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 Course InformationCUST 100J: Headstart is offered as a full credit course in 12 weeks for students who have fulfilled their high school requirements and would like to try out a compressed university course in advance of starting full time study OR for part-time students who would like to take a compressed evening course in Peterborough OR for current Trent students who, for one reason or another, need an extra credit. For more information on part-time studies at Trent in Peterborough & Oshawa visit: Julian Blackburn College's website. FALL-WINTER 2009-2010 courses in PeterboroughFor scheduling of courses, please consult the Trent Timetable. FIRST YEAR COURSECUST 100: Introduction to the study of Modern Culture is taught by a team of Department staff and is taken by all students majoring in Cultural Studies. Though the content of this course changes from year to year, it generally begins with an introduction to the concept of culture before turning to the investigation of a wide range of materials exploring methods of study which help us to understand the contemporary cultural landscape. Students are introduced to a multiplicity of ways in which the tradition of cultural theory suggests avenues for reflection on how culture at once informs, and is informed by, social, political, subjective, and aesthetic concerns. Instructors: V. de Zwaan, E. Ermarth, I. Junyk, D. Manole , and staff
CUST 211: Drawing A basic drawing course exploring techniques and ideas in the visual arts. Historical and contemporary issues are examined through practical hands on experiences. Art materials fee: $75. Limited enrolment of 20 students only. Prerequisite: 4 university credits or permission of instructor. Co-requisite CUST 216. Instructor: M.Cherry CUST 216: Introduction to Visual Studies features a communications approach in aesthetic theory for the study of the visual arts, images, and sites. It considers ritualistic, mnemonic, architectural and sculptural sites in preparation for an inquiry into modern picturing from its extraordinary emergence in Renaissance art and science to its hyperbolic technologization in photographic, filmic, televisual and digital media. Field trips include two days in Montreal during the Fall. A fee of between $50.00 and $90.00 covers basic field trip costs. Instructor: J. Bordo CUST 222 Culture in the Novel Considering the historical development of the novel from the eighteenth century Enlightenment to contemporary postmodernism, this course examines the novelisitc form as a complex site that both reflects and challenges its social, political, and cultural contexts. Readings include Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Pynchon, Rushdie, Sebald, Stendhal. Prerequisite: 4 university credits. Please note that texts will likely be ordered through Titles Bookstore on George St. (743-9610) Instuctor: I.Junyk
CUST 229: Science fiction Introduction to the history, theory and representative works and authors of science fiction, from Shelley and Wells to Dick, Le Guin, and Gibson. Will examine stories of alternate worlds, technoculture, and space adventure, including cyborgs, alien encounters, non-contemporary earth life and human destiny. There are two contact hours weekly. Instructors: V. Hollinger CUST 235: Mass media and society serves as an introduction to the history, sociology and critical interpretation of contemporary mass-communicated culture, both as an overall formation and with reference to such specific elements as the newspaper press, advertising, network TV and recorded popular music. The course excludes CUST/ SOCI 240. There is a one-hour lecture and seminar weekly. Instructor: CUST 245: Music and society is an introduction to music as cultural practice. The course explores formulations of the relationship between music and society offered by ethnomusicology, sociology, semiotics and feminist theory. Emphasis is placed on the development of listening skills through an engagement with a variety of musical texts and practices from Western art music, popular music and world music traditions. No formal background in music is required. There is a lecture and seminar weekly, as well as a field trip fee of $45. Instructor: M. Morse CUST 250: Civilization and human nature is an introduction to the thought of several of the founders of modern social and cultural theory including Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. Such topics as ideology and illusion, reason and eros, individualism and alienation, as well as the idea of progress will be explored. There is a one-hour lecture and one-hour seminar weekly. Instructor: A.Wernick CUST 265: Sex/sexuality/sexual difference is an interdisciplinary introduction to feminism and queer theory which explores the problematic and limits of sexual identity. Through considerations of fiction, autobiographical writing, film, painting, and theoretical texts, the course explores what we mean when we refer to someone's (or our own) sex, gender, or sexuality. The implication of these terms in broad socio-political antagonisms will be explored, as will the specifics of the psychoanalytic approach to the question. There are two hours of contact weekly plus occasional film screenings. Instrucot: J. Penney CUST 270: History and theory of theatre is an introduction to theatre as a performing art which examines the evolution of European theatrical practice and dramatic theory from Classical Greek tragedy to late 19th-century naturalist drama. Topics include acting styles, theatre design and architecture, the audience and the institution of theatre in relation to religion, morality and politics. There are two contact hours weekly. Instructor: D. Manole PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NO LONGER A LIMITED ENROLLMENT COURSE! CUST 280: History and theory of the cinema is an introduction to critical interest in the medium through texts representing film movements and major trends in film theory. Films from around the world, as well as critical studies on the medium, apparatus, institution, and spectator, will help us to consider a technologized visuality, the production of meaning and pleasure, and the politics of criticism. There is a field trip fee of $10. Instructor: Z. Baross 300 LEVEL COURSESCUST 305: Modernism and the avant-garde This course examines one of the most important cultural movements of the twentieth century—modernism. It traces this movement from its genesis in the dynamic city culture of the fin de siecle, to its embodiment in avant-garde art, literature, and cinema, and concludes by considering its problematic transition into "postmodernism.". This course may also be taken as a fourth year credit for eligible students who have not previously taken the course. Instructor: I. Junyk. CUST 322: Experimental Fiction. This course traces an international "tradition" of modern and contemporary experimental texts, focusing on such figures as proust, Joyce, Kafka, Borges, Calvino, Rushdie and Pavic. Individual works are related to theories of narrative which help to place them in both aesthetic and cultural contexts. Prerequisite: 4 university credits. Instructor: E.Ermarth CUST 325: Literary and critical theory See CUST 425 course description below.. Excludes CUST 425. Instructor: V. de Zwaan CUST/ENGL 329: Utopia (future fiction) A study of the speculative social imagination in utopian and anti-uptopian literature of Western modernity. Will examine the narrative construction of equality, progress, gender, identity, technoculture, globalization, and cultural politics from More and Bacan in the Renaissance to Orwell, Piercy, and Lem in contemporary science fiction. Instuctor: J. Fekete CUST/IDST 332: Media and development examines issues of global media, cultural imperialism, and alternatives such as Third Cinema and community radio. Within the context of Latin American cultural studies, the course explores debates about the lettered city, a hidden civilization, postmodernism, cultural memory, and popular culture. There is a two-hour seminar weekly. Instructor: A. O'Connor. CUST 345: World music Through a focus on African and Afro-diasporic musics (from West African drumming to blues, and calypso) we will consider the problematics of “world music” a category that raises issues of globalization and hybridity. We will examine selected musical traditions, mapping the complex, interactive networks of musical performance, pleasure, and politics. Prerequisite: CUST 245 or permission of the instructor. Field trip fee: $45. Instrucotr: M. Arnold CUST 350: Advanced Studies in Cultural Theory See CUST 450 course description below. CUST/CAST 356: Landscape, wilderness and the environmental witness Beginning with the question, what is landscape? the courses considers wilderness as a symbolic form with special attention to modern and Canadian landscape art and the writings of Henry David Thoreau. A course fee of $60.00 for field excursions. Instructor: J. Bordo. CUST 370: Theatre in the 20th century investigates the changing roles of 20th-century playwrights, performers, and audiences by inquiring after the social, political, and aesthetic implications of modernity and postmodernity. The course examines the theories and practices of, among others, Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, Pirandello, Beckett, Churchill, and Wertenbaker. There is a lecture and seminar weekly.Instructor: D. Manole PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NO LONGER A LIMITED ENROLLMENT COURSE! CUST 375: Theatre workshop: staging ideas is a practical course in modern acting with a focus on methods of performance in works that dramatize ideas and the conflicts between them. CUST 270 or 370 is a pre- or co-requisite. Otherwise permission of the chair is required. There is a workshop fee of $50 and enrolment is limited to 20. There are four contact hours weekly.Instructor: R. Winslow CUST 381: World cinema This course offers a wide-ranging exploration of world cinema from diverse theoretical perspectives. We will examine associated notions (third cinema, national cinema, guerilla cinema, counter-cinema) that articulate the cinema’s relation to society and politics, as well as theories of the cinema as medium or apparatus, including semiotic, psychoanalytic and phenomenological approaches. Instructor: J. Penney. CUST 385: Film workshop Students carry out a series of visual exercises in photography and Super-8 film and then complete a short 16mm film. Depending on the instructor, the emphasis may be on documentary or experimental filmmaking. Pre- or co-requisite: any film or mass media course. Please note that this is a limited enrollment course. Please note moving picture course materials fee of $100. Use of 35mm camera required; still photography materials costs paid by students outside of course fee. CUST 385 materials online: CUST 385 FW 07 syllabus ; Basics of Photography. Instructor: A.O'Connor. CUST 3956: Special Topic: The Shift to Postmodernity Despite the advent of postmodernity, much of what we take for granted culturally still belongs to the modern condition. This is evident in much that seems to be second nature to us: for example, representation in art and politics, empiricism in science and philosophy, cartography and exploration, individual identity and historical explanation. Yet just as the modern condition took its definition from paradigmatic changes long ago in Renaissance and Reformation Europe, so the advent of postmodernity involves a similar range of paradigmatic shifts that have been broadly disseminated and established not just in the academic fields of the humanities, but in a diversity of cultural practices, including science, politics, and personal experience. The course follows this paradigmatic shift into postmodernity and pursues its implications for conventional definitions of individuality, collectivity, agency, time, and the real. Please note that texts will be ordered through Titles Bookstore on George St. (743-9610) Instructor: E. Ermarth. CUST 401/402: Honours thesis is a double-credit course for which a double fee is charged. Instruction in research methods leads to a thesis of approximately 15 000 words. With the chair's approval the thesis project alternatively may consist of an equivalent combination of written work and work in another medium. A preliminary statement of intent and brief outline must be submitted to the chair by April 1. The Department deadline for a thesis abstract and bibliography (signed by a thesis supervisor) is April 30. Extensions beyond this date will not normally be granted. Staff CUST/ENGL 425: Advanced studies in literary and critical theory The course engages with the history of Western theorizing of literature and interpretation, starting with Plato and Aristotle and ending with recently emergent formations in post-colonial and queer theory. While the course relies on some knowledge of literary genres and indeed of the Western literary canon in general, literary theory not literary criticism is the focus of the course. Instructor: V. de Zwaan Students enrolled in the course at the 400-series level will submit additional writing. Excludes CUST 325. CUST 429 - Advanced studies in science fiction - Special Topic: "Speculative Fiction and Contemporary Technoculture". Instructor: V. Hollinger. Through the study of speculative fictions and critical theoretical writings, this course will examine representations and constructions of the subject of Western technoculture, including postuman configurations such as the robot, the cyborg, and artificial and virtual intelligences. Fictional and critical/theoretical speculations will focus on how our understandings of subjectivity , agency, the body, and gender and sexuality are being transformed in the context of technological pressures on both the individual subject and the community. The course will emphasize the metaphorical relationship between speculative fiction and its cultural/historical present, at the same time as it will examine the speculative character of some theoretical writings about the subject and history, writings that make use of science-fictional discourse to map significant features of the contemporary moment understood as a kind of future/present. Instructor: V. Hollinger CUST 435: Advanced topics in mass media and popular culture Special Topic: "From oral to digital culture: the message of the screen". Instructor: A.Wernick CUST 450: Advanced Studies in cultural theory. Special Topic: "The crisis of Critical Discourse: Violence, Religion and the Political" The seminar turns to the question of violence at the intersection of Religion and the Political. It asks how the public space (polis) and the affairs of the republic (res publica) have come to accomodate (or to be contaminated or even dominated by) affairs of the Spirit, of Faith and Dogma? How the separation of the Enlightenment believed to have achieved between the discourses of religion(s) , of the political and of the critical reason has been weakened or subverted? Texts by Arendt, Adorno, Agamben, W.Benjamin, Castoriadis, Horkheimer, C.Schmitt, Rousseau, Virilio, among others, will help us to distinguish between different forms of violence (state and religious, archaic and techno-scientific, on the one hand, and between different forms of the "spirit" (humanism, human right, democracy, civic religion) in whose name violence is sanctioned, on the other hand. Instructor: Z. Baross CUST 470: Advanced studies in theatre and performance “While some people make theatre, we are all theatre” The Course for 2008-2009 will concentrate on an in-dept study of the theories and the practice of Augusto Boal. Boal developed many of the basic principles of The Theatre of the Oppressed during the 1950s and ‘60s. Working with political and peasant groups in Brazil and throughout Latin America he sought to shift the practice of theatre away from the idea of monologue and towards the working out of an active dialogue between audience and actors. Since then, his experiments have continued in Europe, the United States and Canada, so that there is now a substantial body of work either “directed” (definitely, the wrong word) by him or informed by his ideas. The course will start with an examination of Boal’s own attempts to develop theoretical underpinnings for his work, particularly with regard to his readings of Aristotle and Brecht. From there, we shall move on to discussing some of the main forms of theatre that originate from his ideas: Invisible Theatre; Theatre Games; Forum Theatre; the Rainbow of Desire (Arco Iris do Desejo). We shall then look at the ways in which Boal’s experiments relate to other practitioners of agitprop, street theatre, or politically-motivated performance. Finally, in small workshop groups we will explore some of the problematics of Boal’s practice, both from aesthetic and from political perspectives. All seminars and practical work will be completed by the end of January; written work is to be handed in by March 15. Students who have already taken a 470 that focused on the work of Bertolt Brecht may take this course as a 490. Required Readings: Boal Theatre of the Oppressed, & Games for Actors and Non-Actors; Other Readings: Aristotle The Poetics: Brecht Brecht on Theatre, The Caucasian Chalk Circle; Crow/Banfield from Post-Colonial Theatre; Davis from The San Francisco Mime Troupe; Sircar from The Third Theatre; Schechner & Chatterjee “Augusto Boal, City Councillor: Legislative Theatre and the Chamber in the Streets,” from The Drama Review, 160. Instructor: I. Mclachlan CUST 4015: Art culture theory. Special Topic: "Sojourns." Art Culture Theory takes its topic for 2009-10 "Sojourns" intellectual, poetic and actual. The seminar will beginwith an account of cultural theory as a critical topography, a geo-aesthetic and the introduction of a critical topography as an approach for study by considering a few texts, films and artworks with walking as the theme. Seven sojourns will be presented: The sojourn into the wilderness - Thoreau and Conrad; the sojourn of the unconscious - Freud; sojourn to the ancients - martin Heidegger; the sojourn of the stranger ! (emigration, exile and death) - Sophocles and Walter Benjamin; sojourn of the disaster and the seeking after redemtion -- Sebald, Keifer and Wim Wenders; sojourns of the stranger II in pursuit of the athropos - Franz Boas and Claude Levi- Strauss. Instructor: J.Bordo CUST 4650: Politics of love: psychoanalysis and cultural studies. This course offers a comprehensive introduction to psychoanalytic approaches to cultural studies, focusing on the theme of love. Freud viewed love as a unifying force that aims to compensate the subject for its feelings of separateness and incompletion by securing a reparative sense of wholeness or union. For his part, French psychoanalst Jacques Lacan theorized love as the unconscious demand we place on the Other to be achnowledged as what we might call, to borrow a term from lifestyle marketing, our "aspirational" self. In addition to these "negative", neurotic or inhibitory manifestations of love, however, both Freud and Lacan saw that love can alternatively be ethical or authentic. Love can also take the form of an act of giving a partner or the world "what you don't have", as Lacan somewhat cryptically put it. One of the aims of the course will be to figure out what Lacan meant to say by this statement. The first half of the course will provide an overview of a selection of key texts of psychoanalytic theory, defining and contextualizing its central concepts: unconscious, desire and drive, transference and repetition in the case of Freud; imaginary, symbolic and real in the case of Lacan. We will also consider in detail what psychoanalysts have said about love. The second half will focus on the problem of love in its particular relation to visual studies. How does psychoanalysis think our desiring relation to the field of vision? Here we will delve into the specifics of Lacan's complex and wildly misunderstood concept of the gaze. In particular we will interrogate this concept's consequences for the study of both painting and cinema, more specifically the history of the nude up to Lucian Freud, as well as the works of contemporary filmmakers Chantal Akerman and Michael Haneke. No previous engagement with psychoanalysis is expected or required. Instructor: J. Penney |