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2011/2 Provisional Module Catalogue - UNDER CONSTRUCTION & SUBJECT TO CHANGE
 Module Code: SOC2050 Module Title: SOCIOLOGY OF THE ARTS
Module Provider: Sociology Short Name: SOC2050
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: ALEXANDER VD Dr (Sociology)
Number of credits: 15 Number of ECTS credits: 7.5
 
Module Availability
Semester 1
Assessment Pattern

Unit(s) of Assessment

 
Weighting Towards Module Mark (%)

 

3000 word essay plus class participation

 

80

 

1000 word short essay

 

20

 

Qualifying Condition(s) 

 

A weighted aggregate mark of 40% is required to pass the module.

 
Module Overview
This module introduces you to a sociological understanding of the fine and popular arts (including painting, theatre, film, television, classical and popular music, literature and pulp fiction).  Class discussion focuses on short case studies relating to the lecture topic.
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
None
Module Aims
  • To introduce a sociological understanding of the arts
  • To provide different theoretical perspectives on the arts, using the cultural diamond approach

     

  •  To develop skills of critical thinking and applying theoretical understandings to case studies
Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module students should:

 

·         Have a broad understanding of sociological approaches to the arts

·         Be able to explain reflection, shaping, production, and consumption approaches to the arts and to provide critical analysis of each of these

·         Be able to apply the theoretical material to case studies in the arts

 

  • Organise ideas and thoughts and speak about these in the public setting of the seminar
Module Content

·         Whether art ‘reflects’ society and whether it ‘shapes’ it

·         How social factors affect artistic conventions and genres and the ways production and distribution systems affect art.

·         How people receive, consume and use art

 

  • How art is constituted by and embedded in society
Methods of Teaching/Learning

11 lectures and 11 seminars

 

Weekly reading and seminar preparation

 

Class participation
Selected Texts/Journals

Alexander, Victoria D. (2003).  Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms.  Blackwell Publishers.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1984).  Distinction, A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.  Cambridge: Harvard Univer­sity Press.

Becker, Howard S. (1982). Art Worlds. University of California Press.

Crane, Diana (1992).  The Production of Culture: Media and the Urban Arts.  London: Sage. 

Lamont, Michèle and Marcel Fournier, eds. (1992). Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequali­ty. University of Chicago Press.

Radway, Janice A.(1984). Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature. University of North Carolina Press.
Last Updated
April 2011