| CODE | ATS5116 | ||||||
| TITLE | The Beginnings of Mass Culture | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 10 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Faculty of Arts | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | When did modern mass culture – as we still know it today – begin? How can it be defined and analysed? The concepts of ‘mass’ and ‘mass culture’ will be discussed theoretically and within the historical context of the Modern period. Starting with reactions to the experience of revolutionary masses during the French Revolution, we will look at various manifestations of masses and mass culture and how these phenomena were reflected in philosophy, literature and film. Important and influential philosophical reflections on the development of mass society and culture, which can also be applied to our contemporary situation, will be studied: Nietzsche’s critique of man as ‘herd animal’, Marx's and Engels' analysis of capitalist society, the proletarian masses and mass production, and Freud's mass psychology. Literary approaches to depicting mass phenomena are especially fascinating since literature is traditionally a medium associated with the depiction of the individual. But with the development of modern mass society, writers have also turned to the question of the relationship between the one and the many, of the mass as a distinctly modern phenomenon and to mass media and their relationship to literature. We will study a selection of shorter literary texts relating to different aspects of these issues, many of which are highly topical: from revolutionary mass movements to mass entertainment and conformity, from the loss of individual responsibility within the mass to the potentially liberating strength of the many. Film as a mass medium has often reflected on the mass experience of media consumption and also lends itself to the representation of masses, as can be seen in many war or catastrophe films and, for instance, zombie movies. We will mainly focus on the study of examples of Modernist film, but more recent productions can also be discussed in class or chosen as topics for assignments. Study-unit Aims: The study-unit aims at enhancing students' analytical skills pertaining to an important period, Modernism, and an intriguing phenomenon, the mass and mass culture. With this topic, it touches on fundamental questions of cultural studies. Therefore students will be able to discuss the various meanings of 'culture' and 'popularity' as well as 'tradition' versus 'modernity'. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Reflect critically on mass culture: Since we - arguably - still live in the modern period, a historical understanding of significant developments of this period is designed to encourage students' self-reflection on our current situation, culturally, politically, economically and socially, thus contributing to critical self awareness. - Compare their knowledge of central texts and films on the topic of mass culture to other relevant cultural productions from various contexts. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Critically analyse secondary as well as primary literature and films. - Identify a suitable research question related to the issues studied. - Present and discuss these issues in an academically suitable way. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Extracts from: - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thoughts out of Season (available online). - Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (available online). - Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (available online). Literary texts: - Heinrich von Kleist, The Earthquake in Chile. - Edgar Allan Poe, The Man of the Crowd. - Ernst Toller, Hoppla, We're Alive! In: Ernst Toller, Plays One: Transformation, Masses Man, Hoppla, We're Alive!. Ed. and trans by Alan Raphael Pearlman. London: Oberon, 2000. - Irmgard Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl. Films: - Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin. - Fritz Lang, Metropolis. - Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times. - Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (available online). Supplementary Reading: - Andreas Huyssen, After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | ||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Kathrin Schoedel |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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