This survey course studies human meaning systems, particularly as manifested in art, literature, music, and other media. It includes study of the production, reception, and aesthetic experience of cultural forms.

In his widely read collection Keywords, the Marxist theorist Raymond Williams famously decried that “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language.” Nevertheless, it is also a pivotal concept for sociologists as well as for anyone seeking to understand how people create the symbolic worlds that, in turn, shape them in often profound ways. Understanding how this occurs is what this course is all about. It will explore the various dimensions of culture. In doing so, we will address how cultural symbols, frames, narratives, classifications, conceptions of selfhood, etc. are central to such things as: 1. consolidating self-identity and broader social structures; 2. organizing individual and collective action; 3. establishing moral and other symbolic boundaries among people; 4. regulating people’s emotional lives; 5. challenging and/or perpetuating power dynamics, and so on.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills