School of Global Studies

Theory Taste and Trash A (V3051)

Theory Taste and Trash A

Module V3051

Module details for 2011 cohort.

30 credits

FHEQ Level 5

Module Outline

This module aims to introduce Cultural Studies students to two related issues which they will be able to pursue in more depth later in their degrees, namely:
a) a historically-rooted account of how the study of popular culture came to be established in British higher education and of some of the key theoretical approaches that helped to shape those studies
b) an exploration of how the bringing together of popular culture and 'the academy' has and continues to pose intriguing problems around hierarchies of taste, questions of value, and definitions of educational worth.

A series of lectures will offer students both a historical overview of those issues and an introduction to the influence of key writers, theorists and approaches, while the module seminars would help students to engage with particularly significant and talismanic texts (from writers such as Hall, Bourdieu and Bakhtin) in the field and also to test out the interpretive frameworks they offer by undertaking some case study analyses of contemporary popular cultural texts and practices (in fields such as television, popular music, the leisure industries and youth culture).

TypeTimingWeighting
Coursework100.00%
Coursework components. Weighted as shown below.
ExerciseT1 Week 7 30.00%
EssayA1 Week 1 70.00%
Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

TermMethodDurationWeek pattern
Autumn TeachingLECTURE1 hour111111111111
Autumn TeachingSEMINAR2 hours111111111111

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Mr Andy Medhurst

Convenor, Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/1794

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