This course will introduce the field of cultural studies by teaching students how to do a cultural study of an object. In class, we will take as our examples products such as the iPOD, the Holden and the Barbie doll - all of which have been the objects of major marketing campaigns nationally and internationally, and of academic research by feminist and cultural critics.

We will examine:
1) how objects such as the iPOD, the Holden and the Barbie doll have been represented in advertising and in product promotions;
2) how these representations construct identities that become associated with and are used to sell the product;
3) how objects are consumed or used by different cultural groups, and
4) the global processes of production and product regulation.

In the first half of the course, students will be introduced to semiotics, a method that is widely used by cultural and feminist critics to study how meanings are produced in images and texts, and to theories of identity and subjectivity. By the end of the course, students should have a basic understanding of key concepts shared by cultural and gender studies, including representation, culture, the sign, identity, production and consumption.

Students should upon completion of the course

• understand the central model for this course: the 'circuit of culture'
• master a variety of tools for cultural studies and be able to use them in a concrete study of artefacts, images places or events in contemporary culture
• become familiar with developments and current debates within the field of cultural studies, particularly issues surrounding advertising, identity and gender
• improve skills in independent research and in written and oral communication

Tutorial exercises 400 words (10%) and participation (10%), a semiotic analysis (35%) and a short final project (45%).

The semiotic analysis is due in the middle of term and is approximately 1200 words in length.

The final essay (1750 words) is due the week after the last lecture.

Regular attendance at tutorial is compulsory. If you miss more than 2 tutorials without a medical certificate, you may be barred from handing in the final assessment.

* Stuart Hall (ed), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, the Open University/ Sage 1997 

* Roland Barthes, Mythologies, London, 1972
* Paul du Gay and Stuart Hall, Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman, Sage, 1997

The Journal of Popular Culture