Popular Narratives of Neoliberal Citizenship: Makeover, Reality, and Cooking Culture

Transcription

1 Popular Narratives of Neoliberal Citizenship: Makeover, Reality, and Cooking Culture AMST 524--Spring 2011, Wilson 4, W 3:10-6 Instructor: Pamela Thoma, Ph.D. Office: Wilson 10G Office Hours: T/TH 4:15-5 and by appt. Telephone: pthoma@wsu.edu Course Description In 2009 there were more than 250 makeover-themed shows on US television, providing compelling evidence for the contention that transformation, self-care, and becoming an entrepreneur of the self are primary requirements for contemporary citizenship in the United States. While the theme of transformation is as old as narrative itself and is influential in many contexts, it holds an immensely powerful place in American national ideology and mythology. Indeed, in the post-9/11, recessionary present of punitive immigration laws, xenophobia, and the commodification of others in consumer capitalism, the popular lifestyle narratives of makeover, reality, and cooking culture offer instruction in revising the self to achieve social belonging, particularly in gendered, raced, and sexed terms. Without denying either the pleasures associated with popular culture or the complexity of the dynamic, postmodern subject, this reading-intensive seminar sharply and critically focuses on the meanings that popular television, film, and literature produce about selfhood, belonging, and governmentality in the United States and in the broader context of contemporary postfeminist, post-racial, and global neoliberalization. Required Texts Carroll, Affirmative Reaction Collins, Bring on the Books for Everybody Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism Murray and Ouelette, Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture Weber, Makover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity Collins, Watching What We Eat Disability Accommodation Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. If you have a disability and may need accommodations to fully participate in this class, please visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC). All accommodations MUST be approved through the DRC Washington Building,

2 AMST Room 217). Please stop by or call to make an appointment with a disability specialist. Academic Integrity Washington State University s Academic Integrity website ( provides clear definitions and guidelines for student conduct, including information on cheating, and plagiarism ( Campus Safety Information WSU safety Emergency site Course Requirements & Policies Attendance at all seminar meetings is required, and you are expected to arrive on time and stay for the full period. Please notify me if you cannot attend class. Out of respect for seminar participants and to keep discussion interruptions to a minimum, we will decide when to take a break as a group. Please turn off all portable electronic devices, including cell phones and laptops. Each week, students will be prepared to discuss all assigned readings. Because this is a graduate seminar, you should be prepared to initiate serious discussion, as well as think carefully about questions posed by the material, seminar members, and the instructor. Successful participation is based on the quality of comments/questions and listening skills. I expect that everyone will be respectful and attentive to discussion dynamics and take full responsibility for making productive contributions. For Week Three students will research the definition, meaning, and background of a key term related to citizenship. Sign up day one. For weeks 3-12, seminar participants will prepare a three-page Response Paper. The first part summaries and the second part and majority of the paper should respond to an idea, perhaps a specific passage, from within the study, rather than the argument as a whole. The response should end with at least one question for discussion. Presentation/Facilitation. Each student will facilitate discussion of one assigned reading (sign-up week two). Facilitators will begin with a short presentation of five-ten minutes that, 1) cites/quotes a specific statement of the primary thesis or argument in the article/chapter/book, 2) restates the thesis in the facilitator s original language, and 3) cites at least one other passage that complicates the primary thesis or argument. Next,

3 AMST facilitators will provide seminar members with 3-5 well-prepared questions (in writing), and field and encourage responses/discussion. On the day of your facilitation, you are excused from the response assignment. A page, typed, doubled-spaced Final Paper on a relevant topic is due Friday, May 6, at noon in my mailbox. This should be a new piece of scholarship written expressly for this course. Final Paper Topics are due March 30, and a 300-word Abstract of the final paper is due April 13. Schedule of Readings and Assignments (subject to change with notice) Introductions: Context and Selfhood Week One Introductions 1/12 View Reality Rehab with Dr. Jenn Week Two Miller, Makeover Nation (Angel) 1/19 Palmer, Introduction: The Habit of Scrutiny (Angel) Heller, Things Just Keep Getting Better (Amazon.com First Pages of The Great American Makeover) Week Three Citizenship Terms 1/26 Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism 1-70 Berlant, The Theory of Infantile Citizenship (Angel) Ouellette, Take Responsibility for Yourself: Judge Judy and Neo-Liberal Citizenship in Murray & Ouellette. Presentations Begin Reality TV Week Four Ouellette & Murray Introduction in Murray & Ouellette 2/2 Raphael, The Political Economic Origins of Reali-TV in Murray & Ouellette. Rose & Wood, Paradox and the Consumption of

4 AMST Authenticity through Reality Television (Angel) Delisle, Surviving American Cultural Imperialism: Survivor and Traditions of Nineteenth Century Colonial Fiction (Angel) Week Five Meloy, From Kid Nation to Caste Nation: Mobility, 2/9 Privilege, and the Paradox of Class on Reality Television (Americana 8.1: Spring 2009) Jenkins, Buying Into American Idol: How We Are Being Sold on Reality Television in Murray & Ouellette Week Six White, Television, Therapy, and the Social Subject, or The 2/16 TV Therapy Machine (Angel) Hendershot, Belabored Reality: Making It Work on The Simple Life and Project Runway in Murray & Ouellette Makeover: Selfhood, Celebrity, Domesticity, Week Seven 2/23 Weber, Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity Week Eight 3/2 Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity, cont. Week Nine Deery, Interior Design: Commodifying Self and Place in 3/9 Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover : Home Edition and The Swan (Angel) Becker, Help is On the Way! : Supernanny, 911, and the Neoliberal Politics of the Family (Angel)

5 AMST Week Ten 3/16 **Spring Break** Week Eleven Collins, Watching What we Eat: The Evolution of Television 3/23 Cooking Shows Week Twelve Miller, Television Food: From Brahmin Julia to Working 3/30 Class Emeril (Angel) Pollan Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, (Angel) Van Slooten, A Marriage Made in the Kitchen: Amanda Hesser s Cooking for Mr Latte and Julie Powell s Julie and Julia as Foodie Romance. (Angel) Final Paper Topics Due Cultivation and Mutability Week Thirteen 4/6 Collins, Bring on the Books for Everybody Week Fourteen Bring on the Books for Everybody, cont 4/13 Abstracts Due Week Fifteen Carroll, Affirmative Reaction: New Formations of White 4/20 Masculinity Week Sixteen 4/27 Wrap-Up Final Papers Due Friday. May 6, noon, Wilson 10G/111

6 Have a Great Summer!! AMST 524-6