Sumários
Students presented Williams Tearoom scenarios + of “Perspectives on American Society & Culture”
21 Setembro 2026, 08:00 • Cecília Maria Beecher Martins
Students presented Williams Tearoom scenarios + discussion of Asa Berger's chapter “Perspectives on American Society & Culture”
Discussion of Raymond William's essay "Culture is Ordinary"
16 Setembro 2026, 08:00 • Cecília Maria Beecher Martins
Discussion of Raymond William's essay "Culture is Ordinary"
Program and Evaluation Criteria
14 Setembro 2026, 08:00 • Cecília Maria Beecher Martins
Reading for class on 16th: chapter "Culture is Ordinary" by Raymond Williams.
Program
This Curricular Unit will begin with a general
discussion of the concepts of ideology, culture and popular culture. This
discussion will be carried out with the awareness that culture is a very
difficult concept to define. Moreover, when Raymond Williams argued that
culture is ordinary: a concept that encompasses the everyday experiences,
customs, and meanings accessible to everyone he turned on its head the elitist notion
of culture as "high art" or the privilege of the educated (1958).
Grappling with these questions, while theorizing the concept of popular culture
moving into the 21st century, John Storey encountered multiple
definitions (or should we say characteristics) of popular culture extending
from a contested site of ideological struggle to mass-produced commercialism.
Storey argues that while on the one hand pop culture is actively negotiated by
ordinary people who consume, adapt, and find meaning in cultural texts and
commodities, on the other it can tap into underlying tensions in society thus
casting light on hidden power dynamics and even repelling these. These notions
will be central to our discussion of North American popular culture.
To understand the impact of pop culture, one
must comprehend its semiotics and interpret how signs and symbols have the
capacity to produce icons and ideologies. Therefore, in this Curricular Unit we
will examine the language and constructs of popular culture in general before
looking at how objects of popular culture were used to construct a concept of
the U.S.A. as its inception in the 18th century and how popular
culture impacts on American society today. Students will also be presented with
media literacy tools to help them further decipher objects of North American
Popular Culture. For all those reasons in this we will examine:
1.
The concepts of
culture, ideology and popular culture
2.
Experiencing or
producing “Williams’ tearoom” (Williams’ Culture is Ordinary)
3.
A brief overview of
semiotics in reading popular culture objects in the context of the history and
culture of the USA
4.
The Icons, Indexes
and Symbols that contributed to the construction of the U.S. identity for the
U.S.A. from its inception to today
5.
Media literacy and
popular culture
6.
Social semiotics: the
twentieth century as the American century and the concept of the American dream
going into the 21st century through its popular culture (comic
books, posters, cinema, music & T.V.)
Evaluation Criteria
As this CU is taught in English class oral presentations must
be made in English. Written evaluations may be presented in English or
Portuguese.
Presence &
Participation (15%) Active
discussion of set readings and in class analysis are required.
William’s tearoom
exercise (5%) groups of 3-4: 21st
& 23rd September
Analise of a Norman
Rockwell poster using media literacy techniques (5%) groups of 3-4: 26th October & 2nd
November
Written Test: 60% 2nd December
Analise of an object
of North American popular culture using media literacy & cultural studies
techniques: (15%) Individual Oral
Presentation (5-7 mins) with Written Short Written Support (1,000 words)
•
Dates of
presentations: 7th, 9th,
14th & 16th December
•
Dates of submission of powerpoints and Written Support Text sent to lecturer’s email: 4th/8th/11th/15th
December 16.00.