Teaching and learning methods
Following an introduction to theories of high, popular, mass culture, hybridity and globalisation, the lectures will introduce you to a wide range of cultural expressions from Spain and Latin America. In the seminars, you will be expected to relate the theory to that material, and develop their own analyses. The oral presentation requires you to research a small project, to present their analysis lucidly, and to clarify and support points in the discussion that follows. The essays seek to test your grasp of the theoretical and analytical issues raised, their capacity for independent research, and their academic writing skills. The essays require you to demonstrate your knowledge of the material covered and their ability to address questions raised about the issues discussed and to develop their own analysis.
Teaching methods include:
- Lectures
- Seminars (including compulsory student presentations and group discussion)
Learning activities include:
- Close reading and analysis of varied forms of cultural expression
- Debating in class theoretical issues and differing interpretations of the texts
- Constructing arguments for presentation orally and in written work
- Independent research and study
- One-to-one tutorials
Study time
Type |
Hours |
Independent Study |
126 |
Teaching |
24 |
Total study time |
150 |
Resources & Reading list
Internet Resources
Online resource.
Online resource.
Textbooks
Fredric Jameson and Masao Miyoshi (eds) (1998). The Cultures of Globalization. Durham: Duke UP.
Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture (a difficult book but a foundational text of postcolonial theory; the chapter on stereotypes is especially useful).
Imagined Communities (1991). Imagined Communities. Imagined Communities: Verso.
Shaw, Debra (2017). Transnational Cinemas: Mapping a field of study - for the Routledge Companion to World Cinema, edited by Rob Stone, Paul Cooke, Stephanie Dennison & Alex Marlow-Mann.
Canclini, Nestor García (1995). Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity globalización.
Storey, John (ed), (1994). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: a Reader. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf..
William Rowe and Vivian Schelling (1991). Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America. London: Verso.
An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Burke, Peter (2009). Cultural Hybridity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Raab, Josef, and Martin Butler, eds (2008). Hybrid Americas: Contacts, Contrasts, and Confluences in New World Literatures and Cultures. https://www.uni- bielefeld.de/(de)/ZIF/FG/2008Pluribus/publications/raab-Butler_intro-hybrid.pdf.
Huyssen, Andreas. After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass culture, Postmodernism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Strinati, Dominic (1995). An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. London: Routledge.