124642 VO BEd 04.2: Cultural Theories and Popular Culture (2021W)

This lecture course will introduce students to key ideas and approaches in African American studies through the lens of popular and visual cultures. Students will learn how key concepts in cultural studies – such as ideology, discourse, (anti-)essentialism, or representation – can be applied to better understand the music, film, and other (pop)cultural texts produced by African Americans and the Black diaspora. We will also discuss the specificity of African American cultural studies in a historical perspective, and students will be introduced to concepts in Black and postcolonial studies such as (post)colonialism, Eurocentrism, diaspora, hybridity, African retentions, the Black Atlantic, double consciousness, cultural nationalism, Pan-Africanism, intersectionality, and Black feminism. To see how all these operate in the realm of popular imagination and mass culture, we will be looking closely and analytically at African American cultural production from 19th century until today, including music (spirituals, blues, jazz, soul, hip-hop), visual arts (painting, photography, sculpture), film and TV (including music videos), and mass media (popular magazines, commercials, and social media).