Assoc. Prof. Dr Kornelia Slavova
Lectures: 30
ECTS credits: 3
The course aims to acquaint students with popular culture practices in Eastern Europe and the West from a gender perspective. More precisely, students will analyze how popular culture provides new role models for the changing understanding of femininity and masculinity in public perception, and, on the other hand, how gender characteristics of identity affect the way popular culture products are consumed and disseminated. The lectures will trace the tensions between the socialist sacrificial models of femininity/ masculinity and the new post 1989 models, influenced by Western consumer and celebrity cultures, as well as gender representations in post-socialist and global media today. For the critical analysis of textual and visual material from the media, popular music, film, the fashion industry, TV culture, sports, and other terrains of pop culture will be used intersectional as well as comparative cross-cultural approaches. Students will be expected to make an oral presentation as well as a research project. There are no special requirements for the course apart from a good command of the English language as the course is conducted in English.