| Kommentar |
In this proseminar we will investigate the idea of a ‘counterculture’ and some of its historical and contemporary manifestations: What is a ‘counter-culture,’ how does it form, what are its limitations? And how did historical countercultures come into existence, thrive and blossom, to be then swallowed up by the mainstream, or to ‘sell out,’ as the story sometimes goes?
1950s bebop jazz, the Beat poets, the Village, rock & roll and youth culture, 1960s hippie culture, British and American punk, hip hop, girrrl cultures, and a few other such manifestations will be our main examples. We will investigate their similarities and differences, paying particular attention to three important elements: The notion of ‘cool,’ the importance of ‘style,’ and the way in which each of these cultures adopted and adapted, mixed, blended and appropriated elements of preceding countercultures and of mainstream culture. We will examine how the ‘cool’ was important in establishing and demonstrating an emotional distance from dominant culture, but was soon incorporated into the world of branding and the marketplace; how style has been a key sign of difference and distinction that has traveled between mainstream and counter-cultures; and how transatlantic cultural exchanges have been significant as music, fashion, lifestyles, attitudes and ideologies that manifest countercultural practice have traveled back and forth across the Atlantic.
In the final part of the course, we will be able to discuss some recent and contemporary manifestations of countercultures, esp. also in Europe and Germany in particular. You will also have the opportunity to research such an example in detail (contemporary German Rockabilly culture? Occupy Wall Street? Hip hop in the Saarland?), to present your own research and conclusions about the possibilities and limitations of counterculture(s).
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). |
