Seminar in Media Criticism 1
E38.2007, Fall 2003
Dept. of Culture and Communication, NYU
The goal of this graduate seminar is to examine the media environment from a variety of critical perspectives. The “media environment” refers both to mass media such as film, television, and the Internet, but also to all types of representational culture such as architecture, art, performance, and everyday social practices.
September 2 Course introduction
September 9 NO CLASS -- Read: Armand Mattelart, Networking the World
September 16 Roland Barthes, Mythologies
Semiotics & Cultural Theory
September 23 Stuart Hall, “Encoding/decoding,” (Reader).
Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular,’” (Reader).
Raymond Williams, “The Technology and the Society,” (Reader).
September 30 make up class—12pm-1:40pm, Cult+Comm Conference Room (239 Greene, 7 th Floor)
September 30 Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter , (pp. 1-114, 183-263).
October 7 Bertolt Brecht, “The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication,” (Reader).
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, "Constituents of a Theory of the Media," (Reader).
Jean Baudrillard, "Requiem for the Media," (Reader).
October 14 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” (Reader).
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” (Reader).
October 21 Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces," (Reader).
Robert Venturi, Learning From Las Vegas
October 28 Janice Radway, “From Reading the Romance ,” (Reader).
Fredric Jameson, “Class and Allegory in Contemporary Mass Culture,” (Reader).
Fredric Jameson, “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture,” (Reader).
November 4 James Beniger, The Control Revolution
November 11 Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on Control Societies,” (Reader).
Michael Hardt, “The Global Society of Control,” (Reader).
Hardt & Negri, Empire (excerpt), (Reader).
November 18 Donna Haraway, “Gene: Maps and Portraits of Life Itself,” (Reader).
Critical Art Ensemble, The Molecular Invasion
November 25 Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen
December 2 Bolter & Grusin, Remediation
Papers due: Friday, December 12.
Course Requirements:
Reading: Thorough coverage of the week’s required reading in advance of class is of utmost importance. Readings should be brought to class for discussion.
Writing : Each student should write a total of 20 pages for the semester, either in a single final paper or split into two shorter papers of ten pages each. Suggested paper topics will be provided, but students are also encouraged to create their own topics. All papers should demonstrate a close reading of the required texts and exhibit a method of critical analysis.
Course Materials:
Course Reader
Roland Barthes, Mythologies
James Beniger, The Control Revolution
Bolter & Grusin, Remediation
Critical Art Ensemble, The Molecular Invasion
Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter
Armand Mattelart, Networking the World
Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen
Robert Venturi, Learning From Las Vegas