Politics of popular culture

elective courses

(in Polish) Moduły Polityka i demokracja

Znajomość języka angielskiego pozwalająca na czytanie (ze zrozumieniem) tekstów teoretycznych.

Classroom

The aim of the course is to reflect on the problem of politicalness of contemporary cultural practices in Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe. During the course we will reflect on the specifics of mutual entanglement of politics and culture through the prism of practices and products coming from different places of the field of popular culture (both from its periphery and mainstream), and articulated with the use of various means of media communication (from the classic ones, such as film and literature, to the newest ones, such as internet/Web 2.0: social media, blogs/vlogs, etc.). Our reflection will be based on several ways of understanding politics. In this way we go beyond the simple - although still widespread in the humanities and social sciences - understanding of the relationship between culture and politics as a relationship of commitment to / opposition to actions taken by state institutions.

The aim of the course is to reflect on the problem of politicalness of contemporary cultural practices in Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe.

During the course we will reflect on the specifics of mutual entanglement of politics and culture through the prism of practices and products coming from different places of the field of popular culture (both from its periphery and mainstream), and articulated with the use of various means of media communication (from the classic ones, such as film and literature, to the newest ones, such as internet/Web 2.0: social media, blogs/vlogs, etc.). Our reflection will be based on several ways of understanding politics. In this way we go beyond the simple - although still widespread in the humanities and social sciences - understanding of the relationship between culture and politics as a relationship of commitment to / opposition to actions taken by state institutions. Rather than deliberating on who and why submits to/opposes the power of politicians, we will rather consider the following issues: To what extent can we talk about the separation of the fields of politics and culture? Where and under what conditions are we willing to set boundaries between these two? How does the dynamics and permeability of these boundaries change? When and in what contexts can cultural action be a political act? How is the relationship between politics and culture reconfigured with the spread of new media?

Moreover, we will consider the impact of structural/class conditions on the shape and dynamics of relations between politics and culture, asking, among other things: What forms of politicalness can be found in the mainstream of cultural production, and what forms remain on its periphery? What is the significance of the question of classics for the politicalness of culture?

The class is divided into two blocks.

The first block includes discussions on the concept of popular culture (the boundaries of the concept, its usefulness and historical dynamics, adjacent and competitive concepts) and on various theoretical approaches to the relation politics-culture. We discuss on the basis of texts rooted in both French (Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Ranciere, Michel Foucault) and Anglo-Saxon (Stuart Hall, Terry Eagleton, Frederick Jameson) contexts.

The second block includes discussions on examples of selected contemporary cultural practices/products from the point of view of their (a-)politicalness. We discuss on the basis of empirical material (depending on the class – feature film, literary work, music videos, blogs/vlogs, discussions on social media, etc.). A detailed list of topics in this block will be proposed during the first classes. It may be modified to some extent during the course.

Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social Space and Symbolic Power. Sociological Theory, 1(7), 14-25.

Bourdieu, P. (1994). The Field of Cultural Production. Columbia University Press.

Eagleton, T. (2012). Po co nam kultura?. Warszawa: Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Literackie.

Fiske, J. (2010). Zrozumieć kulturę popularną. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Foucault, M. (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry, 4(8), 777-795.

Foucault, M. (2009). Nadzorować i karać. Narodziny więzienia. Warszawa: Aletheia.

Hall, S. (2018). Popular culture, politics and history. Cultural Studies, 6(32), 929-952.

Jameson, F. (2011). Postmodernizm, czyli logika kulturowa późnego kapitalizmu. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Jenkins, H. (2007). Kultura konwergencji: zderzenie starych i nowych mediów. Warszawa: WAiP.

Lash, S., & Lurry, C. (2011). Globalny przemysł kulturowy: medializacja rzeczy. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Krajewski, M. (2003). Kultury kultury popularnej. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.

Majewska, E. (2013). Sztuka jako pozór? Cenzura i inne paradoksy upolitycznienia kultury. Kraków: Korporacja Ha!art.

Ranciere, J. (2007). Estetyka jako polityka. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej.

Sandoval, M. (2014). Participation (Un)Limited: Social Media and the Prospects of a Common Culture. W T. Miller (Red.), The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture (ss. 66-76). Routledge University Press.

Skey, M. & Antonsich (2017). Everyday Nationhood. Theorising Culture, Identity and Belonging after Banal Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan.

K_W16 Has basic knowledge of problems stemming from the cultural diversity of modern society

K_W27 Has basic knowledge of politics and participation of society in the public sphere

K_W35 Is aware of the consequences of choosing a particular theoretical perspective

K_U06 Can use basic theoretical categories to describe social changes in modern societies

K_U19 Can describe the role of culture in the life of the individual and society

K_U20 Can comprehend a scientific text and identify its main theses and the author’s arguments, as well as discuss them

K_K05 Can participate in a discussion

K_K06 Can argue a thesis

Credit terms:

- Active participation in discussions during classes.

- Writing an essay.

- Allowable 2 absences per semester, each subsequent absence - excused or not - the student must make up for it individually on duty.

Resit:

- Regulated question of absence.

- Writing an essay.