MALLS, MUSEUMS, & AMUSEMENTS!
THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE UNITED
STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!
Daniel
Segal
Office
Hours: Fri. 1-4 & by appointment
dsegal@hal.pitzer.edu
Susan
Seizer
Office
Hours: Tu. 3-5 & by appoinment
sseizer@scrippscol.edu
INTRODUCTION
16 January Introduction
18 January The Diminished &
Depoliticized Public Sphere?
Reading:
á
J. D. Johansen (1983), ÒJurgen Habermas,Ó from Thinkers of the Twentieth Century.
á
J. Habermas (1989[1962]), brief excerpt from The Structural Transformation of the
Public Sphere.
23 January Pleasures of the Public
Sphere: Constraints & Possibilities
Reading:
á
J. DÕEmilio (1983), ÒCapitalism and Gay IdentityÓ from Powers of Desire.
á
M. Ryan (1990), excerpt from ÒEveryday Space: Gender and the Geography of the
Public,Ó from Women in the Public: Between Banners.
25 January Walking Cities/Driving Cities
Reading:
á
M. Davis (1992), ÒFortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space,Ó
from M. Sorkin, ed. Variations on a Theme Park.
á
V. Gornick (1996), ÒOn the Street, Nobody Watches, Everyone Performs,Ó from Approaching Eye
Level.
á
C. Hood (1993), excerpts from 722 Miles: the Building of the Subways and How They Transformed
New York
CONSUMING
30 January Capitalism, Class
Consciousness, and Commodity Fetishism, Part 1
Reading:
á
M. Crawford (1992) ÒThe World in a Shopping Mall,Ó from M. Sorkin, ed. Variations on a
Theme Park.
á
G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, chs. 1-2.
1 February Capitalism, Class
Consciousness, and Commodity Fetishism, Part 2
Reading:
á
G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, ch. 3.
6 February Shopping: a World Built for
Women?
Reading:
á
G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, ch. 4.
á
J. Walkowitz (1998), ÒGoing Public,Ó Representations 62:1-30
á
A. Friedberg (1993), ÒPassage One,Ó from Window Shopping.
8 February E. Chin, Title to be
announced
Reading:
á
E. Chin (1996), ÒHemmed In and Shut Out: Urban Minority Kids, Consumption, and
Social Inequality in New Haven, Connecticut,Ó from Anthropology for a
Small Planet.
13 February Field trip to malls
Reading:
á
G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, chs. 5-7.
15 February Guest Lecture: J. Price,
Title to be announced
á
J. Price (1999) ÒNature at the Mall,Ó from Flight Maps.
19 February Short Paper #1 due at noon
20 February Workshop: Small group discussion of short paper
#1.
AMUSING
22 February Situating Amusement
Reading:
á
J. Kasson (1978) Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century, 3-54.
27 February The Carnivalesque
Reading:
á
J. Kasson (1978) Amusing the Million, 57-112.
á
M.M. Bakhtin (1984[1965]) Òselected excerpts from Rabelais and His
World,
trans. By H. Iswolsky.
1 March Hollywood
Reading:
á
R. Sklar, Movie-Made
America,
chs. 1,2, and 12.
Assignment: Brief written description of
an alternative site of ÒamusementÓ that you will attend and write about, for
all students who will not be participating in the field trip to Disneyland.
6 March Disney Parks, 1
Reading:
á
The Project on Disney (1995), Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, pp. 1-53.
8 March Disney Parks, 2
Reading:
á
The Project on Disney (1995), Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, pp. 55-109.
á
M. Foucault (1977), ÒPanopticism,Ó from Discipline and Punish.
á
S. Boxer (1998), ÒBeating Surveillance: DonÕt Care, Just Laugh,Ó N.Y. Times, 4 July 1998.
Supplementary
Reading:
á
M. Sorokin (1992), ÒSee You in Disneyland,Ó from Variations on a Theme Park.
13–15 March Spring Break
20 March Disney Parks, 3
Reading:
á
The Project on Disney (1995), Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, pp. 110-198.
22 March Import/Export: Some Dynamics
of Globalization
Reading:
á
Raz (1999), excerpts from Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland.
24 March Field trip: Disneyland in Anaheim
27 March Porn?
Reading:
á
L. Kipnis (1992), ÒMale Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,Ó pp.
373-391 in L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, and P. Treichler, Cultural Studies.
á
C. Queen (1997), ÒPornography and the Sensitive New Age Guy,Ó Real Live Nude
Girl.
29 March Assignment: Short paper #2
due at the start of class.
Workshop: Small group discussions of paper #2.
ELEVATING
/ EDUCATING
3 April Mass Schooling
Reading:
á
D. Nasaw (1979), excerpts from Schooled to Order.
5 April Living History, 1
Reading:
á
R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 1-3
10
April Living History, 2
Reading:
á
R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 4-7
12
April Living History, 3
Reading:
á
R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 8-9.
17
April Museums and Others, 1
Reading:
á
B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 17-78.
19
April Museums and Others, 2
Reading:
á
B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 79-129
á
D. Segal (1999), ÒCan You Tell a Jew When You See One? Thoughts on Meeting
Barbra/Barbie at the Museum,Ó Judaism.
24
April Museums and Others, 3
Reading:
á
B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 131-177 & 259-282
á
K. Hudson (1991), ÒHow Misleading Does an Ethnographical Museum Have to Be?Ó
from I. Karp and D. Lavine, eds. Exhibiting Cultures: the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display.
REPRISE
26
April Rethinking the Politics and
Pleasures of the Public Sphere, 1
Reading:
á
P. Carpignano, R. Andersen, S. Aronowitz, and W. DiFazio (1993), ÒChatter in
the Age of Electronic Reproduction: Talk Television and the ÔPublic Mind,ÕÓ
from B. Robbins, ed, The Phantom Public Sphere.
á
P. Bourdieu (19xx), ÒPublic Opinion Does Not ExistÓ.
á
E. Eakin (2001), ÒThe Intellectual Class Struggle,Ó NY Times, 6 January.
1
May Rethinking the Politics and
Pleasures of the Public Sphere, 1
Reading:
á
P. Bourdieu (1990[1985]), ÒOpinion Polls: a ÔScienceÕ without a Scientist,Ó
from In
Other Words.
á
N. Fraser (1993), ÒRethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique
of Actually Existing Democracy,Ó from B. Robbins, ed. The Phantom Public
Sphere.
3 May
Third short paper due at noon.
9 May at 2 Final examination, as
scheduled by the registrars of the Claremont Colleges.
Please
Note the Following
1.
Writing Assignments: There are three short papers required for this
course. Each of these short papers will require that you make connections
between the assigned readings and a field trip: one field trip to malls, one to
an amusement, and one to a museum.
* The
first short paper will concern malls, and the class will take a field trip to
some malls on 13 February. We will provide transportation, and you must
participate in the field trip to complete the paper. This paper is due on
19 February at noon; you must provide us three printed copies of your paper
when you turn it in.
* The
second short paper will concern an amusement. You have two options in
terms of a field trip for this paper. You can either participate in a
class field trip to Disneyland on the 24th of March or you can choose and
attend some other site of amusement on your own. For the Disneyland
option, we will provide transportation, but you will need to purchase your own
admission ticket. If you choose the second option, you must provide us a
brief written statement identifying your selected site of amusement on or
before 1 March. The second short paper is due in class on 29 March;
you must provide us three printed copies of your paper when you turn it in.
* For
the third short paper, you will need to visit a museum. We will not have
an organized field trip to any museums, but will provide you a list of possible
museums. When you turn in your third short paper, you must staple your
admission ticket or receipt to the paper. The third short paper is due on
3 May at noon; you must provide us two printed copies of your paper when you
turn it in.
2.
Assigned Readings: The following books have been ordered for you to purchase at
Huntley bookstore; they are also on reserve at Honnold Library:
* G.
Cross, An
All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America.
* J.
Kasson, Amusing
the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century.
* The
Project on Disney, Inside the Mouse.
* R.
Handler and E. Gabler, The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial
Williamsburg.
* B.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture Tourism, Museums, and Heritage.
All
other assigned readings are available for you to download from the web through
HonnoldÕs electronic reserve system at eres.claremont.edu. To access the
readings, you will need the following course password: sseizer36 (please note that this must
be all lower case letters).
3.
Grading:
Course
participation
15%
Short
paper
1
20%
Short
paper
2
20%
Short
paper
3
20%
Final
Examination
25%
TOTAL
100%