COURSE DESCRIPTION

Sociological consideration of the arts has a long history. It extends back to the works of such classical writers as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel and weaves its way to contemporary work by such scholars as Paul DiMaggio, Wendy Griswold, and Tia DeNora. In this advanced seminar, we seek a purchase on this literature by attending to a number of themes and exemplar works within these themes. As a result, we will examine theoretical traditions associated with, among others, Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno, and we will explore such topics as artistic careers, cultural capital, and the globalization of the arts.

Given that this semester's seminar has its origins as a directed reading, it is relatively unique in two regards. First, graduate students will collectively construct the course syllabus, thereby ensuring that their respective substantive interests are addressed. The result of this collective effort is found below (see “Course Schedule”). Second, graduate students will take the lead in detailed discussions that address important theoretical and empirical concerns in each of the weekly readings. By the end of the semester, then, students should be well versed in the sociology of the arts and well equipped to pursue their own work in this area.

COURSE RESOURCES

The assigned readings are available at Woodruff Library's on-line reserves (click on “Euclid” and then click on “Reserves Direct”). Note that the readings for this class augment – but do not duplicate – those found in the Sociology of Culture (SOC 560) and Sociology of Mass Media (SOC 769r) graduate seminars. As a result, you may wish to peruse these syllabi for additional readings

If you have any special needs due to learning disabilities, please contact me at the beginning of the semester and we will discuss the necessary arrangements.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Given the advanced nature of this seminar – and the advanced level of the enrolled graduate students – the emphasis will be on thorough readings of numerous works and thoughtful discussions of these works. Consequently, adequate preparation is crucial. To assist such preparation, each student will be responsible for summarizing one of the weekly readings; at the beginning of class, students will distribute their respective summaries to their classmates. Final grades will be based upon the quality of the student's input to weekly discussions (50%) and the quality of the weekly summaries (50%).

COURSE SCHEDULE

(Subject to Revision)

February 3

Bergesen, Albert.1984. “The Semantic Equation: A Theory of the Social Origins of Art Styles.” Sociological Theory 2: 187-221.

Bowler, Anne E. 1994. “Methodological Dilemmas in the Sociology of Art.” Pages 247-266 in The Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives, edited by Diana Crane. Oxford: Blackwell.

Clignet, Remi. 1979. “The Variability of Paradigms in the Production of Culture: A Comparison of the Arts and Sciences.” American Sociological Review 44: 392-409.

Griswold, Wendy. 1987. “A Methodological Framework for the Sociology of Culture.” Sociological Methodology 17: 1-35.

Mohr, John. 1998. “Measuring Meaning Structures.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 345-370.

Schutz, Alfred. 1951. “Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationships.” Social Research 18: 76-97.

Simmel, Georg. 1957. “Fashion.” American Journal of Sociology 62: 541-558.

Sorokin, Pitrim. 1957. Social and Cultural Dynamics: A Study of Change in Major System of Art, Truth, Ethics, Law and Social Relations. Chapters 1-6 & 9.

Tanner, Jeremy. 2003. The Sociology of Art: A Reader. London: Routledge. Introduction, pages 27-68.

Weber, Max. 1958. The Rational and Social Foundations of Music. Carbondale, IL: Southern University Illinois Press. Chapters 1-2.

Allmendinger, Jutta and J. Richard Hackman. 1996. “Organizations in Changing Environments: The Case of East German Symphony Orchestras.” Administrative Science Quarterly 41: 337-369.

Balio, Tino. 1976. United Artists: The Company Built by Stars. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Preface, and Chapters 1-5.

Glynn, Mary Ann. 2002. “Chord and Dischord: Organizational Crisis, Institutional Shifts, and the Musical Canon of the Symphony.” Poetics 30: 63-85.

Murningham, J. Keith and Donald E. Conlon. 1991. “The Dynamics of Intense Work Groups: A Study of British String Quartets.” Administrative Science Quarterly 36: 165-186.

Peterson, Karin. 1997. “The Distribution and Dynamics of Uncertainty in Art Galleries: A Case Study of New Dealerships in the Parisian Art Market, 1985-1990.” Poetics 25: 241-263.

Fine, Gary Alan. 1996. “Justifying Work: Occupational Rhetorics as Resources in Restaurant Kitchens.”Administrative Science Quarterly 41: 90-115.

Giuffre, Katherine A. 1999. “Sandpiles of Opportunity: Success in the Art World.” Social Forces 77: 815-832.

Lachmann, Richard. 1988. “Graffiti as Career and Ideology.” American Journal of Sociology 94: 229-250.

Menger, Pierre-Michel. 1999. “Artistic Labor Markets and Careers.” Annual Review of Sociology 25: 541-574.

Tuchman, Gaye and Nina E. Fortin. 1984. “Fame and Misfortune: Edging Women Out of the Great Literary Tradition.” American Journal of Sociology 90: 72-96.

Adorno, Theodor. 1988. “On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening.” Pages 270-299 in The Essential Frankfurt Reader, edited by Andrew Arato and Eike Gebhardt. New York: Continuum.

Benjamin, Walter. 1969. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Pages 217-251 in Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books.

DeNora, Tia. 2003. Beyond Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-3, and 6.

Marcuse, Herbert. 1978. The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics. Boston: Beacon Press.

Witten, Robert W. 2000. “Why Did Adorno ‘Hate’ Jazz?” Sociological Theory 18: 145-170.

Anheier, Helmut K. and Jurgen Gerhards. 1991. “The Acknowledgment of Literary Influence: A Structural Analysis of a German Literary Network.” Sociological Forum 6: 137-156.

Janssen, Susanne. 1997. “Reviewing as Social Practice: Institutional Constraints on Critics' Attention for Contemporary Fiction.” Poetics 24: 275-297.

Lang, Gladys Engel and Kurt Lang. 1988. “Recognition and Renown: The Survival of Artistic Reputation.” American Journal of Sociology 94: 79-109.

Lopes, Paul. 2002. The Rise of a Jazz Art World. New York: Cambridge University Press. Introduction and Chapter 4.

Peck, Janice. 2002. “The Oprah Effect: Texts, Readers, and the Dialectic of Signification.” Communication Review 5: 143-178.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.

Holt, Douglas B. 1997. “Distinction in America? Recovering Bourdieu's Theory of Tastes from Its Critics.” Poetics 25: 93-121.

McCall, Leslie. 1992. “Does Gender Fit? Bourdieu, Feminism, and Conceptions of Social Order.” Theory and Society 21: 837-867.

Rubtsova, Anna and Timothy J. Dowd. 2004. “Cultural Capital as a Multi-Level Concept: The Case of an Advertising Agency.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 22: 117-146.

Blau, Judith R. 1996. “The Toggle Switch of Institutions: Religion and Art in the U.S. in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.” Social Forces 74: 1159-1177.

DiMaggio, Paul. 1987. “Classification in Art.” American Sociological Review 52: 440- 455.

DiMaggio, Paul. 1992. “Cultural Boundaries and Structural Change: The Extension of the High Culture Model to Theater, Opera, and Dance, 1900-1940.” Pages 21-57 in Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality, edited by Michele Lamont and Marcel Fournier. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Elias, Norbert. 1993. Mozart: Portrait of a Genius. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Pages 3-63 and 111-130.

Levine, Lawrence W. 1984. “William Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation.” American Historical Review 89:34-66.

DiMaggio, Paul. 1982. “Cultural Capital and School Success: The Impact of Status Culture Participation on the Grades of U.S. High School Students.” American Sociological Review 47: 189-201.

DiMaggio, Paul and John Mohr. 1985. “Cultural Capital, Educational Attainment, and Marital Selection.” American Journal of Sociology 90: 1231-1261.

DiMaggio, Paul and Francie Ostrower. 1990. “Participation in the Arts by Black and White Americans.” Social Forces 68: 753-778.

Dumais, Susan A. 2002. “Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success: The Role of Habitus.” Sociology of Education 75: 44-68.

Ostrower, Francie. 1998. “The Arts as Cultural Capital among Elites: Bourdieu's Theory Reconsidered.” Poetics 26: 43-53.

Crane, Diana. 1999. “Gender and Hegemony in Fashion Magazines: Women's Interpretations of Fashion Photographs.” Sociological Quarterly 40: 541-563.

Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapters 1 & 2.

Hennion, Antoine. 2002. “Music Lovers: Taste as Performance.” Theory Culture & Society 18: 1-22.

Long, Elizabeth. 2003. Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1 & 5.

Stamatov, Peter. 2002. “Interpretive Activism and the Political Uses of Verdi's Operas in the 1840s.” American Sociological Review 67: 345-366.

Blair, Helen and Al Rainnie. 2000. “Flexible Films?” Media, Culture & Society 22: 187-204.

Crane, Diana. 1997. “Globalization, Organizational Size, and Innovation in the French Luxury Fashion Industry: Production of Culture Theory Revisited.” Poetics 24: 393-414.

Dowd, Timothy J., Kathleen Liddle and Maureen Blyler. forthcoming. “Charting Gender: The Success of Female Acts in the U.S. Mainstream Recording Market, 1940 to 1990.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

Trajtenberg, Graciela. 2003. “Modernisms in Action: Comparing the Relationship between Visual Arts, Social Classes and Politics in Israeli Nation-Building.” Comparative Social Research 21: 87-109.

Zolberg, Vera L. 1980. “Displayed Art and Performed Music: Selective Innovation and the Structure of Artistic Media.” Sociological Quarterly 21: 219-231.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Public Culture 2: 1-24.

Griswold, Wendy. 1992. "The Writing on the Mud Wall: Nigerian Novels and the Imaginary Village." American Sociological Review 57: 709-724.

Kim, Jeongmee. 2003. “The Funding and Distribution Structure of the British Film Industry in the 1990s: Localization and Commercialization of British Cinema towards a Global Audience.” Media, Culture & Society 25: 405-413.

Mukerji, Chandra. 1979. “Mass Culture and the Modern World-System: The Rise of the Graphic Arts.” Theory & Society 8: 245-268.

Penkakur, Manjunath and Radha Subramanyam. 1996. “Indian Cinema beyond National Borders.” Pages 67-82 in New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision, edited by John Sinclair, Elizabeth Jacka, and Stuart Cunningham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.