Courses:

Course Info

• Course Number / Code:
• SP.493 (Fall 2007) 
• Course Title:
• Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships 
• Course Level:
• Undergraduate 
• Offered by :
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  Massachusetts, United States  
• Department:
• Literature 
• Course Instructor(s):
• Prof. Sarah Brouillette 
• Course Introduction:
•  
• 
  
  21L.715 / SP.493 / CMS.871 Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships
  
  
  
  

  Fall 2007

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Course Highlights

  
  
  

  
  
  21L.715 / SP.493 / CMS.871 Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships
  
  
  
  

  Fall 2007

  
  
  

  

  Display shelves at the comic book store Atomics Comics in San Antonio, Texas. Fandom is one of the course's topics, and students were required to visit a comic book store out of class and come to class prepared to discuss their experience. (Image courtesy of Clay Hackett.)

  
  
  

  Course Description

  
  
  

  What is the history of popular reading in the Western world? How does widespread access to print relate to distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow culture, between good taste and bad judgment, and between men and women readers? This course will introduce students to the broad history of popular reading and to controversies about taste and gender that have characterized its development. Our grounding in historical material will help make sense of our main focus: recent developments in the theory and practice of reading, including fan-fiction, Oprah's book club, comics, hypertext, mass-market romance fiction, mega-chain bookstores, and reader response theory.
  
  

  Recommended Citation

  
  
  

  For any use or distribution of these materials, please cite as follows:

  Sarah Brouillette, course materials for 21L.715 / CMS.871 / SP.493 Media in Cultural Context: Popular Readerships, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].