ENGL 40740 - Literature and Consumer Culture

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

This course traces the social changes that accompanied America's movement from early retailing to a full-blown consumer culture. Beginning with representations from the later part of the 19th century, particularly of the development of Chicago as a mail order capital of the world and moving into the present through an examination of television shopping networks, this course will use material from a variety of perspectives and diciplines to examine what became a wholesale transformation of American life. In attempting to trace the trajectory of change from a country often identified by its rural isolation to a country of relentless publicity, from the farm to Paris Hilton, (who returned to The Simple Life), we will look at a series of linkages each of which played a specific and contributory role in the cultural shift toward a fully saturated consumerism. For instance, the early mail order catalogue empires of Aaron Montgomery Ward and Richard Warren Sears depended on the capacity of the railroad and postal service to transport their goods from shopping catalogues to country kitchens, goods that went beyond kitchen utensils, clothes, ornaments, and shoes to include assembly-ready homes. South Bend has several Sears and Roebuck homes and part of our class time will be spent in looking at these houses in the context of the course themes. All of our discussion will take place against the backdrop of a larger question about the democratization of desire, about whether American culture became more or less democratic after the introduction of the mail order catalogue. Thus, the linkage between the cataloque, the home shopping network, and the notion that freedom to desire goods is a measure of democratic freedom. Of course, the possibilites for manipulation and control are also limitless.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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