Cultural Studies: Theory and Interdisciplinary Approaches (master level)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The study course is dedicated to a significant field of cultural history research: cultural studies, which developed in the second half of the 20th century in Western historiography and continues to influence contemporary research in the field of cultural history. The study course introduces students to the content and methodology of the aforementioned field, as well as related fields of cultural research: social anthropology and cultural anthropology.

CONTENT

1. Cultural studies: past and present, conceptions and methods of research.
2. The approaches of social and cultural anthropology in writing history.
3. Clifford Geertz and the thick description method in cultural research.
4. Western historiography after World War II: from descriptions of past life to representations of past experiences.
5. History as text: the 'linguistic turn' and cultural history research.
6. Narrative and the influence of ideologies on cultural history research.
7. Cultural history, social history, and the history of daily life: discipline or definition differences?
8. Cultural studies as an extension of cultural history: what stays outside of culture?