American Popular Culture:  The Cold War

 This course examines American culture through some of its most popular cultural forms—best-selling novels, magazines, advertising, television, Hollywood films, sports, and popular music.  Although we will make connections between the present and the past, the course is focused specifically on the popular culture of the Cold War (mainly 1950s and 1960s) through Hollywood films, pulp novels, best-selling self-help books, television sit-coms and early rock music.  We will consider such topics as:  norms about gender and sexuality; the post-War religious revival and its co-existence with increasingly secular ways of being in the world; the Cold War and efforts to contain communism abroad; race and early civil rights activity; class and consumption in burgeoning suburbs. 

Learning Objectives: 

1. Students will be able to analyze selected works of American literature closely.
2. Students will compare/contrast the representations of gender and/or race from texts assigned for the course.
3. Students will be able to describe the history behind contemporary social, political, and cultural debates, and become educated participants in those debates.

Texts:

Additional course materials available on my website www.utdallas.edu/~erins

Course Schedule:

Course Requirements

Attendance and participation -- You are expected to come to class prepared for discussion. Your participation includes not only expressing your own ideas, but also the respect and seriousness with which you treat the ideas of your colleagues.

Presentation -- You and a partner are responsible for getting discussion of the day’s reading started once during the semester.  You should meet in advance and plan the background, issues, passages to examine closely, and questions you want to bring to the class.  Presentations will be the first 10 minutes of class, although discussion of questions may run much longer.  You will distribute to everyone a single hand-out you jointly produce with 3-5 questions for us to address at the start of class.  Classes available for student presenters are marked with a ** on the syllabus.

Reading Question Write-Ups – Six times over the course of the semester, you will hand in a one-page (MAX) typed response to questions about the reading.  Goal is to (1) prove you’ve done the reading; and (2) show some thoughtful consideration of the issues or questions it raises.  These are reaction papers vs. more formal writing.  If you spend more than 20-30 minutes writing, you are working too hard.  I will post prompts on my website for each day's reading.  You may feel free to add thoughts/questions to these.  You must hand in 3 of these by Thurs. 7 Oct.   They are due on the day we discuss a reading.  Late reading questions will not be accepted.  E-mailed and faxed questions will not be accepted.  I will not accept questions from students not present in class that day.

Midterm and Final Exams -- essay exams designed to test your mastery of course readings and class discussion, and your ability to synthesize the material and think critically about it. Midterm is in-class on Tues. 5 Oct. Final exam is a take-home exam due in my office at 5:00 p.m. on  Thurs. 9 Dec.

Cold-War Popular Culture Paper (5-7 pages) – an analysis of one Cold-War popular text using the terms and approaches from the course.  Requires outside research.  Detailed handout to be provided.  Due Thurs. 4 Nov. at the start of class.  Brief presentation to class required.

Contemporary Popular Culture Paper (5-7 pages) – an analysis of some contemporary form of popular culture with which you have some engagement.  Uses approaches from the course.  Detailed handout to be provided.  Due Tues. 30 Nov. at the start of class.  Brief presentation to class required. 

Grading Policy -- Your grade will be based on:

You must complete all course requirements in order to pass the class (e.g. if you do not hand in a paper, you will fail the class, even if the other grades average out to a passing grade). Attendance and participation will be reflected in your grade (i.e. it doesn't matter how well you do on the other things, if you regularly don't show for class or don't participate). Anyone missing more than 8 classes (for whatever reason) will fail the course.  Habitual lateness, absences or failure to hand in a paper on time will be reflected in your grade. Please consult me in the event of illness, emergency, or other extenuating circumstances.

A NOTE ON CELL PHONES AND PAGERS - TURN THEM OFF!!! They are rude, disruptive, and disrespectful to me and to your classmates. 

Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty:  I have a zero tolerance policy on cheating and plagiarism.  Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. 

UNIVERSITY POLICIES