77772 - GENDER AND POPULAR CULTURE IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

With this module students will become acquainted with the interdisciplinary field of gender studies and will familiarise them with the most important gender-related concepts, arguments and debates in Southeast European context. Students are also expected to grasp the most commonly used qualitative methods for studying gender, thus developing critical reading, thinking, and writing skills and deepening their understanding of feminist political and cultural analysis.

Contenuti

Thematically, the module will start with a theoretical introduction to the most important concepts and major discussions in the fields of cultural studies and to feminist approaches to analyzing culture, with an emphasis on visual culture, and continue with relevant analytical and ethnographic studies dealing with the SEE region.

 

Lesson 1: Defining the Terms – South East Europe through Popular Culture

Compulsory reading:

Donna A. Buchanan. “Oh, those Turks!” Music, Politics, and Interculturality in the Balkans and Beyond. In: Balkan popular culture and the Ottoman ecumene: music, image and regional political discourse. Buchanan, Donna A. (ed.). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow press, 2007. Pp. 3-53.

Recommended reading:

John R. Lampe. “Introduction“. Balkans into Southeastern Europe. A Century of War and Transition. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Pp. 1-10.

Lesson 2: Defining the Terms – Studying Popular Culture

Compulsory reading:

Jason Dittmer. “Popular Culture: Theories, Methods, and Intertexuality“. In: Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc, 2010. Pp. 23-47.

Presentation 1:

Gregor Tomc. We will rock YU: Popular Music in the Second Yugoslavia. In: Djurić, Dubravka and Miško Šuvaković (Eds). Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. Pp. 442-465.

Recommended reading:

Cartwright, Lisa and Marita Sturken. “Viewers Make Meaning”. In: Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press: 2001. Pp. 45-72.

Lesson 3: Defining the Terms – Cultural Studies and Feminist Analysis of Culture

Compulsory reading:

Hermes, Joke. “A perfect fit: Feminist Media studies”. In: Rosemarie Buikema and Anneke Smelik. Women’s Studies and Culture: A Feminist Introduction. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995. Pp. 56-66.

Presentation 2:

Bielby, Denise D. Gender inequality in culture industries. In: The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender. Cynthia Carter, Linda Steiner and Lisa McLaughlin (eds.). Routledge. 2015. Pp. 137-147.

Recommended reading:

Hermes, Joke. Rediscovering feminist audience research. In: The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender. Cynthia Carter, Linda Steiner and Lisa McLaughlin (eds.). Routledge. 2015. Pp. 61-71.

Lesson 4: Urban Space-time and Ideology/Gender of the cities

Compulsory reading:

Dunja Rihtman-Auguštin. The Monument in the Main City Square: Constructing and Erasing Memory in Contemporary Croatia. In: Balkan Identities. Nation and Memory. Maria Todorova (ed.). C. Hurst and Co. Publishers, 2004. Pp. 180-197.

 

Presentation 3: Horvatinčić, Sanja. 2013. Erased: On the Circularity of Misogyny on the Example of Female Representation in the Public Space of Zagreb. In: Back to the Square: Art, Activism and Urban research in post-socialism. Urban Festival 13. Zagreb: Kultura Nova. Pp. 90- 103.

Recommended reading:

Athena Athanasiou. "Precarious Intensities: Gendered Bodies in the Streets and Squares of Greece." In: Signs 40, 1 (2014): 1-9.

Lesson 5: Gender and Modernity in Popular Culture

Compulsory reading:

Marina Vujnović. Interwar Yugoslavia, Gender, and History of Women’s Magazines. In: Forging the Bubikopf Nation: Journalism, Gender, and Modernity in Interwar Yugoslavia. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009. Pp. 29-69.

Presentation 4:

Aida Spahić, Fabio Giomi and Zlatan Delić. Part I: 1914-1941 Women through the Epochs. In: Women documented: Women and Public Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 20^th Century. Aida Spahić et al. (eds.) Sarajevo: Sarajevo Open Center. 2014. Pp. 13-40.

Presentation 5:

Chiara Bonfiglioli. “Women’s antifascist Resistance in Italy and Yugoslavia”. In: Revolutionary networks: Women’s Political and Social Activism in Cold War Italy and Yugoslavia (1945-1957). PhD dissertation. University of Utrecht. 2012. Pp. 60-86.

Lesson 6: Methodologies of Researching Culture and Women’s Activism in SEE

Compulsory reading:

Francisca de Haan. 2008. On Retrieving Women’s Cultural Heritage – Especially the History of Women’s Movements in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe. In: Saskia Wieringa (ed.). Travelling Heritages. New Perspectives on Collecting, Preserving and Sharing Women’s History. Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers. Pp. 65-79

Presentation 6:

Chiara Bonfiglioli. “Memories (1978-2008). Remembering the transnational encounter”. In: Belgrade 1978: Remembering the Conference Drug-ca Žena. Žensko pitanje – Novi Pristup? (2008). Pp. 74-97.

Recommended reading:

Francisca de Haan. Introduction. In: Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries. Central European University Press, 2006. Pp. 1-20.

Lesson 7:

Performing Popular Culture

Compulsory reading:

Ana Hofman. “Singing Exclusion”. In: Staging Socialist Femininity: Gender Politics and Folklore Performance in Serbia. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. 85-103.

Presentation 7:

Carol Silverman. 2003. “The Gender of the Profession: Music, Dance, and Reputation among Balkan Muslim Rom Women”. In: Music and Gender: Perspectives from the Mediterranean. Tullia Magrini (ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 119-147.

Recommended reading:

Denise Roman. 2007. “Blue Jeans Generation” and ”Generation PRO”: Youth, Pop Culture and Politics. In: Fragmented Identities. Popular Culture, Sex, and Everyday Life in Communist Romania. Lanham: Lexington Books. Pp. 55-73.

Lesson 8: Women’s agency in films about the Balkans

Compulsory readings:

Dina Iordanova. “Narrating the Balkans”. In: Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media. British Film Institute: 2001. Pp. 55-70.

Pre-viewings of films

Recommended reading:

Aleksandra Djajić Horváth. "Of Female Chastity and Male Arms: The Balkan "ManWoman" in the Age of the World Picture." In: Journal of the History of Sexuality 20, 2 (2011): 358-81.

Lesson 9: Festivals and geopolitics of the “Other” Europe

Compulsory reading:

Tanja Petrović. 2014. Introduction: Europeanization and the Balkans. In: Tanja Petrović (ed.). Mirroring Europe: ideas of Europe and Europeazation in Balkan societies. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. Pp. 41-64.

Presentation 8:

Catherine Baker. Gender and Geopolitics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Contemporary Southeastern Europe, 2015, 2(1), 74-93.

Recommended reading:

Ana Hofman. 2014. “Balkan Music Awards: Popular Music Industries in the Balkans between Already-Europe and Europe-To-Be”. In: Tanja Petrović (ed.). Mirroring Europe: ideas of Europe and Europeazation in Balkan societies. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. Pp. 41-64.

Lesson 10: Conclusions

Short discussion of students’ paper topics (5 minutes presentations of paper topic ideas, and discussion), theoretical background, methodology, main dilemmas. Wrapping-up the course and discussing the remaining open questions.

Discuss methodology of researching visual materials and/or popular culture.

Compulsory reading:

Rose, Gillian. Discourse analysis I: text, intertextuality, context. In: Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage, 2007. Pp. 141-172.

Presentation 9:

Rose, Gillian. Content analysis: Countint what you (think you) see. In: Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage, 2007. Pp. 59-74.

Testi/Bibliografia

Readings on: Gender and popular culture in SEE, Gender and visual arts, Media and gender in the region, Gender in (post-)socialist cinema, Gender and sexuality in SEE, Culture and feminist activism, and performing gender in SEE. The additional bibliography will be provided to students at the start of the module.

 

Metodi didattici

Introductory lectures by the teacher, seminar (student course work and moderated group discussion), selected film footage, individual student presentations of the topic of their final research paper.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

 

 Students are expected to participate in class discussions (20% of the grade, evaluating comprehension of core concepts of the interdisciplinary field and expressive skills), make a presentation of one recommended reading and discuss their essay topic during the last lesson (combined: 30 % of the grade, evaluating preparation work, critical thinking and argumentation in relation to texts and key concepts), and write a final research paper of around 2000 words on a topic related to the course using a chosen theory/methodology discussed in class (50 % of the grade, evaluating academic writing skills, critical analysis and use of theories and concepts discussed in this module).

The final paper will be submitted through the Compilatio.net check (all information provided during the first week of teaching). In this way, the originality check (for which students will be authorized to test and resubmit, if needed, before the final deadline) will be used as a teaching tool for academic writing and referencing skills.

The outcome of the module will be averaged to that of the other module composing the integrated course in order to determine the final grade.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Lectures, moderated group discussion, film excerpts, internet and powerpoint visuals.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Sanja Kajinic