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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "CMS 320"
COURSE NAME: "Cultural Resistance"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2026
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Silvia Giagnoni
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 1:30 PM 2:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 45
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: COM 220
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course analyzes the ways in which diverse cultural practices have been used or understood as political weapons, as attempts to intervene in the historical world. The course will introduce students to a number of approaches –both theoretical and practical, through readings of source texts and analysis of specific case studies—which have investigated the possibility of cultural practice being used as a tool of conflict, dissent, affirmation of identity, and resistance. One of the areas of inquiry will be an investigation of how, in advanced capitalist societies, social and political struggle necessarily happens through an engagement with dominant culture and media forms rather than in spite of them; the course will therefore concentrate on those cultural practices that, although not apparently political in content and aim, can nonetheless be used in politically productive ways. Emphasis will be placed on popular and mass culture artifacts and on the ways in which ‘style’ is used by ‘sub-cultures’ and other social identities in both national and global contexts.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

During the course, we will develop analyses that situate practices of cultural resistance in a historical, inter/national and political economic context. In the first part of the course, we will discuss the way in which different scholars have analyzed culture and cultural resistance. Subsequently we will focus on how resistance is communicated by examining practices that challenge authoritarian, repressive and oppressive power relations, and we will discuss how specific cultural practices are set to subvert dominant culture and challenge such power relations. Ultimately, we will explore contemporary cultural resistance today. The course combines deep readings of primary texts, contemporary writings, screenings, and class discussion.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The course will equip students with a critical understanding of the concepts of culture, resistance, and subcultures. By the end of the course the students will be versed in past and present forms of cultural resistance—from those that Hobsbawm calls “primitive rebels” to flappers, mods, punks, drag queens, gangsta rappers, and so forth.  They will also be aware of the contested and often contradictory nature of said subcultures. Finally, they will grasp the roles that class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and religion play in them.
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
Cultural Resistance Reader Duncombe, StephenVerso1859843794  Hard Copy  
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Reading Responses Students will be asked to write responses about the readings. Three will be graded, and the best two grades (10% each) will make up the subtotal of this assignment.20%
Oral Presentation Students will be required to present selected readings to the class. Each student will present one reading. Guidelines will be provided on Moodle.10%
   
Midterm examStudents' knowledge and critical understanding of weekly readings, lectures, and screenings will be tested through discussion questions30%
   
   
Attendance/ParticipationStudents are expected to read the required readings listed and uploaded on our Moodle page and to come to class prepared with criticism, comments or questions to contribute to discussions. Working closely with the texts will help you develop a more advanced understanding of central arguments and enable you to develop your own position. Please note that participation counts for 10% of your grade in this course. It means that you will be graded on your actual participation in class activities and discussions.10
Research paper Students will be required to write a research paper on an example of a cultural resistance. More details about this assignment will be available on Moodle. Students are recommended to submit a draft.30%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

Schedule is subject to change. Updated schedule will be available on Moodle

L: Lecture

R: Reading Assignment (due date)

CRR: Cultural Resistance Reader

S: Screening

Week One 

L: Intro to syllabus + Culture, Politics and Resistance

R: (CRR) Introduction + Christopher Hill’s “Levellers and True Levellers”+

Raymond Williams’s “Culture” 

Week Two 

L: Culture, Politics and Resistance 2

R: (CRR) Marx & Engels, from The German Ideology +Antonio Gramsci from The Prison Notebooks+ Walter Benjamin’s “Author as Producer”

Week Three 

Reading Response

L: The Politics of Resistance – Intro to Subcultures

R: (CRR) Mikhail Bakhtin, from Rabelais and his World +Kelley, from Race Rebels+Stuart Hall’s “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”+ Jean Baudrillard, The Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media

Week Four 

L: Primitive Rebels

R: (CRR) E.J. Hobsbawm from Primitive Rebels +Robin D.G. Kelley from Race Rebels 

S: Stuart Hall’s Representation & the Media (MEF)


Week Five 

L: British Subcultures (cont.)

R: Dick Hebdige from Subculture: The Meaning of Style (excerpts TBD) (link on Moodle)

Week Six 

Reading Response

L: British Subcultures

R: John Clarke, Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson and Brian Roberts’s “Subcultures, Cultures, and Class” from Resistance Through Rituals (link on Moodle)

R: (CRR) Dick Hebdige’s “The Meaning of Mod” & John Clarkes’s “The Skinheads and the Magical Recovery of a Community”

S: “My Generation” (Who) + “Mother’s Little Helper” (Rolling Stones) (videoclips) + Quadrophenia (film trailer)

                       Spring Break

Week Seven

L: Subcultures, Racism, and Resistance

R: (CRR) Stuart Cosgrove, “The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare”+ Elaine Goodale Eastman, “The Ghost Dance of the War”+ Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swraj+ Elaine Goodale Eastman, “The Ghost Dance of the War”

R: Frantz Fanon’s Racism and Culture (link on Moodle)

Week Eight 

Reading Response

L: Girls and Subcultures, Feminism, and Resistance

R: (CRR) Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own+ Janice Radway, from Reading the Romance+Riot Grrrl, “Riot Grrrl is…” +Kathleen Hanna, Interview in Punk Planet

Week Nine 

L: Women, bedroom culture & fandom; teenybopper; authenticity (pop v. rock)

R: Garber, Jennie and Angela McRobbie. "Girls and Subcultures, Feminism, and Resistance"

L: Subcultures & Postfeminism & Review

R: (CRR) Radicalesbians: “The Woman identified Woman”

Week Ten

Reading Response

L: Resistance and Popular Culture:

Fiske

L: Resistance and Music I

R: (CRR) George Lipsitz’s Immigration and Assimilation: Rai, Reggae, and Bhangramuffin”+ Simon Reynolds from Generation Ecstasy

 

Week Eleven 

L: Popular Music & Mainstreaming

Toynbee, Jason. “Mainstreaming from Hegemonic Center to Global Networks.” Ed. David Hedsmondhalgh and Keith Negus. Popular Music Studies. New York: Oxford U P, 2002 (149-163)

Week Twelve 

L: The Construction of Taste - Cool, Hip & the likes

R: Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (excepts)* Bourdieu's Distinction (excerpts)

S: PBS documentary The Merchants of Cool

Reading on cool

Week Thirteen 

L: Commodities, Co-Optation and Culture Jamming

R: (CRR) Theodor Adorno, "On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression in Listening” + Thomas Frank’s “Why Johnny Can't Dissent”

Week Fourteen 

S: Exit Through the Exit Shop by Banksy

L: Mixing Pop and Politics

R: TBD

 

Final Paper is due


Last day of class (April 30)

          May 4-8 (Tue-Fri) Final Examinations