106-106 Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life

Formerly available as 106-005. Students who have completed 106-005 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

This subject offers an introduction to contemporary cultural studies by thinking about the relationships between various cultural forms, institutional sites and the practices of everyday life. It introduces students to concepts such as hegemony, ideology and culture, in order to provide intellectual frameworks for the reading of diverse cultural forms (the family home, the amusement park) and practices (shopping, fandom). The subject enables students to theorise many naturalised aspects of their own everyday lives in relation to the formations of identity and taste and to develop a grasp of the complex relationship between ideological formations and consumer or spectator pleasures.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words. Students may be required to produce an audio-visual presentation or complete on-line assessment tasks equivalent to 2000 words.

A subject reader will be available.