[litp] PS "Style: Its origins, journeys, meanings and uses in 20th-century American culture" (Nordamerikanische Literaturen und Kulturen) - Einzelansicht

James Dean, 1950s bebop jazz, the Beat poets, Aretha Franklin, British punk, hip hop beats from the South Bronx, girrrl cultures, graffiti, and yes, more recently, snowboarders, Starbucks lattes, iPads, and probably even Facebook ... these are just a few examples that thrive on the notion of style – of having something uniquely and recognizably stylish about them. But what is ‘style,’ and how does it work?

Our working hypothesis in this course will be that across cultural phenomena as diverse as these examples, style can be understood as a sign of difference and distinction – style produces and marks difference, between those who are on the inside and those on the outside, those who are enlightened and those who are in the dark, the initiated and the uninitiated. As such a marker of difference, style is nowadays mostly associated with consumerism and the capitalist marketplace, where consumption of distinct products produces differences among us, the consumers. This consumerist function of style is in a tricky relation, however, to subcultures and cultures at the margin of the mainstream, where since the early 20^th century style has often meant a politicized ‘aesthetic of the self’: e.g. in jazz culture and in hip hop, in alternative literary movements, in British and American subcultures, including even in punk, style has been a key component in the individual’s self-fashioning, often in a rebellious spirit, and against society’s conformist pressures.

This course will offer a survey of some significant historical processes that gave birth to these seemingly paradoxical functions of style. We will come across numerous instances of transatlantic cultural exchange: Style turns out to be a concept that has blended and fused white European and African American cultural influences and concepts; despite many points of origin that point to the U.S.A., style most often turns out to be a ‘transatlantic’ notion. The key course readings will reflect this: they will include e.g. excerpts from texts on historical transatlantic cultural processes, e.g. Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic; key Cultural Studies texts on style such as Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style; background readings on cultural history in the 20^th century, e.g. John Leland’s Hip, The History; and historical literary and documentary examples, including film and music clips.

In your proseminar paper, you will be able to do some individual analytic work of your own by either studying some of the historical topics in more detail, or by investigating recent trends in your own culture, e.g. investigating audiences and consumers and arriving at your own conclusions about the contemporary uses of ‘style.’

NOTE: The course will be organized as a “Blockveranstaltung” on five to six days; exact dates and times to be announced.

Readings: A selection of relevant essays and excerpts from books will be made available either in a reader or on CLIX.

Course requirements: attendance, active participation, completion of reading and writing assignments, short oral presentation, and a term paper (Hausarbeit) / final written exam (depending on your Studienordnung).

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