Teaching Popular Culture

defining popular culture, teaching comics

The PCA-ACA email list has been abuzz lately with calls for the upcoming conference next spring in Boston, but also there have been a few interesting queries.

First, how do we define popular culture? One answer: "If you're looking for a one-liner, how about "the customs and
expressive (or, maybe, signifying?) practices of everyday life"?" The poster then went on to add that we must think of popular culture as more than simply mass-mediated culture, and that also we need to take into account the practices of groups, not solely individuals. Other posters drew attention to the distinction between popular culture and folklore and the inherent malleability and ephemeral quality of popular culture. Still another referred to cultural studies scholar Graeme Turner, who termed popular culture "a site where the construction of everyday life may be examined" and who also studied the political dynamics of the power realtions we find in everyday life. Others referred seekers to Stuart Hall and Lawrence Levine.

When I teach, I always start the first class with a definition of terms-- American Studies, popular culture, fine arts, and semiotics. I'd love to hear how you define these terms for your students.

Second, a query on the list led me to find Teaching Comics, which looks to be chock-full of helpful resources on using comics and graphic novels in the classroom, though I'm not sure if it's as useful for college classrooms as for K-12 education.

Any other resources out there on teaching comics? I've never tried it, but I'd certainly consider it.

posted by jackie @ 4:45 PM