READING
CULTURAL SIGNS
Honors 121, Section 005, Fall 2005
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:00-4:15pm,
Innovation 203
Instructor: Tracy McLoone email: tmcloone@gmu.edu Office hours: Thursdays, 1:00-2:30pm
We are
constantly interacting with texts, images, technology, consumer products, and
many other objects and events that all hold particular meanings. In this class,
we will explore how our everyday, local choices and actions have larger social
implications. As citizens of the 21st century, we are already experts at
deciphering signs. In this class, we will work toward understanding the
ideologies underpinning these signs: how the signs shape our view of the world,
and how we contribute to social understandings of signs. To do this, we will
use an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from sociology, semiotics, cultural
studies and other areas to look at the way race and ethnicity, gender and class
are so much a part of how we understand our world.
Response
papers: 40%
Four 2-3 page
(500 word minimum) essays examining the intersection of our class texts and
discussions and cultural objects or events you have experienced. This is not a
research paper, but rather should reflect the student’s analysis of the
texts we have discussed in class as they relate to the students’ own
experiences. These papers should reflect a rigorous interrogation of the
representations discussed during this week. Each paper is worth 10% of the
final course grade.
Class
participation: 30%
This includes
attending class and being on time, participating in class with thoughtful,
informed comments and questions, and completing in-class assignments. I expect
everyone to contribute to class discussions. We will likely be discussing
things about which students have strong feelings and opinions. Please respect
the views of others. Please bring your syllabus and assigned readings to each
class period.
Final paper:
20%
Six-eight
pages. To be discussed later in the semester.
Final Exam: 10
%
Essay exam. To
be discussed later in the semester.
Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake
(New York: Anchor Books, 2003).
Marcel Danesi & Paul Perron, Analyzing
Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook (Bloomington and Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1999).
Susan J. Douglas, Where the Girls
Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Three Rivers Press,
1995).
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed:
On (Not) Getting By in America (New York: Henry Holt, 2001).
Photocopied articles on e-reserves
through your computer or in the Johnson Center library; films on reserve in the
Johnson Center library; and articles available online through the World Wide
Web or through the library databases. The class password for accessing
e-reserves is “media”.
Paper Submission: All out-of-class assignments must be in
hard-copy format (no emails or faxes) unless you have prior permission
of the instructor. Do not leave papers in the instructor’s mailbox without
prior permission. Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on
their due date. Late papers will incur a grade penalty. All out-of-class
assignments must be typed and double spaced in a 10 or 12 point font, and
stapled. All but the first page must be numbered. Your name and the date must
appear at the top of the first page. All references in your paper must be
correctly cited in the text as well as in a bibliography or list of works cited
at the end of your paper.
Grading: GMU uses plusses and minuses as
follows: A+ (100); A (93-99); A- (90-92); B+ (87-89); B (83-86); B- (80-82); C+
(77-79); C (72-76); C- (70-71); D (60-69); F (59 & below). You will earn some form of numerical grades
for your work so you will always have a clear indication of where you stand.
Good papers
will include a thesis and claims supported by examples and evidence from
relevant readings and discussions. Written work will be graded on grammar,
style, content, organization and clarity. Spellcheck and proofread all papers
before submitting them; careless work will be downgraded.
To
be awarded an A or A-, you will need to demonstrate superior
understanding of all concepts, an original or imaginative thesis and argument,
sophisticated interpretation and style and no faults of organization, no errors
of grammar, syntax, or spelling; work that goes beyond what the assignment
asks; and insightful class participation. The A+ grade will be awarded only in
exceptional circumstances and for publishable papers.
A
grade in the B range indicates above average mastery of the material,
clear and well-produced and thoughtful written presentation.
C+ and C are awarded for
average or merely adequate work, rudimentary understanding of factual material
and just competent written presentation. Papers in this range usually exhibit
errors in grammar and style, problems with logic, failure to correctly annotate
quotations, unimaginative arguments, careless errors, etc.
A C- or D suggests
less-than-satisfactory preparation of factual material and poor written
work--minimum effort and writing problems that require follow-up from a writing
center tutor.
An F indicates your work is unacceptable for
a college level assignment, with serious writing problems requiring intensive
help.
0 will be given for
work not handed in on time. Contact me before the due date with serious
problems.
Academic Honesty:
Academic Honesty is expected. The GMU Honor Code is found in the university
undergraduate catalog and applies to this and all other courses. Cheating and
plagiarism are expressly forbidden. For quick reference, plagiarism can be
defined as: (1) presenting as one's own the words, work, or opinions of someone
else without proper acknowledgement or (2) borrowing the sequence of ideas, the
arrangement of material, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper
acknowledgement. When in doubt, document your source including the web. A
serious academic offence, plagiarism is grounds for failing at least the
assignment if not the course. In short, your work must be your own, done for
this course alone.
E-mail: E-mail is the best way to communicate with me. Please check your GMU email regularly for pertinent
information. Be aware that the university requires faculty and staff to
communicate with students only through their GMU e-mail accounts (for
confidentiality reasons). Think of e-mail as another text for this class
through which I might send additional assignments, questions to think about for
the next class, or information regarding the readings.
Tuesday Aug.
30: Introduction to course. Discussion of summer assignment.
Thurs. Sept. 1:
Danesi, Introductory Remarks, ix-xiii, and Ch. 1, “What is Culture?”
Tues. Sept. 6:
Danesi, Ch. 10, “Narrative.”
Thurs. Sept. 8:
Clifford Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures, Ch. 1: “Thick Description:
Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture” (e-reserves); Ch. 15 “Deep Play:
Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” (book on reserve in JC library).
Tues. Sept. 13:
Roland Barthes, “On Wrestling” in Mythologies (e-reserves).
Due: Response
Paper 1: Studying culture.
Thurs. Sept.
15: Danesi, Ch. 4 “The Body.”
Tues. Sept. 20:
Michael Omi, “In Living Color: Race and American Culture” in Signs of Life
in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, ed. Sonia Maasik &
Jack Solomon (e-reserves).
Thurs. Sept.
22: Mark Anthony Neal, “The Real Nigger Show” (available on PopMatters --
http://www.popmatters.com/features/041124-samboshow.shtml).
Tues. Sept. 27:
Coco Fusco, “At Your Service: Latin Women in the Global Information Network” in
The Bodies That Were Not Ours and Other Writings (e-reserves).
Due: Response
Paper 2: Race.
Thurs. Sept.
29: Ehrenreich, Introduction & Ch. 1.
Tues. Oct. 4:
Ehrenreich, Ch. 2 & 3.
Thurs. Oct. 6:
Ehrenreich, Evaluation.
Due: Response
Paper 3: Class.
Tues. Oct. 11
-- Columbus Day week: No class today.
Thurs. Oct. 13:
Danesi, Ch. 9, “Objects;” video, “Merchants of Cool” (on reserve at Johnson
Center library).
Tues. Oct. 18:
Danesi, Ch. 11, “Television & Advertising”; Anne Norton, “The Signs of
Shopping” in Signs of Life (e-reserves).
Thurs. Oct. 20:
“Roundtable Discussion About Race and Ethnicity in Advertising,” in Advertising
and Society, Vol. 6, Issue 2, 2005 (available through Project MUSE in
library databases).
Due: Response
Paper 4: Advertising.
Tues. Oct. 25:
Ruth P. Rubenstein, “Clothing Tie Symbols,” in Dress Codes: Meanings and
Messages in American Culture (e-reserves); Malcolm Gladwell, “Listening to
Khakis” (available online at http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_07_27_a_khaki.htm).
Due: Response
Paper 5: What we wear.
Thurs. Oct. 27:
Damien Cave, “The Spam Spoils of War,” in Signs of Life (e-reserves).
Tues. Nov. 1:
Douglas, Introduction-Ch. 2; video “Tough Guise” (on reserve at JC library).
Thurs. Nov. 3:
Douglas, Ch. 3-5.
Tues. Nov. 8:
Douglas, Ch. 6-7.
Thurs. Nov. 10:
Douglas Ch. 9-Epilogue.
Due: Response
Paper 6: Gender and media.
Tues. Nov. 15:
Andrea L. Press & Bruce A. Williams, “Fame and Everyday Life: The ‘Lottery
Celebrities’ of Reality TV,” in The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of
Culture, ed. Mark D. Jacobs & Nancy Weiss Hanrahan (e-reserves).
Due: Response
Paper 7: Celebrity in America.
Thurs. Nov. 17:
Laura Miller, “Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the
Electronic Frontier,” in Signs of Life (e-reserves).
Tues. Nov. 22:
Meetings about final paper.
Thurs. Nov. 24
-- Thanksgiving: No class.
Tues. Nov. 29
-- Danesi 184-204 Space; Oryx & Crake, Ch. 1-6; optional -- Michiko
Kakutani, “Lone Human in a Land Filled with Humanoids,” New York Times, May 13,
2003 (available through Lexis-Nexis Academic in library databases).
Thurs. Dec. 1
-- Oryx & Crake, Ch. 7-9.
Tues. Dec. 6 --
Oryx & Crake, Chapters 10-15.
Due: Response
Paper 8: Culture in the future.
Thurs. Dec. 8
-- Wrap-up.
Due: Final
paper.
Tues. Dec. 13
-- Final Exam, 1:30-4:15pm