MONDAYS 3 -6PM

What makes a narrative popular? The designation “popular” is not simply a euphemism for mass art; it also alludes to certain narratological patterns, types of audiences and assumptions about quality. Various cultural custodians – critics, scholars, historians and artists – attempt to draw and police distinctions between the popular and the refined, the high and the low, the good, the bad and the ugly. This course will investigate the cultural politics of taste, revealing the stakes involved in separating “serious” (or “literary”) from “mass” (or “paraliterary”) fiction. 

 Our primary tasks are to understand how these distinctions are formulated, to test their validity and to investigate potential points of intersection. Through close examinations of various novels, television programs, video games, films and comics, we will also observe the ways in which narrative form operates in different media. Ultimately, we will come to a more comprehensive understanding of the means by which narrative art is subject to the whimsical logic and logical whimsy of fashion.

Learning Outcomes

1)      You will become acquainted with narratological patterns across media.

• What are some of these patterns? How might they differ according to both media & genre?
• Are there narrative elements common to all popular forms?
• Why do these patterns recur? Why are they of enduring appeal?

2)     You will familiarize yourself with the concept of “mass audiences.”

• Who engages with popular narratives? For what reasons?
• Do mass audiences truly crave “escapism?” What does the term actually mean?
• Is mass art fundamentally geared toward prurient tastes? Is that a “bad” thing?

3)     You will understand the presumptions behind evaluative claims & taste cultures.

• What are the distinctions between high & low? Are they real or imagined?
• Why are such distinctions established in the first place?
• Are there places in which high culture and mass culture meet?