MDST401-1 (Schedule # 4013E)
University of Virginia
Spring 2006
M 1:00-3:30pm :: Clemons 322A
Mr. David Golumbia
Office: 304B Bryan
Spring 2006 Office Hours: MW 9:30-10:30am, W 1:30-2:30pm

Fourth-Year Seminar

Our reading this year will be largely derived from core texts in cultural studies of media, with special attention to role of cultural and personal imagination, gender and racial representations, and the relationship between political structures and media forms. We will look in particular at formations of subjectivity, and will read closely short texts by some poststructuralists, including Irigaray, Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, and Virilio, and also a text on Critical Race Theory. Students will respond to each reading with media-related questions. Written requirements for the class include two 3-5pp. media-related papers and a final 8-10pp. paper. In addition, students will work in groups to choose the media objects for class study for the second part of the term.

Required texts (available at UVa Bookstore)

• Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, On the Line
• Richard Delgado, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
• Luce Irigaray, Why Different?
• Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb

Texts on toolkit

• Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes toward an Investigation"
• Jacques Attali, "Repeating" (Chapter 4 of Noise: the Political Economy of Music)
• Tony Bennett, "Popular Culture and the 'Turn to Gramsci'"
• Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination"
• Michel Foucault, "Governmentality," "The Subject and Power," "The Political Technology of Individuals"
• Antonio Gramsci, "Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State" (selections from The Prison Notebooks)
• Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'"

Media

During each session of the class we will watch, listen to, and/or otherwise engage with either a short media object or a selection from a longer object. The first five media objects have been chosen by the instructor; the remaining six objects will be chosen by students working in groups with the instructor. Media for these sessions are indicated as TBD in the syllabus. Media pre-selected for the first five sessions of the seminar seminar include:

• Breaking Bonaduce, "No Time For Love" (Season 1, episode 4; first aired Oct 2, 2005) ("celebreality" TV program, VH1 network)
• South Park, "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" (Season 8, episode 120; first aired Nov 3, 2004) (animated TV program, Comedy Central network)
• Suspense, "Plan X" (radio drama, first broadcast Feb 2, 1953)
• Trinh T. Minh-ha, Reassemblage (1982) (short film)
• The Wire, "The Wire" (premium cable drama series episode, HBO; season 1, epsiode 6, first aired 2004)

Assignments and Evaluation

Evaluation will be based on written exercises and course participation as follows:

• 3-5pp. media response papers (2): 15% each (total 30%)
• Final 8-10pp. paper 40%
• Participation, including all in-class work, your attendance and participation in discussion and in solo and group projects: 30%.
  Click here for lists of group presentation and discussion leaders for reading.

Policies

• Because this class meets once each week, your attendance and participation are vital to its success. This also means that a significant portion of your grade (30%) depends on your class participation. You are allowed one unexplained course absence without penalty to your grade. In very dire circumstances you may appeal to the instructor for excused absences beyond one. If you do not, absences will count against your final course grade.
• No late work is accepted in this class.
• You are expected to have done the primary reading and any other primary course assignments before the beginning of course each week.
• All work in this course is subject to the University's Honor Code. You may work in teams for some assignments, but all written work must be solely your own, and any reliance on published work must be properly cited.

Week-by-Week Syllabus

Mon Jan 23.

• Reading: Gramsci, "Hegemony"; Bennett, "Popular Culture"
• Media: South Park, "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes"

Mon Jan 30.

• Reading: Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses"
• Media: The Wire, "The Wire" (second half-hour)

Mon Feb 6.

• Reading: Foucault, "Governmentality"
• Media: Suspense, "Plan X"

Mon Feb 13.

• Reading: Butler: "Imitation and Gender Insubordination"
• Media: Breaking Bonaduce, "No Time For Love"

Mon Feb 20. No class. Instructor away.

Mon Feb 27.

• Reading: Trinh, "Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'"
• Media: Trinh, Reassemblage
• Assignment 1 due

Mon Mar 6. No class. Reading period.

Mon Mar 13.

• Reading: Delgado, Critical Race Theory.
• Media: TBD

Mon Mar 20.

• Reading: Foucault, "The Subject and Power," "The Political Technology of Individuals"
• Media: TBD

Mon Mar 27.

• Reading: Attali, "Repeating"
• Media: TBD
• Assignment 2 due

Mon Apr 3. Class 9.

• Reading: Irigaray, Why Different?
• Media: TBD

Mon Apr 10.

• Reading: Deleuze and Guattari, On the Line
• Media: TBD

Mon Apr 17.

• Reading: Virilio, Information Bomb
• Media: TBD

Mon Apr 24.

• Student presentations.

Mon May 1.

• Student presentations.
• Final paper due. No exceptions!

Last updated January 24, 2006.