UT Dallas Syllabus for ams3300.001.07f taught by Erin Smith (erins)

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Course Syllabus
Course Information Fall 2007 American Popular Culture AMS 3300.001 – Collegium V Tues. & Thurs. 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. CBW 1.103

Professor Contact Information Dr. Erin A. Smith School of General Studies Office: GR 2.208 Phone: (972) 883-2338 e-mail: [email protected] web site: http://www.utdallas.edu/~erins Office Hours: Tues. 2:30 – 3:45 p.m. Thurs. 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. and by appointment

Course Description This course examines American culture through some of its most popular cultural forms—bestselling 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.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes 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.

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Required Textbooks and Materials Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night (1951) Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (1952) Sloan Wilson, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) Valerie Taylor, The Girls in 3-B (1959) Lynn Spigel, Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (1992) Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold-War Era (1999) All texts are available at the UTD Bookstore and at Off-Campus books. 13 readings on e-reserve at http://utdallas.docutek.com/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=280

This course does not use WebCT. Course materials are found at my website www.utdallas.edu/~erins

Assignments & Academic Calendar Thurs. 16 Aug. Organizational / Intro. to Course Introduction to the Study of Popular Culture Tues. 21 Aug. John Fiske, chap. 23, “Popular Culture” in Critical Terms for Literary Study, 2d ed. Ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995): 321-35 (e-reserve) Thurs. 23 Aug. Geertz, Clifford, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” in Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies. Eds. Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson (Berkeley: U of California P, 1991): 239-77 (e-reserve) Conformity and Its Discontents: Domesticity, the Suburbs, & the Organization Man Tues. 28 Aug. May, Homeward Bound, Introduction (ix-xxvi), chap. 1 “Containment at Home: Cold War, Warm Hearth” (10-29), and chap. 7 “The Commodity Gap: Consumerism and the Modern Home” (143-62) **Thurs. 30 Aug.

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Wilson, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, chap. 1-20 (1-143) Tues. 4 Sept. Wilson, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, chap. 21-41 (143-276)

Early Television: Audiences, Consumers, and Communities Thurs. 6 Sept. Spigel, Make Room for TV, intro. chap. 1 -2 (1-72) **Tues. 11 Sept. Spigel, Make Room for TV, chap. 3-4 (73-135) Thurs. 13 Sept. Spigel, Make Room for TV, chap. 5 (136-180) screen l Love Lucy episode “The Cult of Reassurance”: Religion in Cold-War America Tues. 18 Sept. Paul Hutchinson, “Have We a ‘New’ Religion?” Life 11 April 1955, 140+ (e-reserve) James Gilbert, chap. 6 “’My Answer’: Billy Graham and Male Conversions” (106-134) in Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2005) (ereserve) **Thurs. 20 Sept. Peale, Power of Positive Thinking, preface-chap. 8 (viii-114) Tues. 25 Sept. Peale, Power of Positive Thinking, chap. 9-epilogue (115-225) Thurs. 27 Sept. – Midterm Exam – Bring a blue book Commies, Queers, and other Subversives: Trash Fiction Tues. 2 Oct. May, chap. 4 “Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb (80-99) in Homeward Bound

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Erin Smith, chap. 1, “The Hard-Boiled Writer and the Literary Marketplace”(18-42) in HardBoiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2000) (ereserve) **Thurs. 4 Oct. Spillane, One Lonely Night, chap. 1-6 (1-99) Tues. 9 Oct Spillane, One Lonely Night, chap. 7-11 (100-174) Thurs. 11 Oct. – No class / work on papers Tues. 16 Oct. Yvonne Keller, “’Was It Right to Love Her Brother’s Wife So Passionately?’: Lesbian Pulp Novels and U. S. Lesbian Identity, 1950-1965,” American Quarterly 57.2 (June 2005): 385-410 (e-reserve) Lillian Faderman, chap. 5, “’Naked Amazons and Queer Damozels’: World War II and Its Aftermath,” (118-38) in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in TwentiethCentury America (New York: Penguin, 1991) (e-reserve) **Thurs. 18 Oct. Taylor, The Girls in 3-B, foreword-chap. 14 (v-107) Tues. 23 Oct. Taylor, The Girls in 3-B, chap. 15-afterword (107-206)

On the Origins of Rock and Roll: The Politics of Gender, Class, and Race **Thurs. 25 Oct. George Lipsitz, chap. 5, “Against the Wind: Dialogic Aspects of Rock and Roll” (99-132) in Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1990) (e-reserve) **Tues. 30 Oct.. Nelson George, chap. 3, “The New Negro (1950-1965)” (59-93) in The Death of Rhythm & Blues (New York: Pantheon, 1988) (e-reserve) **Thurs. 1 Nov. – Cold War Popular Culture Paper Due / brief presentations

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Susan Douglas, chap. 4, “Why the Shirelles Mattered” (83-98) in Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Times, 1994) (e-reserve) **Tues. 6 Nov. Penny Von Eschen, chap. 3, “The Real Ambassador” (58-91) in Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004) (e-reserve) Spectator Sports: Bodies and Culture **Thurs. 8 Nov. Randy Roberts, “The Wide World of Muhammad Ali: The Politics and Economics of Televised Boxing” (24-53) in Muhammad Ali, the People’s Champ , ed. Elliott J. Gorn (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1995) (e-reserve) The Biblical Epic: God, the Cold War, and the American Way Time TBA – outside class screening of The Ten Commandments Tues. 13 Nov. Melani McAlister, chap. 1, “’Benevolent Supremacy’: the Biblical Epic at the Dawn of the American Century, 1947-1960,”(48-83) in Epic Encounters: Culture, Media and U.S. Interests in the Middle East since 1945 (Berkeley: U of California P, 2005) (e-reserve) Thurs. 15 Nov. Wrap – Up / Evaluations / Final Exam Questions Out

Tues. 20 Nov. –Contemporary Popular Culture Papers due / class presentations

Thurs. 24 Nov. – Thanksgiving – NO CLASS

TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM due Tuesday 27 November in my office at 5:00 p.m.

Grading Policy 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,

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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 onepage (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. 27 Sept. They are due on the day we discuss a reading. Late reading questions will not be accepted. Emailed 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 Thurs. 27 Sept. Final exam is a take-home exam due in my office at 5:00 p.m. on Tues. 27 Nov. Cold War Popular Culture Paper (5 pages) -- an analysis of some form of Cold-War popular culture (novel, self-help book, television show, magazine, album, film, etc.) using the terms and approaches from the course. Requires outside research. Detailed handout to be provided. Due Thursday 1 Nov. at the start of class. Brief presentation to class required. Contemporary Popular Culture Paper (5 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. 20 Nov. at the start of class. Brief presentation to class required. Grading Policy --Your grade will be based on: Cold War Popular Culture Paper Contemporary Popular Culture Paper Midterm Exam Final Exam Presentation Reading Question Write-ups 20% 20% 20% 20% 10% 10%

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.

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Course & Instructor Policies A NOTE ON CELL PHONES AND PAGERS—TURN THEM OFF!!! They are rude, disruptive, and disrespectful to me and to your classmates.

Student Conduct & Discipline The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have rules and regulations for the orderly and efficient conduct of their business. It is the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student conduct and activities. General information on student conduct and discipline is contained in the UTD publication, A to Z Guide, which is provided to all registered students each academic year. The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the procedures of recognized and established due process. Procedures are defined and described in the Rules and Regulations, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System, Part 1, Chapter VI, Section 3, and in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations (SU 1.602, 972/8836391). A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the responsibilities of citizenship. He or she is expected to obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules, university regulations, and administrative rules. Students are subject to discipline for violating the standards of conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or whether civil or criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct. Academic Integrity The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty. Because the value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work. Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts or omissions related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or the submission as one’s own work or material that is not one’s own. As a general rule, scholastic dishonesty involves one of the following acts: cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or falsifying academic records. Students suspected of academic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary proceedings. Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details). This course will use the resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective. Email Use

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The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of communication between faculty/staff and students through electronic mail. At the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the identity of each individual in an email exchange. The university encourages all official student email correspondence be sent only to a student’s U.T. Dallas email address and that faculty and staff consider email from students official only if it originates from a UTD student account. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individual corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. UTD furnishes each student with a free email account that is to be used in all communication with university personnel. The Department of Information Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for students to have their U.T. Dallas mail forwarded to other accounts. Withdrawal from Class The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level courses. These dates and times are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration procedures must be followed. It is the student's responsibility to handle withdrawal requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student. You must do the proper paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if you choose not to attend the class once you are enrolled. Student Grievance Procedures Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities, of the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures. In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations, or other fulfillments of academic responsibility, it is the obligation of the student first to make a serious effort to resolve the matter with the instructor, supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom the grievance originates (hereafter called “the respondent”). Individual faculty members retain primary responsibility for assigning grades and evaluations. If the matter cannot be resolved at that level, the grievance must be submitted in writing to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean. If the matter is not resolved by the written response provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the School Dean. If the grievance is not resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written appeal to the Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic Appeals Panel. The decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic appeals process will be distributed to all involved parties. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations. Incomplete Grade Policy As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course work has been completed. An incomplete grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long semester. If the required work to complete the course and to remove the

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incomplete grade is not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a grade of F. Disability Services The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities equal to those of their non-disabled peers. Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the Student Union. Office hours are Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is: The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22 PO Box 830688 Richardson, Texas 75083-0688 (972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY) Essentially, the law requires that colleges and universities make those reasonable adjustments necessary to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability. For example, it may be necessary to remove classroom prohibitions against tape recorders or animals (in the case of dog guides) for students who are blind. Occasionally an assignment requirement may be substituted (for example, a research paper versus an oral presentation for a student who is hearing impaired). Classes enrolled students with mobility impairments may have to be rescheduled in accessible facilities. The college or university may need to provide special services such as registration, note-taking, or mobility assistance. It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for such an accommodation. Disability Services provides students with letters to present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs accommodations. Individuals requiring special accommodation should contact the professor after class or during office hours. Religious Holy Days The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other required activities for the travel to and observance of a religious holy day for a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property tax under Section 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated. The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon as possible regarding the absence, preferably in advance of the assignment. The student, so excused, will be allowed to take the exam or complete the assignment within a reasonable time after the absence: a period equal to the length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student who notifies the instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A student who fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period may receive a failing grade for that exam or assignment.

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If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e., for the purpose of observing a religious holy day] or if there is similar disagreement about whether the student has been given a reasonable time to complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the student or the instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of the institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee must take into account the legislative intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive officer or designee. Off-Campus Instruction and Course Activities Off-campus, out-of-state, and foreign instruction and activities are subject to state law and University policies and procedures regarding travel and risk-related activities. Information regarding these rules and regulations may be found at the website address given below. Additional information is available from the office of the school dean. (http://www.utdallas.edu/Business Affairs/Travel_Risk_Activities.htm)

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.

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