This lecture will provide an introduction to US-American popular culture
and popular culture studies. It will cover three main areas: First, it
will discuss what popular culture actually is – how it has been
conceptualized, also in relation to other fields of cultural and
literary expression, and what kinds of questions American Studies
scholarship has raised about it. Two, the lecture will survey
significant milestones in the historical development of US popular
culture, from 19th-century minstrel shows to 21st-century
(post-)television. Third, it will take a closer look at some of the media that function as
carriers of popular culture, how their medial particularities have been
conceptualized and what specific methods of analysis they require.
- Trainer/in: Katja Kanzler
- Trainer/in: Stefan Schubert