LFU:online

Department of American Studies Department of American Studies

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christian Quendler Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christian Quendler, +43 512 507 41605

610010

Discourse/Identity: American Cultures: Forever Punk: The Politics of Culture Seen from the Underground

PS 2

5

weekly

each semester

English

To become familiar with interdisciplinary approaches to the study of American culture and to develop a critical framework for analyzing cultural phenomena across different genres, media and cultural practices.

Perhaps no underground movement of the late 20th century has informed so many facets of cultural life as punk. This course sets out to revisit the movement and discourse of punk and its multifarious impact on the politics of everyday life. We will begin with the literary and artistic experiments of the Beat generation (esp. William S. Burroughs) and its important influence on the formation of the punk movement in the U.S. Subsequent sessions will deal with punk as political philosophy, punk rock, afro-punk, punk poetry and literature, punk film and punks in film, cyberpunk, punk porn feminism, graffiti, street art and political actionism, punk as alternative community building, punk as fashion and commodity as well as punk as myth and usable past.

Presentations, discussions, reading and writing assignments, screenings

Active participation, presentation, research paper