Moodle PH-OÖ

Students  will  become  familiar  with  key  texts  of  the  dramatic  canon  in  English  and  will  be  able  to  understand  them  both  in  their  immediate  cultural  contexts  and  as  works  of  art  that  have  been  revisited  by  and  adapted  for  future  generations.  They  will  acquire  the  necessary  skills  and  tools  to  analyze  drama  both  as  a  text  and  as  a  performance  on  the  stage.  Students  will  be  able  to  apply  the  necessary  skills  and  methods  for  the  analysis  of  film.  They  will  become  acquainted  with  filmic  vocabulary  concerning  preproduction,  production  and  postproduction  and  will  understand  film  as  a  visual  and  verbal  form  of  expression  that  uniquely  combines  sight,  sound  and  movement.

This course will introduce students to some of the key concepts employed in cultural studies. We will discuss how cultural texts and cultural processes are produced and consumed. Focusing on such issues as power, hegemony, and globalization as well as such theories as structuralism and poststructuralism, among others, we will trace how the field of cultural studies has evolved as a discipline as well as outline the key approaches and issues that constitute cultural studies. What is “meaning”? What is the difference between “high culture” and “low culture”? How have “new media” transformed our world? These are some of the questions that the course will address. In the course, we will closely examine various cultural texts, from memes to music videos and beyond. 

Through online presentations, discussions, and close reading exercises, together we will develop a broad knowledge of the historical, technological, political, aesthetic, philosophical conditions of cultural texts and practices and the evolution of their diverse forms up to the present. These concepts will be taken up and expanded in the SE CULT later on in your studies. We’ll discuss how these knowledges and theories can be applied didactically in the classroom and workshop/present ideas in groups.