Courses:

Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships >> Content Detail



Syllabus



Syllabus



Course Description


This course is listed in Literature, Comparative Media Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies.

What is the history of popular reading in the Western world? How does widespread access to print relate to distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow culture, between good taste and bad judgment, and between men and women readers? This course will introduce students to the broad history of popular reading and to controversies about taste and gender that have characterized its development. Our grounding in historical material will help make sense of our main focus: recent developments in the theory and practice of reading, including fan-fiction, Oprah's book club, comics, hypertext, mass-market romance fiction, mega-chain bookstores, and reader response theory.



Grading


REQUIREMENTSPERCENTAGES
Two oral reports20%
Formal write-up of one oral report15%
Participation25%
Research paper prospectus5%
Research paper35%



General Expectations


  • Attendance is mandatory. If you are going to be absent you must alert me in advance. Two absences are allowed. As the third is reached your grade will suffer. Consistent lateness is a form of absence.

  • Plagiarism will be penalized with due severity. Literature's policy states: "students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else's work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student's own work." For more, find the style guides at the MIT Online Writing and Communication Center.

  • Never bring food, mobile phones, or laptops to class. I will make an exception for your laptop if its use is class related.


Recommended Citation


For any use or distribution of these materials, please cite as follows:

Sarah Brouillette, course materials for 21L.715 / CMS.871 / SP.493 Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].



Calendar


SES #TOPICSKEY DATES
1Introductions: You, Me, Oprah
2Oprah's Book Club I
3Oprah's Book Club II
4Theories of reading I
5Oprah's Book Club IIIYour reports: Oprah's book club choices
6Theories of reading II
7The sociology and history of reading I
8The sociology and history of reading II
9The sociology and history of reading IIIShort paper on Oprah's book club choices due
10Reading and social identity I
11Reading and social identity II
12Reading and social identity IIIYour reports: social identity and your reading behavior
13Reading as resistance I
14Reading as resistance II
15Romance readers I
Out of class: Go visit a comics shop
16Romance readers II

Your reports: niche romance audiences, and/or your own romance reading

Short paper on reading and social identity due

17Fandom I
18Fandom II
19A visit to the Rare Books Department at the Boston Public LibraryResearch prospectus due
20The bestseller

Your reports: What makes a bestseller?

Short paper on romance readers due

Out of class: Go visit a mega-chain bookstore, and watch You've Got Mail
21Bookstores, online and off-line
22FADS: reading as social engineering
23FADS: Harry Potter maniaShort paper on bestsellers due
24Research presentations
25Wrapping upResearch paper due

 








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