Issues in Cultural Studies
Publicity, Privacy and the Politics of "Access"
LIT 6855 / W 6-8 MATH 16
Office: 4321 TUR
Office Hours: R 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and by appointment
office telephone: (352) 392-1669 ext. 253
email: ssmith@english.ufl.edu
Having "access" is often cited as a central necessity and of
primary concern to the production of a variety of cultural and/or political
fields, especially with regard to the politics of constituting a democratic
process. Accesibility has become, in the last decade, of central importance
to popular conceptions of the political process--indeed, often it seems
that "access" and "democracy" slide into one another,
as if achieving access alone would be to achieve democracy as well. And
thus is "having access" presented as a vital component of any
political or cultural collective.
But what have we achieved in gaining access--say, to information? This
course will examine the philosophical and political histories of contemporary
debates regarding privacy, publicity and the politics of accessibility,
with a specific focus on the production of community and culture in relation
to these debates.
Texts
The following texts will be available at Goerings Book Center (378-0363)
Micheal Bérubé, Public Access: Literary Theory and
American Cultural Studies. Verso: London/New York, 1994.
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public
Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. MIT 1991.
Bruce Robbins, The Phantom Public Sphere. Minnesota, 1993.
William Corlett, Community Without Unity: A Politics of Derridian
Extravagance. Duke, 1989.
Evan Watkins, Throwaways: Work Culture & Consumer Education.
Stanford, 1993.
Jean-Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community. Minnesota, 1991.
And xeroxed readings, taken primarily from Adorno, Haraway, Hayles,
Kipnis, Ferguson, Representations, Critical Inquiry, Community at Loose
Ends, The Politics of Research, Resisting The Virtual Life, A is for OX,
The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age, The
Tremulous Private Body, Capitalism and the Information Age and Tolstoy's
Dictaphone.
As noted, this course wll examine issues of privacy, publicity and
"access" as a political question in the production of democratic
culture and community. There are four broad and general topics into which
the course materials will be divided, topics in which "accessibility"
has become an issue:
1. Information
2. Public Space
3. Technology and Censorship
4. Language and Citizenship
These general "topics" necessarily bleed into each other--for
example, the question of what a library is for, who should have access
to it, and what is its mission in the so-called digital or electronic age
might fit into all four categories--but we will use them as a loose means
to limit our focus week to week.