1. BRITISH POPULAR CULTURE
Tutor: Dr Edwina Griffith
Email:
E.D.Griffith@sussex.ac.uk
Edwinagr03@yahoo.co.uk
This course aims to contextualise the study of popular culture within a cultural studies
framework. We will explore the ways in which relationships between identity, age, class, race,
gender and sexuality play out in the making and consuming of popular cultural forms. This
course also addresses how the term ‘British’ is ‘read’, what it means to be or to be seen to be
‘British’, and the significances and consequences of shaping national identity.
What have been the most important and influential debates that have shaped the study of
popular culture? How do we deal with the apparent contradiction between the 'difficulty' of
theory and the 'ease' of popular culture? Why is popular culture so despised within traditional
academic circles? Is popular culture, as the product of capitalist industry, imbued with
conservative ideologies, which through their dissemination serve to maintain the political and
ideological status quo? Is resistance to the controlling powers-that-be an inherent function of
popular culture, which by its nature will subvert, critique and liberate? Or is the true nature of
popular culture somewhere between the two?
The aim is to develop knowledge of the main theoretical debates that have shaped the study
of popular culture. This will include the development of many critical skills necessary to apply
theory to the analysis of a range of visual texts and cultural practices. While key course
issues will be illustrated through the screening of examples of contemporary film, soap
operas, sitcoms, adverts and so on, students will also learn to draw critically on their own
personal experiences as popular culture consumers.
Field trips to engage with quintessential British popular cultural sites and traditions will feature
during the course, and there will also be a film night featuring two modern British ‘classic’
films to provide a focus for your research.
Core Texts for Course
• (Ed.) J Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: a reader, (Hemel Hempstead:
Harvester Wheatsheaf, (2006)
• Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (Routledge 2004
Week 1:
Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (Sessions 1 and 2)
Session 1: Introductions; Key Questions in the study of Popular Culture
Session 2: Key terms defined; Discussion of Core Reading.
Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (sessions 1 and 2)

2. In the first two sessions, we will contextualise the study of popular culture within a cultural
studies framework. What have been the most important and influential debates that have
shaped the study of popular culture? How do we deal with the apparent contradiction between
the 'difficulty' of theory and the 'ease' of popular culture?
Core Reading
• Paul du Gay et al, extracts from 'Making Sense of the Walkman,' from Doing Cultural
Studies (Sage 1997)
• Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass
Deception. (Routledge: 1993)
Gender, Identity and Popular Culture (Sessions 3 and 4)
Session 3: Identity and Culture; Gender Representation in Visual Cultures.
Session 4: Student-led seminar 1 Gender and Popular Culture (To take place in the first
seminar of week 2).
How are masculinity and femininity represented within contemporary popular culture? What
recurring tropes or characteristics do we see appearing throughout different popular texts? Do
certain cultural forms or genres give rise to certain representations of gender and not others?
Is it more correct to think not of femininity and masculinity in the singular, but femininities and
masculinities in the plural? What are the differences between men’s popular culture and
popular culture produced for women? How is gender constructed, not only through the
images of men and women within these genres, but also through the construction of their
consumers’ interests, tastes and preoccupations?
These seminar sessions will focus largely on case studies drawn from women and men’s
magazines, and soap operas, although students will be encouraged to draw upon other forms
of popular culture, especially in their presentations.
Core Reading:
• Ros Ballaster, Margaret Beetham, Elizabeth Frazer and Sandra Hebron. Women’s
Worlds: Ideology, Femininity and the Woman’s Magazine (Macmillan 1991)
• Janice Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines (Pandora, 1987)
• Peter Jackson, Nick Stevenson, Kate Brooks Making Sense of Men’s Magazines (Polity:
2001)
Further Reading:
• Frank Mort, ‘Boys Own?’, in (eds.) R Chapman and J Rutherford, Male Order:
unwrapping masculinity, (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1988).
• Steven Cohen and Ina Rae Hark Eds, Screening the Male (Routledge 1993).
• Michael Kimmel and Michael Messner, Eds, Men’s Lives (Macmillan 1989).
• Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim, Eds, You Tarzan: Masculinity, Movies and Men
(Lawrence and Wishart 1993).
• S Nixon, ‘Distinguishing Looks: masculinities, the visual and men’s magazines’, in (eds.)
V Harwood et al., Pleasure Principles: politics, sexuality and ethics, (London: Lawrence
and Wishart, 1993).
• Fred Pfeil, White Guys: Studies in Postmodern Domination and Difference (Verso 1995).
• Mark Simpson, Male Impersonators: Men Performing Masculinity (Cassell 1994)
• Yvonne Tasker, Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema (Routledge
1993).
• Robert C. Allen, Speaking of Soap Operas (North Carolina University Press, 1985).

3. • Robert C. Allen, To be Continued (Routledge, 1995)
• Ien Ang, Watching Dallas (Methuen 1985).
• David Buckingham, Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience (BFI 1987).
• Richard Dyer, Coronation Street (BFI 1991).
• Christine Geraghty, Women and Soap Opera (Polity 1991).
• Christine Geraghty, ‘British Soaps in the 1980s’, in D.Strinati and S. Wagg, Eds Come on
Down? Popular Culture in Post-War Britain (Routledge 1992).
• Richard Kilborn, Television Soaps (Batsford 1992).
Week 2:
Session 4: Student-led seminar 1 Gender and Popular Culture (from week 1).
Class and Taste (sessions 5 and 6)
Session 5: Discussion of Class and Taste
Session 6: Student-led seminar 2: Class and British Comedy
These sessions will consider the politics of taste. How do we decide what is good and bad,
and what implications do these decisions have? How much genuine choice do we have about
our cultural activities? How strongly are our tastes shaped by the industries that produce
objects and activities for our consumption? To what extent do our social backgrounds, our
families and friends, determine what we consider quality culture, and what we dismiss as
rubbish?
Although debates over working class culture were central in the foundation of cultural studies,
in recent years, class has received far less attention from academics than gender and
ethnicity; what lies behind this shift? How would you characterise the relationship between
popular culture and working-class culture? What happens when working class lives are put
under the microscope of middle-class scrutiny?
Core Reading:
• Pierre Bourdieu ‘Distinction and the Aristocracy of Culture’ in J Storey (Ed) Cultural
Theory and Popular Culture: a reader, (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994).
• Stephanie Lawler. Disgusted Subjects: The making of middle-class identities in The
Sociological Review. 53 (3) 429-446. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)
• Stephen Wagg, 'At Ease Corporal: Social Class and the Situation Comedy in British
Television from the 1950s to the 1990s,' Because I tell a Joke or Two, Ed. Wagg
(Routledge 1998).
Further Reading:
• Derek Paget, ‘Speaking Out: The Transformation of Trainspotting’ in Deborah Cartmell &
Imelda Whelehan (eds) Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text (Routledge,
1999)
• Stephen Bayley, Taste (Faber 1991)
• Stuart Ewen, All-Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture (Basic
Books 1998)
• Mary McIntosh, 'Class', in Andy Medhurst and Sally R. Munt, Eds, Lesbian and Gay
Studies: A Critical Introduction (Cassell 1997).
• Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy (Chatto 1957).
• Stuart Laing, Representations of Working-Class Life 1957-64 (MacMillan 1986).
• Pat Mahony and Christine Zmroczek, Eds, Class Matters: Working Class Women’s
Perspectives on Social Class (Taylor and Francis 1997).

4. • Jon May, ‘A Little Taste for Something More Exotic,’ in Geography, Vol.81, no.1 (1996).
• Sally R.Munt, Ed, Cultural Studies and the Working Class (Cassell (2000).
• Alan Tomlinson, ed. Consumption, Identity, and Style (Routledge 1990).
Week 3:
Brighton Culture (session 7)
Local sites of popular and tourist leisure will be considered as cultural texts that can be
deconstructed in the same way as films, novels or television programmes.
We will consider what it means if, for example, the seaside comes to be thought of as 'vulgar'
or 'excessive', and the ways in which a certain class sensibility is inscribed into Brighton Pier.
In what way does this contrast with more traditional ‘heritage’ tourist sites, such as museums,
stately homes and galleries, in terms of class, taste and cultural value?
How do shopping centres similarly construct their patrons? Are there apparent means by
which these spaces attempt to control the ways in which they are consumed, and are
avenues by which consumers evade or defy these attempts to control their activities?
In an attempt to answer these questions, students will visit a significant Brighton site, for
example, a shopping centre, seaside attraction or historical building, and perform an analysis
of its construction, meaning and usage.
Core Reading:
• John Fiske, ‘Reading the Beach’ in Reading the Popular (Unwin 1989)
Further Reading:
• Michael Bakhtin, Rabelais and his World (MIT Press, (1984).
• Rob Shields, Places on the Margin (Routledge, (1992)
• Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Methuen,
1986).
• John Urry, The Tourist Gaze (Sage, (2002).
This session will take the form of a field trip on Monday of week 3. Instead of a classroom-
based seminar, students will explore the ideas and questions posed above, in conjunction
with the key readings and their own experiences since arriving in Sussex, in visiting Brighton.
We will then discuss our thoughts on these complex issues around the table whilst taking
‘High Tea’ in a top Brighton Hotel.
This ‘tea’ will give students an unique opportunity to engage in a traditional national pastime,
a symbolical cultural practice imbedded with class and ‘taste’, in a quintessentially English
seaside town.
Constructions of 'Englishness' (Sessions 8 and 9)
Session 8. Discussion of Englishness and ideologies of ‘national’ cultures.
Session 9: Student-led-seminar 3: Constructions of Englishness
In these sessions, we will consider what is at stake in the constructions of Englishness in
popular culture. National stereotypes will be considered, both of English and non-English
origin, in relation to the construction of an identity based on exclusions. How do popular

5. cultural texts contribute to the construction of national identity? How should we conceptually
distinguish between 'race', 'ethnicity' and 'national identity'?
Is it possible to identify a mobilisation of Englishness in the popular culture produced and
consumed in this country? What, how or why would we make a distinction between English
and British? Is the question of a clear English national identity untenable in an era of
globalised postmodernity, given the significant popularity of American culture within Britain
today?
Core Reading:
• Anthony Easthope, Englishness and National Culture, London: Routledge, 1999, chapter
1
• David Morley and Kevin Robins, ‘Introduction: The National Culture in its New Global
Context’ and Krishnan Kumar ‘”Englishness” and English National Identity in David
Morley and Kevin Robins, eds. (2001) British Cultural Studies: Geography, Nationality,
and Identity, Oxford University Press
Further Reading:
• Jeremy Paxman, The English :a portrait of a people. London: Michael Joseph, 1998
• Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991.
• Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism, Sage: 1995.
• Robert Collis and Philip Dodds, Eds, Englishness: Politics and Culture 1880-1920, Croom
Helm, 1986.
• C.Fusco, ‘About Locating Ourselves and our representations,’ Framework, no.36 (in
Res/Fac under Chakravarty)
• John Gabriel, Whitewash: Racialised Politics and the Media. London, Routledge: 1998.
• Judy Giles and Tim Middleton (eds.) Writing Englishness 1900-1950. London: Routledge,
1995.
• Sander Gilman ‘The Deep Structure of Stereotypes,’ in Representation: Cultural
Representation and Signifying Practices, ed. Stuart Hall. Open University Press, 1997. pp
284-285.
• Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack. Unwin, (2002.
• Stuart Hall, ‘Stereotyping as Signifying Practice’ in Representation: Cultural
Representations and Signifying Practices. Open University Press, 1997. pp257-268.
• Stuart Hall, ‘The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power,’ in B. Glieben and S.Hall
(eds.), Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp275-331.
• Alison Light, Forever England. London: Routledge, 1991.
• T. E Perkins, ‘Rethinking Stereotypes,’ in M.Barrett et al (eds.), Ideology and Cultural
Production. Croom Helm, 1988.
• Raphael Samuel 'Introduction,' Patriotism: Vol. 3: National Fictions. Routledge, 1988.
• Chris Waters, ' "Dark Strangers" in our midst: Discourses of Race and
Nation in Britain,' Journal of British Studies, April 1997, Vol 36 no 2, p207-238
Assessment
• Group Presentation: using visual aids and various examples of popular culture, your
group will lead the discussion (20%)
• Course Report on your contribution to seminars and field trip (20%)
• Essay 2,000 words. (60%)
……………………………………………………..

6. 1. Group Presentation
For this assessment you will be asked to lead the discussion in one seminar. You will do this
in small groups. The way you structure the seminar is entirely up to you; a good approach is
to use a combination of presentation, group discussion and tasks for your fellow students.
Some points to consider:
• Make sure your group exchanges contact details early on. Meet up as many times as
possible - the best group-led seminars hang together well because of good
preparation and organisation.
• Delegate tasks. Make sure each person knows exactly what he or she are supposed
to be doing, and make sure that each group member is doing roughly the same
amount of work.
• Carry out adequate research. Start with the core reading, then look at the further
reading list, library searches etc. Most students find the Internet a valuable resource
also.
• However, DON’T be too ambitious about what can be accomplished in the time. Two
hours sounds a lot but it is soon taken up by e.g. four people presenting, TV clips,
discussion time, games, time for the other students to read handouts, formulate
answers to questions etc.
• Make use of visual aids: video clips (use the library), handouts, whiteboard and so on.
These make the seminar interesting. Again though, don’t be too ambitious and
overdo it. If you are showing a long video clip, it will warrant a long discussion,
otherwise it will just look like laziness.
• Always keep your fellow students in mind. Present to the group, not just the tutor. If
you ask them questions, allow time for them to respond. If setting a task, make your
instructions clear.
• Although you are demonstrating that you have engaged with and understood the
academic material, try and make your seminar as interesting and entertaining as
possible.
• The student-led seminar counts for 20% of your overall mark. Assessment criteria:
Content: Topic and the appropriateness of the selected angle, focus, argument.
Appropriateness, range and depth of research. Engagement with, and understanding
of academic literature. Mobilization of that literature in analysis, interpretation and
argument. Quality of media analysis, if appropriate. Presentation: Organisation of
material, development of argument, use of A/V material and handouts. Mode of
delivery - clear, reasonable speed. Engagement with audience and attempts to
interest them. Attempts to open up the topic for discussion. Responsiveness to class
(i.e. answering questions effectively). Group: evidence of collaborative effort, rather
than individual contributions simply thrown together, time management.
2. Essay
Using one of the titles listed below you will be asked to write a 2,000 word essay to be
handed in to the International and Study Abroad office on the Thursday of week 4. This essay
needs to be typed, fully referenced and include evidence of wider academic research. You
may use articles from the course reader in your discussion but you should also source other
articles and readings to be incorporated in your argument.
Choose one question from the following:
1. “The meaning of a cultural form and its place or position in the cultural field is not
inscribed inside its form. Nor is its position fixed once and forever. This year’s radical
symbol or slogan will be neutralised into next year’s fashion; the year after, it will be
the object of profound cultural nostalgia. Today’s rebel folksinger ends up, tomorrow,

7. on the cover of The Observer colour magazine” (Stuart Hall). Explore the shifting
social and political meanings circulating a particular cultural form or practice.
2. How would you convince a sceptical friend that popular culture is a valid topic for
academic study?
3. “For what are…interesting ideological reasons, we associate …entertainment with
superficiality” (Terry Eagleton). What do you think these reasons might be, and how
and in whose interests do they operate?
4. Explore the representation and construction of national identity in at least two films. At
least one of the films must be British.
5. “The beach…is a text of mundane pleasure, not sacred bliss. It is laden with
signifiers, it controls the desire for freedom and threat of nature by transposing it into
the natural” (John Fiske). Examine the structuring of nature and culture in relation to
Brighton sea front.
6. “The social body constrains the way the physical body is perceived” (Mary Douglas)
Consider how normative notions of femininity / masculinity are either reinforced or
challenged in one or two different cultural texts (e.g. magazines, soap operas).
7. “Women’s magazines serve no other purpose than to reinforce the economic and
ideological status quo”. Discuss.
8. Do men’s magazines reveal a crisis in masculinity?
9. Consider the representation of class in at least two British films / television shows of
your choice.
10. Is taste purely a matter of personal choice?
11. Explore the representation of national identity in at least two films/TV shows. At least
one text must be British.
12. “It’s the little differences, I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here,
but it’s just, just, there it’s a little different.’ Discuss the relationship between culture
and national identity in light of your experience of living in Brighton.
3. Course Report on class participation
Alongside your presentation and your essay, your final mark will take into account a course
report written by your tutor. This will be based on the following criteria:
1. Critical engagement with reading and discussion
2. Participation in class discussion
3. Willingness to listen to others and respond to their arguments
4. Ability to complete tasks set in the allotted time
5. Attendance and attentiveness
6. Perceived overall understanding of the course content.
7. Evidence of self-reflexivity and cultural awareness.