Introduction to Cultural Studies

The course aims to provide students with an overview of different conceptions and approaches to the study culture in different intellectual and theoretical traditions and to train them to analyse cultural phenomena independently.

There are not enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

The course introduces students to the fundamental anthropological, sociological, linguistic and psychoanalytic theories of culture, one of the most conceptually elusive
and semantically complex words which decisively shapes research approaches, perspectives and capacities for knowing and understanding particular socio-historical realities.

The course examines the origins and general conceptual history of culture in selected philosophical treatments of culture from antiquity and the Enlightenment, the prevailing literary-romantic traditions, more contemporary anthropological definitions of culture, the fundamental structuralist, post-structuralist, Marxist, and psychoanalytic definitions of culture and culture-related ideas and phenomena.

The course introduces students to the origins of contemporary cultural studies and their development in the twentieth century, marked by the aforementioned theoretical currents. The course introduces the fundamental concepts in cultural studies (ideology, hegemony, structure, language, text, cultural populism, the cultural circuit, representation, discourse and identity) and methods (ethnography, textual analysis and reception studies).

Knowledge and understanding:

(Student ...)
- acquires knowledge about the conception of culture in different scientific paradigms;
- understands the analytical applicability of theory to the study of cultural and historical phenomena;
- acquires knowledge of the relationship between culture, nature, civilisation, society, language, subjectivity and cultural artefacts.

Skills:

(Student ...)
- Develops analytical sensitivity to understand cultural phenomena in different historical, social and political contexts;
- develops critical thinking and the ability to analyse independently and critically.

Basic:

• Althusser, Louis (2018). Ideologija in ideološki aparati države in drugi spisi. Ljubljana: /Cf Catalogue
• Barthes, Roland (1972). Mythologies. New York: Noonday Press.
• Foucault, Michel (2008). Vednost-oblast-subjekt. Ljubljana: Krtina. Catalogue
• Freud, Sigmund (2000). Spisi o umetnosti. Ljubljana: Cf. Catalogue
• Hall, Stuart (2000). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage Publications. Catalogue
• McGuigan, Jim (2002). Cultural Populism. New York: Taylor and Francis.Catalogue
• Said, Edward (1996). Orientalizem: Zahodnjaški pogledi na Orient. Ljubljana: ISH Fakulteta za podiplomski humanistični študij.Catalogue
• Stanković, Peter (2018). Politike Popa: Uvod v kulturne študije. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede. Catalogue
• Williams, Raymond (2015). Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, str. 49-54.
• Williams, Raymond (1989). Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism. London: Verso, str. 3-14.

Additional:

• Jenks, Chris (2003). Culture: Key Ideas. London; New York: Routledge.
• Kroeber, A. L., Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: A Critical Review of the Concept. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. E-version

Midterm test 25 %

Written exam 75 %

Assist. Prof. Primož Mlačnik, PhD, received his doctorate at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FDV) of the University of Ljubljana (UL), where in 2020, he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled The Relation between Melancholy and Modernity in the Case of Franz Kafka's Literature. He is a researcher at the Centre for the Humanities, Faculty of Humanities (FH), University of Nova Gorica (UNG), within the TILDA project (Transformations of Intimacy in the Literary Discourse of Slovene ''Moderna'' 2021-2024), funded by the Research Agency for Scientific Research and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia (ARIS). At the FDV UL, he has been previously involved in numerous courses in Cultural Studies and Literature. Currently, at the Faculty of Arts (FF) of UL, he lectures on the course Cultural Policies and the Book in the European Union and Slovenia, while at the FH UNG, he lectures on various courses in the field of literary studies and cultural studies. His research interests mainly include cultural studies of detective fiction and critical-theoretical case studies of Slovenian detective novels. He also works as a writer.

Selected articles:

1. MLAČNIK, Primož. From minor literature to neoliberal noir : the detective novels of Sergej Verč. Caietele Echinox. 2022, vol. 43, str. 77-92.
2. MLAČNIK, Primož. Virus : neoliberalni detektiv v imuni slovenski družbi. Filozofski vestnik. [Tiskana izd.]. 2022, letn. 43, št. 1, str. 181-200, 217-218.
3. MLAČNIK, Primož. Udomačeni Slovenci v detektivskih romanih Avgusta Demšarja. Jezik in slovstvo. [Tiskana izd.]. 2022, letn. 67, št. 3, str. 5-15.
4. MLAČNIK, Primož. Dekonstrukcijskost manjšinskih detektivskih romanov Sergeja Verča. Studia Historica Slovenica : časopis za humanistične in družboslovne študije. [Tiskana izd.]. 2022, letn. 22, št. 3, str. 859-886, ilustr.
5. MLAČNIK, Primož, STANKOVIĆ, Peter. The disappearance of political jokes in post-socialist Slovenia. Communist and post-communist studies. Sep. 2020, vol. 53, no. 3, str. 172-188.
6. MLAČNIK, Primož. Minor literature in the case of Brina Svit = Literatura mniejsza na przykładzie Briny Svit. Przekłady Literatur Słowiańskich. 2020, tom 10, cz. 1, str. 207-223. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach.
7. MLAČNIK, Primož. Kafka ʺShanghai-Edʺ : Orientalist China in Kafkaʹs fiction and Kafkaesque phenomena in China. European journal of interdisciplinary studies. May-Aug. 2019, vol. 5, iss. 2, str. 36-44.
8. MLAČNIK, Primož. Kulturistike - kulturološka branja beletristike. Slavia Centralis. [Tiskana izd.]. 2019, letn. 12, št. 2, str. 46-57.
9. MLAČNIK, Primož. The deconstruction of Freud's theory of melancholy. Družboslovne razprave. [Tiskana izd.]. sep. 2018, letn. 34, št. 88, str. 113-131.
10. MLAČNIK, Primož. The influence of Franz Kafka's literature on aspects of critical cultural theory. Slavia Centralis. [Tiskana izd.]. 2021, letn. 14, št. 1, str. 249-259.