90977 - POP CULTURE THEORY.

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Al termine del corso lo studente conosce gli aspetti essenziali del dibattito intorno al fenomeno – vasto, complesso e fondamentale per comprendere la nostra epoca – della cultura “pop”. I problemi al centro dell’insegnamento concernono soprattutto: la contestualizzazione della cultura di massa o “popular”, da un lato, e delle poetiche del “pop”, dall’altro, all’interno della realtà culturale contemporanea; la comprensione delle connessioni attualmente vigenti tra cultura “alta” e cultura “bassa” o “popolare”, con attenzione anche al ruolo svolto dai mass media; la riflessione critica sulla comunicazione mediata da forme simboliche di matrice estetica che è così caratterizzante per tali fenomeni; l’analisi delle strutture che connotano le pratiche estetico-comunicative legate al gusto e alla bellezza, e del loro ruolo ai fini della costituzione dell’immagine di individui e gruppi, della loro identità e del loro stile di vita; il rapporto tra arte “pop” e cultura “popular”, che è sia di continuità e unità, e sia però di non immediata e mera identità; la comprensione del rapporto fra le molteplici poetiche “pop” nei diversi ambiti estetici e artistici (arti visive, musica, letteratura, cinema, moda) e le diverse teorie che sono state elaborate a proposito della cultura “pop” anche in relazione ai possibili approcci di studio e metodi che è possibile adottare (filosofia, psicologia, sociologia, “cultural studies”, antropologia culturale).

Contenuti

Title: Fashion, Popular culture, Contemporary music.

The lecture course investigates the multidimensional imaginary of popular culture as prism for a critical understanding of the contemporary age in general. Through the analysis of selected topics according to criteria derived from the philosophical traditions of critical theory of society and pragmatism, and also from sociology and cultural studies, the program faces the complex contaminations between “high” and “low” culture in the contemporary world.

The bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lecture course.

Testi/Bibliografia

C. Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch”, in Art and culture: Critical essays, Beacon Press, Boston 1961; also available in B. Rosenberg and D. Manning White (eds.), Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America, The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963, pp. 98-110.

Th. W. Adorno, “On Popular Music", in Essays on Music, ed. by R. Leppert, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2002; also available in Current of Music: Elements of a Radio Theory, ed. by R. Hullot-Kentor, Polity Press, Cambridge-Malden (MA) 2009, pp. 272-326.

R. Shusterman, Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham-Boulder-New York-Oxford 2000 (2^nd edition), only the following parts: pp. 139-147, 169-200, 236-283 (= first part of Chapter 6: “Aesthetic Ideology, Aesthetic Education, and Art’s Value in Critique”; entire Chapter 7: “Form and Funk: The Aesthetic Challenge of Popular Art”; entire Chapter 10: “Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal”).

E. Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, London-New York: Tauris & Co. 2003 (2^nd edition), only the following parts: pp. 1-15, 179-207 (= Chapter 1: “Introduction”; Chapter 9: “Oppositional Dress”).

M. Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, 0 Books, 2009, only the following parts: pp. 1-11 (= Chapter 1).

The bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lecture course.

In case of texts that were not available in public libraries, the teacher will provide the textual materials to the students during the lessons.

Metodi didattici

Traditional lectures and class discussions with students.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The assessment method is twofold: written and oral.

The students will first write a paper on Adorno's or Shusterman's philosophical accounts of pop culture, and send the paper to the teacher as email attachment (Word or Pdf) at least 7 days before the day of the oral exam published on AlmaEsami. The paper must be written using Times New Roman 12, and must be long 5-10 pages max.

Then, the students will make an oral examination on the other parts of the program, namely on the texts that were not included in the paper.

The written and the oral parts of the examination will ensure the achievement of the following objectives:

- knowledge of the main conceptual contents of the texts examined;

- general orientation concerning the characteristics of contemporary aesthetic culture;

- comprehension of the affinities and differences between heterogeneous philosophical approaches to popular culture;

- comprehension of the meaning of the concepts learned in relation to the concrete phenomena taken into account.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

The lessons will be supported by the multimedia material available in the classroom.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Stefano Marino