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:

·        J. D. Johansen (1983), “Jurgen Habermas,” from Thinkers of the Twentieth Century.

·        J. Habermas (1989[1962]), brief excerpt from The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.

23 January      Pleasures of the Public Sphere: Constraints & Possibilities

                        Reading:

·        J. D’Emilio (1983), “Capitalism and Gay Identity” from Powers of Desire.

·        M. Ryan (1990), excerpt from “Everyday Space: Gender and the Geography of the Public,” from Women in the Public: Between Banners.

25 January      Walking Cities/Driving Cities

Reading:

·        M. Davis (1992), “Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space,” from M. Sorkin, ed. Variations on a Theme Park.

·        V. Gornick (1996), “On the Street, Nobody Watches, Everyone Performs,” from Approaching Eye Level.

·        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:

·        M. Crawford (1992) “The World in a Shopping Mall,” from M. Sorkin, ed. Variations on a Theme Park.

·        G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, chs. 1-2.

1 February      Capitalism, Class Consciousness, and Commodity Fetishism, Part 2     

Reading:

·        G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, ch. 3.

6 February      Shopping: a World Built for Women?

Reading:

·        G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, ch. 4.

·        J. Walkowitz (1998), “Going Public,” Representations 62:1-30

·        A. Friedberg (1993), “Passage One,” from Window Shopping.

8 February      E. Chin, Title to be announced

Reading:

·        E. Chin (1996), “Hemmed In and Shut Out: Urban Minority Kids, Consumption, and Social Inequality in New Haven, Connecticut,” from Anthropology for a Small Planet.

13 February    Field trip to malls

Reading:

·        G. Cross (2000), An All Consuming Century, chs. 5-7.

15 February    Guest Lecture: J. Price, Title to be announced

·        J. Price (1999) “Nature at the Mall,” 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:

·        J. Kasson (1978) Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century, 3-54.

27 February    The Carnivalesque

Reading:

·        J. Kasson (1978) Amusing the Million, 57-112.

·        M.M. Bakhtin (1984[1965]) “selected excerpts from Rabelais and His World, trans. By H. Iswolsky.

1 March          Hollywood

Reading:

·        R. Sklar, Movie-Made America, chs. 1,2, and 12.

Assignment: Brief written description of an alternative site of “amusement” 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:

·        The Project on Disney (1995), Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, pp. 1-53.

8 March          Disney Parks, 2

Reading:

·        The Project on Disney (1995), Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, pp. 55-109.

·        M. Foucault (1977), “Panopticism,” from Discipline and Punish.

·        S. Boxer (1998), “Beating Surveillance: Don’t Care, Just Laugh,” N.Y. Times, 4 July 1998.

Supplementary Reading:

·        M. Sorokin (1992), “See You in Disneyland,” from Variations on a Theme Park.

13–15 March  Spring Break

20 March        Disney Parks, 3

Reading:

·        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:

·        Raz (1999), excerpts from Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland.

24 March        Field trip: Disneyland in Anaheim

27 March        Porn?

Reading:

·        L. Kipnis (1992), “Male Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,” pp. 373-391 in L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, and P. Treichler, Cultural Studies.

·        C. Queen (1997), “Pornography and the Sensitive New Age Guy,” 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:

·        D. Nasaw (1979), excerpts from Schooled to Order.

5 April Living History, 1

Reading:

·        R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 1-3

10 April           Living History, 2

Reading:

·        R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 4-7

12 April           Living History, 3

Reading:

·        R. Handler and E. Gabler (1997), The New History in an Old Museum, chs. 8-9.

17 April           Museums and Others, 1

Reading:

·        B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 17-78.

19 April           Museums and Others, 2

Reading:

·        B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 79-129

·        D. Segal (1999), “Can You Tell a Jew When You See One? Thoughts on Meeting Barbra/Barbie at the Museum,” Judaism.

24 April           Museums and Others, 3

Reading:

·        B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblatt (1998), Destination Culture, pp. 131-177 & 259-282

·        K. Hudson (1991), “How Misleading Does an Ethnographical Museum Have to Be?” 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:

·        P. Carpignano, R. Andersen, S. Aronowitz, and W. DiFazio (1993), “Chatter in the Age of Electronic Reproduction: Talk Television and the ‘Public Mind,’” from B. Robbins, ed,  The Phantom Public Sphere.

·        P. Bourdieu (19xx), “Public Opinion Does Not Exist”.

·        E. Eakin (2001), “The Intellectual Class Struggle,” NY Times, 6 January.

1 May             Rethinking the Politics and Pleasures of the Public Sphere, 1

Reading:

·        P. Bourdieu (1990[1985]), “Opinion Polls: a ‘Science’ without a Scientist,” from In Other Words.

·        N. Fraser (1993), “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy,” 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 Honnold’s 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%