What we understand as “popular culture”—today associated with movies, television, Netflix, and videogames—is often dismissed as irrelevant entertainment. However, studies in the social sciences have recently begun to demonstrate what those in the humanities and in pop culture studies have been arguing for decades: pop culture not only reflects our understanding of who we are and what we imagine for the future, but also exerts considerable influence over our gendered and racial identities, as well as our futures. In this course, we will look at examples of influential Western pop culture in context, examining how those works of entertainment did change the world around them, beginning with Robin Hood and Shakespeare, and moving through American Abolition and the Civil Rights Movement to Cold War dystopias and into the modern day. Students will have a chance to help choose some of the works the class will examine.
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