2016-2017
British Popular Culture
Code: IS 019A
Category: Creative Arts and Media Studies
Level: 4
Credits: 15
Teaching Pattern
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
3 x 3hrs
3 x 3hrs
2 x 3hrs
3 x 3hrs
Seminar
1 x 4hrs
Field Trip
Tutorial
1 x 20mins
*in addition to the above formal teaching sessions you will be expected to do approximately 123 hours of
independent study over the 4 weeks.
* Additional field trip fee of £40.00
Course overview
What is ‘British popular culture’? Our Royal family, our unique social and cultural history, the BBC, our rolling hills,
white cliffs and myriad beaches all contribute to a quintessentially British quality. This course explores, through a
cultural studies framework, how relationships between national identity, class, race, gender and sexualities play out
in the making and consuming of popular culture.
Key debates include the contradiction between the ‘difficulty’ of theory and the ‘ease’ of popular culture, why
popular culture is still disregarded within traditional academic paradigms, and whether popular culture is a space for
subversion, criticism, liberation or a framework for subtle political and ideological status quo? We will apply this
critical working knowledge of theoretical perspectives and contemporary debates to a wide range of British media
and cultural practices, including a case study of the cosmopolitan and multi-faceted city of Brighton & Hove itself.
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SUMMER Session 1
CORE TEXT
John Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, an Introduction
(Pearson, any edition is suitable)
A comprehensive review of the key themes and topics in the study of popular culture. This will provide essential
background reading throughout the course.)
Further core reading: (not mandatory)
Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture
(Routledge 2004).
Course Schedule
Week 1: ‘Reading’ Popular Culture
In these sessions, we will contextualise the study of popular culture within a cultural studies framework. What have
been the most important and influential debates that have shaped the study of popular culture? How do we deal
with the apparent contradiction between the 'difficulty' of theory and the 'ease' of popular culture?
The majority of us live our lives consuming popular culture. We recognise it all around us, it frames our everyday life.
So how do we study it? How do we classify it? How can we be objective about our subjective involvement with
popular culture? In these sessions we will discuss diverse ways to tackle this complex equation around consumingand studying- popular culture.
By the end of this first week, we should all be able to critically engage with our own cultural choices; media, clothes,
music, leisure practices, social life, etc and have structural templates for our case studies.
Session 1 and 2: Introduction/Course overview and allocation of presentation groups/Approaches to the study of
Popular Culture.
Session 3: Reading Popular Culture: Key Issues and Debates
Key Reading (See Study Pack)

Paul du Gay et al, extracts from 'Making Sense of the Walkman,' from Doing Cultural Studies (Sage 1997)
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‘Introduction’ and ‘The Role of Stereotypes’ in The Matter of Images, Richard Dyer ( Routledge, 2002)
‘Introduction’ in Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices ( Stuart Hall 1997)
‘The Jeaning of America’ in Understanding Popular Culture John Fiske ( Routledge, 2003)
‘Rethinking Stereotypes’ in Ideology, Economy and the British Cinema , T.E. Perkins ( Routledge 2010)
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. (Routledge:
1993)
Further Reading
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SUMMER Session 1
The following texts will be useful for both this week and also the ensuing weeks. Be sure to return to this list when
writing your assignment.
Chris Barker, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice (Sage 2000)
Tony Bennett et al eds, Popular Culture and Social Relations
(Open U.P. 1986) - especially the Introduction and Chapter 1
Mary Ellen Brown ed, Television and Women’s Culture: The Politics of the
Popular (Sage 1989)
Jim Collins, Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Postmodernism
(Routledge 1989)
Gina Dent ed, Black Popular Culture (Bay 1992)
Simon During ed, The Cultural Studies Reader (Routledge 1999)
John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture (Unwin 1989)
John Fiske , Reading the Popular (Unwin 1989)
John Frow, Cultural Studies and Cultural Value (Clarendon 1995)
Lorraine Gamman and Margaret Marshment eds, The Female Gaze
(Women’s Press 1988)
Stuart Hall, ‘Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms’, from Tony Bennett et al eds, Culture, Ideology and Social Process
(Batsford 1981)
Stuart Hall, ‘Notes on Deconstructing “the Popular” ‘, in Raphael Samuel ed, People’s History and Socialist Theory
(Routledge 1981)
Peter Jackson, Maps of Meaning (Unwin 1989)
Jim McGuigan, Cultural Populism (Routledge 1992)
Angela McRobbie ed, Back To Reality ? Social Experience and Cultural
Studies (Manchester UP 1997)
Dominic Strinati ed, Come On Down ? Popular Media Culture in Post-War
Britain (Routledge 1992)
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SUMMER Session 1
Week 2: Gender and Popular Culture
The key debates for this topic are ‘how and why’ masculinity and femininity are represented within contemporary
popular culture? What recurring tropes or characteristics do we see appearing throughout different popular texts?
Do certain cultural forms or genres give rise to certain representations of gender and not others? Is it more correct
to think not of femininity and masculinity in the singular but femininities and masculinities in the plural?
What are the differences between men’s popular culture and popular culture produced for women? How is gender
constructed, not only through the images of men and women within these genres, but also through the construction
of their consumer’s interests, tastes and preoccupations? How does popular culture deal with transgender, intersex
and other non binary gender identities?
These and many more questions form the focus for our discussions Students will be encouraged though to draw on
other forms of popular culture in their work and debates.
Session 1: Introduction to Gender and Popular Culture.
Session 2: Tutor led. British Popular Culture Case Study: Lifestyle magazines.
Session 3: Student led: REPRESENTING GENDER IN POPULAR CULTURE
Key Reading for Week 2

Ros Ballaster, Margaret Beetham, Elizabeth Frazer and Sandra Hebron. Women’s Worlds: Ideology,
Femininity and the Woman’s Magazine (Macmillan 1991)

‘Identity and Subculture’ Alan Sinfield in A Medhurst and SR Munt (eds) Lesbian and Gay Studies: A critical
introduction, Cassell 2007)
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‘Gender Performativity’, Sarah E. Chinn in Medhurst and Munt, as above
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‘There is more than just women and men’ , Sabrina Lang in S. Rammet et al, Gender Reversal and Gender
Culture ( Routledge 2012)
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‘Heterosexuality’ by Richard Dyer, in Medhurst and Munt, as above.
Further Reading
Paula Black, The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure (Routledge 2004)
Rowena Chapman and Jonathan Rutherford eds, Male Order (Lawrence and Wishart 1988)
Steven Cohen and Ina Rae Hark eds, Screening the Male (Routledge 1993)
Christine Holmlund, Impossible Bodies: Femininity and Masculinity at the
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SUMMER Session 1
Movies (Routledge 2002)
Joanne Hollows, Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture (MUP 2000)
bell hooks, Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics (Turnaround 1991)
Susan Jeffords, Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era
(Rutgers University Press 1994)
Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim eds, You Tarzan: Masculinity, Movies and Men (Lawrence and Wishart 1993)
Frank Mort, Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth-Century Britain (Routledge
1996)
Sean Nixon, Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship and ContemporaryConsumption (UCL Press 1996)
Fred Pfeil, White Guys: Studies in Postmodern Domination and Difference (Verso 1995)
Mark Simpson, Male Impersonators: Men Performing Masculinity (Cassell 1994)
Sue Thornham, Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies (Arnold 2000)
Janice Winship, ‘Women Outdoors: Advertising, Controversy and Disputing Feminism in the 1990s’, International
Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 3 no.1, (2000)
Week 3
Sessions 1 and 2 : Class and Taste
Session 3 : The Carnivalesque . Field trip. Thursday 7th July
Our first two sessions will consider the politics of class and taste. How do we decide what is good or bad taste? What
implications do these decisions have? How much genuine choice do we have about our cultural activities? How
strongly are our tastes shaped by the industries that produce objects and activities for our consumption? To what
extent do our social backgrounds, our families and friends, determine what we consider quality culture, and what we
dismiss as rubbish?
Although debates over working class culture were central in the foundation of cultural studies, in recent years, class
has received far less attention from academics than gender and ethnicity; what lies behind this shift? How would you
characterise the relationship between popular culture and working-class culture? What happens when working class
lives are put under the microscope of middle-class scrutiny? How do ‘reality’ genres influence our sense of ‘self’?
Are we truly living in a classless society?
Session 1: Key issues in Taste and Class as cultural markers
Session 2: Student led seminar: CLASS AND TASTE IN POPULAR CULTURE.
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SUMMER Session 1
Session 3: Field Trip
Brighton and the Carnivalesque
Our field trip combines our work so far with the theme of Brighton and the Carnivalesque.
Local sites of popular and tourist leisure can be explored as cultural texts which can be deconstructed in the same
way as films, novels or television programmes.
What does it mean if a seaside resort comes to be thought of as 'vulgar' or 'excessive'? Are there areas of Brighton
with this association, and why?’ Is a certain class sensibility is inscribed into Brighton Pier? In what way does this
contrast with more traditional ‘heritage’ tourist sites, such as museums, stately homes and galleries, in terms of class,
taste and cultural value?
How do shopping centres similarly construct their patrons? Are there apparent means by which these spaces, or
other public areas such as parks or beaches, streets or buildings, attempt to control the ways in which they are
consumed, and are avenues by which consumers evade or defy these attempts to control their activities?
Today we will visit Brighton to consider the above questions. Our field trip is a tour of Brighton Pavilion not just to
admire, but to analyse the role of this historic building within Brighton culture, to explore its past, present and future
place in our cultural understandings. We will end our afternoon with the very British tradition of ‘High’ tea in the
Tearooms there, participating in an essentially English tradition.
This trip replaces the timetabled seminar.
The Pavilion visit and tea are provided by ISS. However, students will be expected to make their own way in and out
of Brighton, as this visit is also your individual course assignment.
During the outing you will select a topic to discuss for your individual field trip . Your brief talk about your chosen
cultural artefact (to be given in week 4) will form part of the course assessment on participation: Refer to Brighton
Culture section of your handbook for full details.
Key Reading for Week 3 ‘Class and Taste’ and ‘the carnivalesque’

Pierre Bourdieu ‘Distinction and the Aristocracy of Culture’ in J Storey (ed) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: a
reader, (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994)
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‘Food’ in Stephen Bayley, Taste, the Secret Meaning of Things’ (Pantheon, 2002)
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Mikhail Bakhtin ‘Introduction’ in Rabelais and His World (MIT Press 1963)
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John Fiske ‘Reading the Beach’ in Reading the Popular (Routledge 1990)
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Grahame Thompson ‘Carnival and the Calculable’ in Formations of Pleasure (Routledge 1993)
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SUMMER Session 1
Further Reading : ‘Class and Taste’
Sian Lincoln, ‘Teenage Girls’ “Bedroom Culture”: Codes versus Zones’, in
Andy Bennett and Keith Kahn-Harris eds, After Subculture: Critical
Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture (Palgrave 2004)
Juliet Ash & Elizabeth Wilson eds, Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader (Pandora 1992)
Maggie Andrews and Mary Talbot eds, All the World and her Husband:
Women in Twentieth Century Consumer Culture (Cassell 2000)
Stephen Bayley, Taste (Faber 1991)
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction (see above) esp. chapter 41 ‘Distinction and the
Aristocracy of Culture’
Charlotte Brunsdon, ‘Satellite Dishes and the Landscapes of Taste’, from
Screen Tastes (Routledge 1997)
Craig Calhoun and Edward Lipuma eds, Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives
(Polity 1993)
Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion
(Routledge 1994)
Mike Featherstone, Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (Sage 1991)
Richard Harker et al eds, An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu
(Macmillan 1990)
Dick Hebdige, Subculture:The Meaning of Style (Methuen 1979)
Dick Hebdige, Hiding in the Light (Comedia 1988)
Angela McRobbie ed, Zoot Suits and Second-Hand Dresses (Macmillan 1989)
Derek Robbins, Bourdieu and Culture (Sage 2000)
Mica Nava, Changing Cultures: Feminism, Youth, Consumerism (Sage 1992)
Alan Tomlinson ed, Consumption, Identity and Style (Routledge 1990)
Jen Webb et al, Understanding Bourdieu (Sage 2002)
Paul Willis et al, Common Culture (Open U.P. 1990)
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SUMMER Session 1
Further Reading : ‘The Carnivalesque’
Michael Bakhtin, Rabelais and his World (MIT Press, 1963).
Jeffrey A.Brown, ‘Class and Feminine Excess: the Strange Case of Anna Nicole Smith’, Feminist Review, no.81, 2005
[available for download from electronic library]
Anne Hole, ‘Fat History and Music Hall’, Women’s History Notebooks, vol.7 no.1, Winter 2000
Anne Hole, ‘Belly Laughs and Gut Fears: the Fat Female Body as Site of
Comedy’ Sussex University D.Phil thesis 2001
Kathleen Rowe, The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter
(Texas UP 1995)
Tom Selwyn ed, The Tourist Image: Myth and Myth-Making in Tourism
(Wiley 1996) - esp. Meethan’s essay on Brighton
Gareth Shaw and Alan Williams eds, The Rise and Fall of British Coastal
Resorts (Pinter 1997)
Rob Shields, Places on the Margin (Routledge 1990)
James B.Twitchell, Carnival Culture: the Trashing of Taste in America
(Columbia UP 1992)
Sue Vice, Introducing Bakhtin (Manchester University Press 1997)
John K.Walton, The British Seaside: Holidays and Resorts in the Twentieth
Century (Manchester U.P. 2000)
Week 4. Constructions of National Identity
Session 1: Individual field trip reports. Key debates in the study of national identity.
Session 2: National Identity continued: case study of The English.
Session 3: Review of key themes and topics plus essay workshops.
Our final topic is national identity, and we will review this by considering what is at stake in the constructions of
Englishness in popular culture. National stereotypes will be considered, both of English and non-English origin, in
relation to the construction of an identity based on exclusions.
How do popular cultural texts contribute to the construction of national identity? How should we conceptually
distinguish between 'race', 'ethnicity' and 'national identity'? Is it possible to identify a mobilisation of Englishness in
the popular culture produced and consumed in this country? The current discourse on migration issues will offer a
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SUMMER Session 1
key contemporary case study. Is the question of a definitive national identity untenable in an era of globalised
postmodernity?
Key Reading for Week 4

Diaspora and the detours of identity’ in Identity and Difference’ Kathryn Woodward (ed) Sage 1997
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‘Nationality’ by Andrew Higson in The Media, as above.
‘Race Matters’ by Vivien Ng in Lesbian and Gay Studies, as detailed.
‘White’ in The Matter of Images, Richard Dyer, as detailed.
Further Reading:
Jeremy Paxman, The English : a portrait of a people. London: Michael Joseph, 1998
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991.
James Donald, ‘How English is it?’ Sentimental Education. Verso, 1992.
John Gabriel, Whitewash: Racialized Politics and the Media. London, (Routledge: 1998.
Sander Gilman ‘The Deep Structure of Stereotypes,’ in Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying
Practices, ed. Stuart Hall. Open University Press, 1997. pp 284-285.
Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack. Unwin, 1987.
Stuart Hall, ‘Stereotyping as Signifying Practice’ in Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying
Practices. Open University Press, 1997. pp257-268.
Alison Light, Forever England. London: Routledge, 1991.
T. E Perkins, ‘Rethinking Stereotypes,’ in M.Barrett et cal (eds.), Ideology and Cultural Production. Croom Helm,
1988.
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SUMMER Session 1
Course Information.
Teaching methods
There will be 3 seminar sessions in week 1, 2 and 4 and two seminar sessions in week 3. There will be a field trip in
week 3, which replaces the usual seminar (time to be advised, please note this may vary to the seminar timetable
due to booking restrictions).
One tutorial session per week, plus additional office hours by request.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be able to:
 Identify Key theories and issues in cultural studies.
 Evaluate critically the main contemporary perspectives and arguments
 Demonstrate this understanding through seminar debate,
presentations and during popular culture engagement (field trip)
 Reflect critically and objectively on their subjective involvement with popular
culture
Assessment
Mode
Duration /Word
length
Submission date (e.g
Summer School week 1,
2, 3, 4)
Relative Weighting
Essay
2,000
Week 4
65%
Presentation
15mins
variable
25%
Course Report on
Class
Participation
variable
to be written by tutor
10%
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SUMMER Session 1
Assessment
You will be assessed using three different methods outlined below.

Group Presentation: using visual aids and various examples of popular culture, your group will lead the
seminar. (25%)
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Course Report on your contribution to seminars (10%)
This takes into account the individual Brighton culture report.
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Essay 2,000 words. Due Week Four (65%)
1. Group Presentation
The object of the presentation is to demonstrate both an understanding of relevant theory and the application of
that theory to an original case study.
For this assessment you will be arranged in small groups. I will, if possible, allocate you to the subject of your choice.
The way your group structure the seminar is entirely up to you; a good approach is to use a combination of
presentation, group discussion and tasks for your fellow students.
A strong presentation takes approximately 5 minutes per person to deliver the theory and case study as above
(excluding audio-visual aids/clips) so the final time is flexible on the size of your group. You should then direct the
seminar to consider your work, via questions or any format of your choosing, to demonstrate full and comprehensive
knowledge throughout the group and the engagement of your peer group in your work.
Please note that this is a group assigned mark, i.e. the mark is the same for every member of the group.
Some points to consider:
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Make sure your group exchanges contact details early on. Meet up as many times as possible - the best
group-led seminars hang together well because of good preparation and organisation.
Delegate tasks. Make sure each person knows exactly what they are supposed to be doing, and make sure
that each group member is doing roughly the same amount of work.
Carry out adequate research. Start with the core reading, then look at the further reading list, library
searches etc. Most students find the Internet a valuable resource also.
Always keep your fellow students in mind. Present to the group, not just the tutor. If you ask them
questions, allow time for them to respond. If setting a task, make your instructions clear.
Although you are demonstrating that you have engaged with and understood the academic material, try and
make your seminar as interesting and entertaining as possible.
Assessment criteria: Content: Topic and the appropriateness of the selected angle, focus, argument.
Appropriateness, range and depth of research. Engagement with, and understanding of academic literature.
Mobilization of that literature in analysis, interpretation and argument. Quality of media analysis, if
appropriate. Presentation: Organisation of material, development of argument, use of A/V material and
handouts. Mode of delivery - clear, reasonable speed. Engagement with audience and attempts to interest
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SUMMER Session 1
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them. Attempts to open up the topic for discussion. Responsiveness to class (i.e. answering questions
effectively). Group: evidence of collaborative effort, rather than individual contributions simply thrown
together, time management.
See also student handbook for assessment criteria.
2. Course Report
Alongside your presentation and your essay, your final mark will take into account a course report written by your
tutor on your seminar contributions. This will be based on the following criteria:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Critical engagement with reading and discussion
Participation in class discussion
Willingness to listen to others and respond to their arguments
Ability to complete tasks set in the allotted time
Attendance and attentiveness
Perceived overall understanding of the course content.
Evidence of self-reflexivity and cultural awareness.
It will also take into account your individual report on Brigthon Culture.
This will be based on the following criteria:
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SUMMER Session 1
Brighton Culture
Visit the town and choose a specific site that interests you (e.g. the pier, Churchill Square Shopping Centre, the
beach, the Downs, a souvenir shop, a fish and chip restaurant, or so on), and answer the following:
1
What is the preferred function of this site? How are consumers of this site encouraged to use it in this
preferred way? Is there any space for consumers to use this site against its preferred function? Can you
find any evidence of this resistance?
2
How might this site be deconstructed as a cultural text? What does it ‘mean’ within the history,
geography and politics/ideology of Brighton? How is this meaning articulated in its architecture and
décor? Does the site have multiple or oppositional meanings, and if so, how is this apparent? How might
the site be located in relation to class, gender, sexuality, race, nationality, age, cultural taste and value?
3
Choose an object(s). How is this object representative of the site you have visited? How might it too be
deconstructed according to the above?
Be prepared to talk for 5 minutes, and feel free to bring along more than one object to illustrate your findings.
3. Essay
Using one of the titles listed below you will be asked to write a 2,000 word essay to be handed in to the ISS office on
the Thursday of week 4. This essay needs to be typed, fully referenced and include evidence of wider academic
research. You may use articles from the course reader in your discussion but you should also source other articles
and readings to be incorporated in your argument.
Suggested essay titles *
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How would you convince a sceptical friend that popular culture is a valid topic for academic study?
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“Women’s magazines serve no other purpose than to reinforce the economic and ideological status quo”.
Discuss.
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How important is gender in the formation of taste communities? You should focus on ONE specific taste
community in your analysis.
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Why do you think popular culture is often seen as ‘feminine’? And what are the ‘political’ implications of
such an assumption? (‘political’ here is used as a shortcut to talking about power, gender politics, feminism
and sexism).
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SUMMER Session 1
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Is the sense of class identity significant in the cultural choices you make?
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Reflecting on your time in Britain, how has class manifested itself and how do you see class operating
differently in your own country?
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How would you employ Bourdieu’s notion of ‘cultural capital’ in an analysis of the cultural hierarchies that
operate in the context of EITHER fashion OR food OR popular music?
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Is taste purely a matter of personal choice?
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How can we apply Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque to British seaside culture?
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Using two or three specific examples, demonstrate how popular culture genres can be regarded as
‘carnivalesque’.
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Explore the representation and construction of national identity in at least two TV shows or films of your
choice.
** Please note that you can use another title only with prior agreement from your tutor or your essay will not be
valid for assessment.
.
Contacts
Edwina Griffith
University Library
The Library,
University of Sussex,
Brighton
BN1 9QL
Phone: 01273 678163
[email protected]
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SUMMER Session 1
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone :