians and the Fight for Red Power

Emil Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death

Barbara Kruger, Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances

Recommended:

Aleiss, Making the White Man's Indian

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

Raymond Williams, Culture & Society

Requirements for this class:

This course has a fairly heavy reading load. Completing the required readings before each class is crucial because class participation is part of your grade. Students are expected to attend each class meeting and attendance will be taken. All written work should be double spaced and use an 11 or 12 point font. Late work will only be accepted if you have talked to me first, and it will be marked down a full letter grade. All work should comply with the Honor Code.

Class Participation (14%)

I expect students to ask and answer questions and get involved in discussions. If you are someone who has difficulty speaking up, please talk to me during office hours. If you are absent more than three times during this semester, this frequency of absences will not only lower your class participation grade but may also, depending on circumstances, result in a failing grade for the course.

Three Short Papers (36% total, 12 % each):

The papers are due at each third of the semester, as noted in the course schedule. For each paper, the student must apply a work being studied to a contemporary and/or personal situation. Grading for the papers is determined by the grasp the student demonstrates of the material we are reading, by the correctness and insightfulness of the student’s application of this material to a contemporary/personal situation, and lastly by the student’s writing style and writerly mechanics. Each paper must be at least five pages long, written in 12 point Times New Roman, standard margins, illustrations, charts, and works cited do not count toward page length.

Group Presentations (10%):

Each Thursday, one group will do a 10 minute presentation based on the reading for that week. The presentation is not meant to be a summary of the reading, but rather an analysis or critique of the reading. You are encouraged to relate the material to current events or your own experiences, and to suggest questions for class discussion. Groups can either do an oral presentation or incorporate visual elements. All members of the group will get the same grade for the presentation.

Each Wednesday a group will present at the beginning of class. The presentations should last about ten minutes. The presentation is a chance for you to analyze, not summarize, the reading material assigned for that class. You also want to frame and pose questions about the reading/s in order to set the stage for our class discussion of the material. Students have asked me on what criteria I will grade the presentations, and here are some criteria: (1) whether the presenters seem in fact to have read the material on which they are presenting (2) whether the presenters have made a sincere effort to either understand and/or meaningfully question the idea content of the material on which they are presenting (3) whether the presenters approach the material analytically, as opposed to summarizing the material (4) whether the presentation is lucid and communicative (5) whether the presentations raises important and useful questions for discussion about the material. These above are the fundamental criteria for grading presentations.

Final Exam: 40%

The date for the final exam is set by UREG. Please see the university schedule, http://www.virginia.edu/registrar/calendar.html, to see the date for the final exam. Blue Books are required for this exam.

Laptops and Other Devices:

Please do not use laptops or cell phones or i-pads or other electronic devices during class. Plan to take notes in a notebook, with pencil or pen. Plan to arrive on time for class. It is very disruptive to have students arrive after the lecture has begun, or to text during class, and you may miss important information.

CLASS SCHEDULE

What is culture?

August 28

Introduction to the class, administrative details

Sept.2

From class Collab site, read Raymond Williams, “Culture is Ordinary”

from Dirks, Culture/Power/History read "Introduction"

Understanding culture

Sept.4

Emile Durkheim. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Introduction, “Origins of these Beliefs,” “The Negative Cult and its Functions,” Conclusion

Marxist approaches to culture

September 9th

Culture/Power/History, 222-236

On our Collab site, The Communist Mannifesto

Karl Marx. (1845). “Theses on Feurbach.”

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm

September 11

from Collab site, Yair and Soyer, Golem (from the Golem in German Social Theory)

from Collab site, Derrida Marx (from Specters of Marx)

September 16

Culture/Power/History read pages 585-609

Theodor Adorno and Horkheimer. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” From Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm

Interpretive Approaches to Culture

September 18

Culture/Power/History,  520-539

Ricoeur's Theory of Interpretation, from Collab site

Revisionist Marxist Approaches

September 23

Culture/Power/History, pages 412-457

September 25

Antonio Gramsci. Read the following websites:

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm

http://www.ffst.hr/ENCYCLOPAEDIA/doku.php?id=gramsci_and_culture

First Five Page paper due in class today, September 25^th, must be printed, I do not accept emailed papers

Foucaultian Paradigms

September 30

from Collab site, please read Foucault Bio Power

October 2

From the Foucault Reader, pages 31-51 and pages 76-101

Foucault and Power

October 7

From the Foucault Reader, pages 239- 256; 273-291; and pages 141-167

October 9

Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1, pages 1-75

October 16

Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1, read through page 101

October 21

Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1, finish reading the book

October 23rd

Culture/Power/History, 200-222

Culture, inequality, and power

October 28th, from Collab, Pierre Bourdieu. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.

October 28

2^nd Five page paper due in class today, October 28^th

October 30th

From Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, pages 1-77

November 4th

From Slavery and Social Death, pages 299-342

From Culture/Power/History pages 247-269

Approaches to the study of race/ethnicity

November 6th

From Hippies, Indians, and the Fight for Red Power, pages 1-43

November 11th

Hippies, Indians and the Fight for Red Power, pages 43-113

November  13th

Hippies, Indians and the Fight for Red Power, pages 113-183

November 18th

Hippies, Indians and the Fight for Red Power, please complete your reading of the book

Guest Lecturer, on the Red Power movement

November 20th

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (Collab site)

and in addition to the Collab site reading please paste in this web address and review this website: http://newjimcrow.com/

please read also Foucault Reader, pages 169-234

Feminisms

November 25th

Read, Alcoff, Speaking for Others (Collab site)

from Collab, the lure of the mannish lesbian, from Figures of Resistance

December 2nd

Teresa De Lauretis, Lesbian Representation, from Figures of Resistance (Collab site)

^{December 4th}

Monique Wittig, Collab site reading

The third five page paper is due in class December 4th

*The date for the term Exam is determined by UReg. Please check the university calendar for the date assigned to our class for the final exam

Addendum: plagiarism means the copying of someone else’s words or ideas without referencing the text from which you copy. If you are unsure of what constitutes plagiarism, please contact me. It is much better to feel silly asking a question than to commit plagiarism. This goes also for oral presentations.