About the Seminars--Suburbia, TV and the American Dream
The Rise and Fall of Suburbia
Brian Bockelman, History 1:30 MTh
What’s so bad about suburbia? Nearly half of all American homes today are located in the suburbs, and yet suburban life has become an object of ridicule in film, literature, television, and popular music. From Green Day’s “Jesus of Suburbia” to The Simpsons to American Beauty, the suburbs are everywhere in our culture—but they are also culturally “nowhere.” How did this paradox come about? How new is it? What has happened over time to the suburban dreams of earlier generations? This seminar will chart the rise and fall of the suburban ideal from its nineteenth-century origins to the present, with special attention to the shifting relationship between suburban realities and suburban images over time. Topics to be discussed include: suburbs versus slums; the imagined opposition between the city and the suburb; “garden” suburbs; gendered readings of the suburban environment; the racial dimensions of “white flight”; suburbs and youth culture; and the interplay between affluence, escapism, and conformity. Heavy emphasis will be placed on writing and on analyzing primary sources, including films.
Television and American Culture
Lorelei Koss, Math/Computer Science 1:30 MTh
In 2004-2005, Nielsen Media Research found that the average American watches over four and a half hours of television each day, which is more time than he or she spends on other leisure activities. In this course, we examine the history of television in the United States by exploring a variety of critical perspectives. We will discuss ways in which the medium either impacts or is influenced by the broader culture by exploring topics such as race and gender representation, children’s television, narrative styles, and news coverage. Although we will spend some time in and out of class viewing both historical and current television programs, the focus of this course will be on reading and writing about television.
