Social  “‘Good’ taste is the enemy of creativity” - Pablo Picasso           
 

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Readings for this week have changed, see syllabus schedule below. Term paper due date is April 14 Note on emailing papers: see below under "Emailed Papers"

 

The politics of "bad" taste

Students are encourage to collaborate on this course wiki - and thus the course itself - as the semester progresses.

 

• Anyone can view and edit this wiki to create a community knowledge base for ideas, projects and resources.
• Just click "EDIT" at the top and then "Save" at the bottom. Save often.
• Feel free to add new pages (please put them in the sidebar).

 

Learn more about wikis by watching this short video.

If you would like to practice first, you can do that in the Sandbox page.

 

Table of Contents (this page)

Course Title: Topics in Film/Video Theory: The Politics of Bad Taste Course Content Course Learning Outcomes Resource materials Evaluation Criteria Evaluation Criteria definitions Participation 20% Attendance 5% Participation & Wiki Contribution: 15%  3 two-page writing assignments: 10%, 10% and 15% each Goals: Research Paper: 45% Emailed Papers ECI Grading Scale Syllabus/Course schedule Class Presentation/Wiki Sign-up General Notes (policies and procedures)

 

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Course Title: Topics in Film/Video Theory: The Politics of Bad Taste

Course mnemonic: MHIS 429

Section number: S0002

Credits: 3.0; Hours per week: 5

Day/Time/Location: Mondays 7:00-9:00 SB 301; Tuesdays 7:00-9:50 NB 245

Start Date: January 5, 2009

End Date: April 18, 2009

Prerequisites: MHIS205 Reading the Screen

Instructor: Jody Baker, Ph.D. 

Fax: 604 844 3801

Office number: 262

Email: jodybaker@gmail.com

Office telephone: 844-3800 Local 2840

Office hours: Mondays and Tuesdays, 5:00-7:00 or by appointment.

 

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Course Content

In this course students will investigate a specific topic in film and video analysis.

Why study “bad” taste? What is the value of applying serious scholarly attention to artistic and cultural forms considered valueless? We take bad art or low culture seriously because it can tell us a good deal about culture itself. Specifically, taking lowbrow, politically suspect, obscene, tasteless or aesthetically unpleasing culture seriously forces us to confront and question those criteria of value we use to judge culture. We will ask this question throughout the term: To what uses can “bad taste” be put? We will reflect critically upon such concepts as taste, “high” and “low” culture, aesthetics and pleasure. Further, this course demands that we rethink the very idea of culture itself. We might want to understand culture in terms influenced by class (as that which is cultured as in high art – or that which is deemed low – as in popular or mass art); as the means of identity formation or social opposition; as language and ideology; or in an anthropological sense of a people or nation; economically as commodities and consumables and so on. These definitions of culture demand that we ask different questions and regard different kinds of cultural works. Low or bad art and culture can be understood in terms of politics, economics, race, class, gender and sexual identity, issues we will confront throughout this semester. This course will offer, then, a variety of critical approaches and analytical tools that will be applied to the real world of living (or dead) cultures, media and expressive forms. Term papers will reflect this commitment to a sophisticated, critical analysis of a specific cultural form or text grounded in a well thought-out theoretical framework.

 

Note on screenings: many of the films and television we will encounter in this class are created explicitly to shock, offend, bore and provoke its audience and the dictates of good taste. Everyone in this course, including the instructor, will at some time or another take offense at the material screened in class. It may be important to attend to our immediate or visceral responses, but we must then seriously engage with the challenges this material presents.

 

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Course Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course students will:

• gain historical perspective on the concept of taste and taste cultures;
• interrogate taste as a criterion of value;
• recognize how taste and aesthetic values shapes a range of art and media;
• take up critical positions in relation to the concepts, values and functions of the authentic;
• gain perspective on an important aspect of art and cultural criticism;
• apply critical/theoretical concepts to close textual analysis of both primary and secondary texts;
• empower themselves through critical understandings of contemporary art and culture.

 

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Resource materials

Class wiki: http://mhis429.pbwiki.com/ (you are here)

Bibliography

Bad video

Bad Links

 

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Evaluation Criteria

Attendance/Participation or Wiki contribution	20%
3 Short Critical Analyses	35%
Term Paper	45%
Total	100%

 

Evaluation Criteria definitions

 

Participation 20%

Attendance 5%

Students are required to attend at least 10 classes. 10% of the attendance grade will be deducted for each missed class after that. As an upper-level seminar, lectures will be minimal and students are expected to arrive on time with the readings complete and contribute something to class discussion every week. Thus, mere attendance is not adequate nor will it count toward your particpation grade.

 

Participation & Wiki Contribution: 15% 

Working in teams, presenters are responsible for providing leadership in developing the wiki page for that week. The wiki presentation/contribution should provide relevant quotes, discussions of the film and/or reading, short essays, media and relevant cultural examples (artwork, videos, photography, film, TV clips, etc.) that relate to the topic and readings. Post material that will generate or enhance class discussion. Introduce media by creating a critical context and point out connections to the course material. In class, you can ask a few good questions to initiate discussion and once discussions are under way, you are done. Your instructor should be your first resource for identifying and obtaining relevant media; he can make suggestions, point you in the right direction and help you obtain, format and display material.

 

Note: Because the entire class may be contributing to the wiki, it would be a good idea [required?] to hand in a short portfolio of your contibutions over the course of the semester at the end of term.

 

3 two-page writing assignments: 10%, 10% and 15% each

Due: February 9, March 3, March 24

Goals:

• to demonstrate an understanding of a concept, idea, approach or theory drawn from the course;
• to demonstrate an ability to apply those concepts to your own analysis of a cultural work;
• to practice close analysis of a cultural object.

Please hand an approximately 500 word critical analysis of a specific cultural object that is relevant to the class and its issues, questions, problems or theoretical models. Papers should demonstrate two things: an engagement and understanding of the course material and an ability to apply that understanding to a close analysis of a relevant cultural work. You should have a clear thesis and 2 or 3 major points. This analysis should demonstrate an understanding and engagement with the readings and class discussions, as you apply their concerns to your own analysis. Your task is to demonstrate that you have done the readings carefully, that you understand (or are attempting to understand) one or two concepts, arguments or major points that have arisen in the class, and that you can apply those ideas and critical approaches to your own analysis of a relevant object: a film, a television show, a work of art or an artist, a song or music video or whatever can illustrate a particular problem or approach to the question of taste and taste cultures. These short essays should be in formal prose. You are encouraged to draw upon your class presentations for these papers. You should use your last paper to get a start on your Research Paper.

 

Research Paper: 45%

Due: April 14

Goals:

• to conduct research into a particular area;
• to offer a critical assessment of a cultural object or objects;
• to explore a particular aspect of bad taste with some depth

About 10 pages or 2500 words. You should pursue a particular issue, question, problem or concept from the course that interests you most. You should explore in-depth how taste functions in a particular work or body of works. You may want to expand on one of your short papers or class presentation. You are required to consult and cite at least four academic sources; at least two should be outside sources. Papers will be assessed on their originality, creativity and organization as well as on the demonstrated mastery of basic writing and research skills including: development of a thesis and clear argument, effective use of research sources, and ability to express ideas clearly. Your professor is an important resource; but you need to draw upon that resource early in the process.

Topics might look something like this:

• Animation as an alternative taste culture
• Animated families on television
• Melodrama and women’s experience
• Film Noir and post-war anxiety
• Pop Art and its challenges to cultural value
• Sexploitation and sexual politics
• Blaxpoitation and Black experience
• John Waters’ Baltimore and cultural value
• Baltimore: John Waters vs. The Wire

A creative, relevant topic will help ensure achievement.

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Emailed Papers

I will gladly accept emailed papers. But you should do a couple things when doing so:

1. Always put your email address in the paper so I can send it back to you graded.
2. If you don't get the paper back in a timely manner, check up on its status in class or by email. If in doubt, confirm.
3. Don't save/name your document "Paper2" because everyone else does that and it could get lost. Name the document with your last name, like this: Baker2.doc or LeeCamp.docx or Smith-melodrama.pdf or something like that.

This is good practice in all your classes.

 

ECI Grading Scale

Letter Grade	GPA	Percentage	Descrpition
A+	4.33	95-100	Distinguished achievement
A	4.00	90-94	Outstanding achievement
A-	3.67	85-89	Excellent achievement
B+	3.33	80-84	Very good achievement
B	3.00	75-79	Commendable achievement
B-	2.67	70-74	Good
C+	2.33	65-69	Competent
C	2.00	60-64	Satisfactory
C-	1.67	55-59	Pass
D	1.00	50-54	Marginal Pass
F	0.00	0-49	Fail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Syllabus/Course schedule

No classes on the following dates: 

Monday February 16th to February 20th – Reading Week

Friday April 10th – Good Friday

Monday April 13th – Easter Monday

 

Date/Week	Topic	Screening	Reading
Jan 5-6	Introduction	None	None
Jan. 12-13	Taste & Class	Pecker, John Waters, 1998.	Pierre Bourdieu, “The Aristocracy of Culture,” Distinction, a Social Critique of the Judgment of Tastes, Trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984) 28-63 only (skip the tables). Bourdieu_Aristocracy.pdf
Jan 19-20	Surrealism & Dada	Un Chien Andalou, Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali, 1928 Land Without Bread, Luis Buñuel 1932	James Lastra, “Why is this Absurd Picture Here? Ethnology/Equivocation/Buñuel” October, Vol. 89 (Summer, 1999), 51-68.  Lastra.pdf
Jan 26-27	Pop Art	Chelsea Girls, Andy Warhol, 1966 Lonesome Cowboys, Andy Warhol, 1968	Gregory Battcock, “Notes on The Chelsea Girls: A Film by Andy Warhol,” Art Journal 26.4 (Summer, 1967) 363-365.  Battcock.pdf Dick Hebdige, “In Poor Taste: Notes on Pop,” Hiding in the Light (London: Routledge, 1988) 116-143.  Hebdige-pop.pdf
Feb 2-3	Camp	Polyester, John Waters, 1981; A Dirty Shame, (selections) John Waters, 2004. Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972. (selections)	Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp,” Against Interpretation (New York: Delta, 1966) 275-292.  sontag.pdf Andrew Ross, “The Uses of Camp,” No Respect: Intellectuals & Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 1989) 135-170.   Ross_Camp.pdf
Feb 9-10	Animated families	Simpsons; South Park; Family Guy	Michael V. Tueth, “Back to the Drawing Board; The Family in Animated Television Comedy,” Prime Time Animation, Carol Stabile and Mark Harrison, Eds. (New York: Routledge, 2003) 133-146.  Tueth_animation.pdf Diane F. Alters, “‘We Hardly Watch that Rude, Crude Show’ Class and Taste in The Simpsons,” Prime Time Animation, Eds. Carol Stabile, and Mark Harrison (New York: Routledge, 2003) 165-184.  Alters_Simpsons.pdf
Feb 16-20	Spring Break
Feb 23-24	Animation: Alternative taste cultures	Ren & Stimpy; TBA	John Fiske, Chapter 12, "Pleasure and Play," and Chapter 13, "Carnival and Style," from Television Culture. Pages 224-250 only. Fiske-animation 224-264.pdf
Mar 2-3	Talking Trash	Jerry vs. Oprah	Joshua Gamson, "Why I Love Trash," Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity. (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1998). 2-26. Gamson_TrashTalk.pdf Robin Andersen, "The Television Talk Show: From Democratic Potential to Pseudotherapy," Consumer Culture and TV Programming (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995) 146-173.  Andersen_Talk.pdf
Mar 9-10	Film Noir & the B movie	Detour, Edgar Ulmer, 1945	Lea Jacobs, "The B Film and the Problem of Cultural Distinction," Screen 33:1 (1992), 1-13.  Jacobs_Bfilm.PDF Flynn, Charles and Todd McCarthy. “B Movie Structure” Producers Releasing Corporation. Ed. Wheeler Dixon (London: McFarland, 1986) 73-84.  Flynn_Bmovies.pdf Paul Schrader, "Notes on Film Noir," Film Noir Reader, Eds. Alain Silver & James Ursini (New York: Limelight Editions, 1996) 53-64.  Schrader_Noir.pdf
Mar 16-17	Melodrama	All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955	Laura Mulvey, “Notes on Sirk and the Melodrama” and "Fassbinder and Sirk,” Visual and Other Pleasures, (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1989), 39-48. Mulvey_sirk.pdf R. W. Fassbinder, "Fassbinder on Sirk," Film Comment, (Nov-Dec, 1975) 22-24. Fassbinder_on_Sirk.PDF Christine Gledhill, "The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation," Home is Where the Heart Is: Melodrama and the Woman's Film (London: BFI, 1987) 5-39. Gledhill_melodrama.pdf
March 23-24	Exploitation	She Devils on Wheels, Herschel Gordon Lewis, 1968	Watson, Paul. “There’s No Accounting for Taste: Exploitation Cinema and the Limits of Film Theory.” Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture and Its Audience. Eds. Deborah Cartmell, I. Q. Hunter, Heidi Kaye, and Imelda Whelehan. London: Pluto Press, 1997. 66-83.  Watson_Exploitation.pdf Pam Cook, “The Art of Exploitation: or How to Get into the Movies” Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 52 (December 1985) 367-9.  Cook_Art.pdf Pam Cook, “Exploitation Films and Feminism.” Screen. Vol. 17, No 2 (Summer 1976) 122-7.  Cook_Exploitation.pdf Pam Cook: "The Pleasures and Perils of Exploitation Films." Screening the Past, London & New York 2005, 52-64  Cook_PleasuresOfExploitation.pdf Optional: Bill Osgerby, "Sleazy Riders: Exploitation, “Otherness”, and Transgression in the 1960s Biker Movie," Journal of Popular Film & TV 31:3 (2003) 98-108.  Osgerby_Sleazy.pdf
Mar 30-31	Sexploitation	Sin in the Suburbs, Joseph Sarno, 1964 The Swap and How They Make It. Joseph Sarno, 1966 Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill, Russ Meyer, 1966 Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens, Russ Meyer, 1979	Kristen Hatch, "The Sweeter the Kitten, the Sharper the Claws: Russ Meyer's Bad Girls," Bad: Infamy, Darkness, Evil and Slime on Screen, Ed. Murray Pomerance, Albany: State U of NY Press, 2004, 142-155.  Hatch_Meyer.PDF  Attwood, Fiona, (2002) “Reading Porn: The Paradigm Shift in Pornography Research” Sexualities Vol. 5(1): 91–105.  Attwood_Porn.pdf
Apr 6-7	Blaxploitaion	Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, Mario VanPeebles, 1971 (Selections); Baadasssss Cinema, Isaac Julien, 2002.	Richard Simon, “The Stigmatization of ‘Blaxploitation,’” Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure, Eds. Monique Guillory and Richard C. Green, New York: New York University Press, 1998, 236-249. Cedric Robinson, “Blaxploitation and the Misrepresentation of Liberation,” Race and Class, 40.1 (1998) 1-12.  Robinson-blaxploitation.pdf Recommended: Jon Kraszewski, "Recontextualizing the Historical Reception of Blaxploitation: Articultions of Class, Black Nationalisim and Anxiety in the Genre's advertisements," Velvet Light Trap No. 50 (2002) 48-61. Kraszewski_Blaxploitation.pdf
Apr 13-14	Zombies	Something of the Dead, George A. Romero, date	TBA

 

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Class Presentation/Wiki Sign-up

 

Date	Topic	Presenter Name	Presenter Name	Presenter Name
Jan 5	Introduction	none
Jan 13	Taste and Class
Jan 20	Surrealism & Dada	Mairin
Jan 27	Pop Art
Feb 3	Camp	Kailey Carruthers	Brianne Nord-Stewart
Feb 9	Animated families	Callum Kyd Paterson	Jason Chee
Feb 17	Spring Break
Feb 23	Animation	Katherine Kirana	Jianli Wu	Vineet Raju
Mar 3	Talking Trash	Allison Barker	Amanda Silvey	Nicole Newton
Mar 10	Film Noir	Sarah Hudson	Kyla Plewes	Cindy Lou Griffith
Mar 17	Melodrama	Jerry Tai	Sara Bøgh Jensen
Mar 24	Exploitation	Mitch Stookey		Gabriel Koenig
Mar 31	Sexploitation	Lynn Wee	Gillian Cole
Apr 7	Blaxploitation	Anna  Rose	Mr. Nathan Houston Gilliss
Apr 14	Zombies	Quentin Simpson	Syed Kazmi	Dimitri Sirenko

 

 

 

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General Notes (policies and procedures)

• The instructor may modify the material or schedule specified in this outline. Any required changes will be announced in class.
• Late assignments or projects may be penalized as specified in the course outline.
• It is plagiarism to present someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own. Plagiarism may result in failure on an assignment, of the course, and, if repeated, expulsion from the Institute. Assistance with the ethical practices of attribution and documentation is available from the Writing Centre or online at www.eciad.ca/wc
• A student must provide a doctor’s note to Student Services for any illness which causes the student to miss assignments, tests, projects, exams, etc., or for absences of more than two classes. At the discretion of the instructor the student may complete the work for a prorated grade.
• Students will demonstrate that they understand and practice the safe use of tools and other equipment, materials, and processes used in their course projects. They will conduct themselves in a responsible manner that does not endanger themselves or others, and will adhere to the area procedures regarding authorized operation of equipment, handling of materials, and use of space.
• Students with special needs or disabilities that might affect their experience or performance in class are advised to inform their instructor and/or contact the Disabilities Services Coordinator, located in Student Services, for assistance.
• Professional counseling or therapy is available at no charge to students who have concerns of a personal nature. All information shared is held in strict confidence. Call 604.844.3850 or 604.844.3081 for an appointment with the support counselor.
• The Writing Centre is a service that Emily Carr provides to all students, staff and faculty from every program area who would like to improve their reading, writing, critical thinking, and research skills. This is a free, voluntary and confidential service. Writing Centre instructors can help you at every stage of your writing, from developing ideas to final revision. This applies to any kind of writing, from a three line artist’s statement to a twenty page academic paper. Please sign up for a ½ hour appointment on the door (room 435 SB). Telephone:  604 629 4511 , Coordinator: Karolle Wall.
• Email is an official means of communication with ECI students by the faculty, administration and other service providers on campus. Email routing will be confined to the Institute’s internal communication network, and delivered to an officially assigned and verifiable Institute Email Address (IEA).  All users are bound by the provisions of ECI Policy 415: Code of Conduct for Appropriate Use of Information Technology Facilities and Services (outlined on ECI website and Emily’s A to Z). Instructors will outline and detail the expected extent and parameters of email use in this course in the first class, and clarify the timeframe for checking and responding to emails.

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