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S1319 Singlehood, Global Media and Culture

Lahad Kinneret

Popular culture today is fascinated by stories of singlehood and single women in particular. Television shows like Sex and the City (SATC) and Ally McBeal, along with box office hits such as the Bridget Jones series, The Bride's Maid, 27 Dresses, The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend's Wedding and many more were screened worldwide and enjoyed tremendous commercial success. Additionally, a wide variety of internet portals, blogs, and online forums are predominantly preoccupied with singlehood, single persons and single culture in general. The goal of this course is to develop a critical approach to the study of singlehood and to understand the impact of global media forms on the construction of single person’s identities and life options. Differently put, we will explore how globally distributed media texts and global communication technologies affects single men and single women on a global scale.

 

Readings will consist of cultural studies, feminist, sociological theories as well as ethnographies of singlehood from several world areas.  Some of the key topics to be explored are: singlehood in different historical and cultural contexts, aloneness, individualism and loneliness, and the affects that global discourses of neo-liberalism, therapy, post feminism and consumerism has on them.