610013 PS Critical Area Studies: American Cultures: Nasty Women & American Television Comedy

summer semester 2022 | Last update: 03.05.2022 Place course on memo list
610013
PS Critical Area Studies: American Cultures: Nasty Women & American Television Comedy
PS 2
2,5
weekly
each semester
English

  • Students will gain a substantive knowledge of the intersections between femininity, feminism, and American television comedy; predominant critical-analytical approaches to studying gender and media; and the key contextual issues raised by our politicized and nationalized focus of study.
  • Students with develop tools for researching and analyzing television in a rigorous, academic manner, and will hone their ability to synthesize theoretical information, to think critically about popular culture, and to communicate ideas effectively in written and oral presentation.  

This course focuses on key contributions to American television comedy and political culture by unruly comediennes and characters from Lucille Ball and Maude to Roseanne and Wanda Sykes to Abbi & Ilana, Samantha Bee, Selina Meyer, and Issa Rae. Analyzing how the combustible combination of unladylike performance and comedic irreverence provokes political resistance and subverts social norms, we will examine how a medium traditionally gendered feminine and derided as “the boob tube” channels creative labor into feminist action. Our explorations will consider several genres and modes of American television comedy in which “nasty women” have thrived, including the domestic and workplace sitcoms; the t(w)een, “single girl,” and female friendship series; and stand-up, sketch, and political satire/parody.

Lecture inputs, weekly viewings/readings, presentations, group discussions

Active class participation, presentation, term paper or videographic essay

Hysterical! Women in American Comedy, ed. Linda Mizejewski and Victoria

Sturtevant (University of Texas Press, 2017) + excerpted chapters/articles from feminist/TV studies scholarship including Rowe Karlyn’s The Unruly Woman, Mizejewski’s Pretty/Funny, Haggins’ Laughing Mad, Cheers’ The Evolution of Black Women in Television, White’s Television Comedy and Femininity: Queering Gender, Pugh’s The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom, Miller’s Camp TV, Nygaard & Lagerway’s Horrible White People, and Havas’s Woman Up, and Levy’s Chick TV.

for the Bachelor Program (612): positive completion of compulsory module 14
for Bachelor Program Lehramt (457): positive completion of compulsory module 16

10.03.2022
Group 0
Date Time Location
Thu 2022-03-10
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-03-17
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-03-24
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-03-31
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-04-07
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-04-28
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-05-05
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-05-12
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-05-19
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-06-02
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-06-09
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-06-23
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free
Thu 2022-06-30
13.45 - 15.15 40130 40130 Barrier-free