Kurse

SE 2: Mi 12:00/14:00 Raum: 1502.609, Beginn: 12.10.2011 (AmerA; AAS4)

When Mad Men’s protagonist Don Draper, creative director of a prestigious advertising agency in 1960s New York City, tells a client that "what you call ‘love’ was invented by guys like me to sell nylons,” he has effectively found the implicit motto of the television series. The show deals with the cynical, misogynistic, greedy admen of the decade at the same time that it paints a picture of the United States in the sixties – from the point of view of conservative and corporate America. As such, it is also a vivid depiction of the “creative revolution” in advertising, which transformed an entire industry and prefigured many future developments in U.S. consumer capitalism. Apart from this historiographic aspect, the show is also one of the most blatant examples of contemporary U.S. “Quality TV”, a phenomenon that integrates critical acclaim and commercial appeal. As such, it self-reflexively connects its own status as a creative product of the culture industry with its narrative of creativity in advertising.
As a first step, this course will analyze Mad Men within the contemporary television and media context and examine the (formal, narrative, reception- and production-related) aspects that make it a quintessential example of television in the age of media convergence and narrowcasting. Furthermore, we will examine Mad Men’s representation of the 1960s, with special emphasis on the development of advertising and the changing role of gender, fashion, and social norms.
Although this is a class about television, participants are expected to read various (historical, theoretical, fictional) texts next to completing their viewing assignments. A reader with course material will be made available at the beginning of the semester.

Please register for this class via StudIP between 1 and 30 September.
The course is restricted to a maximum of 25 participants.
It is expected that participants have successfully completed the Studienleistung(en) of BritF4/AmerF4.
Prerequisites for certificate: will be specified.
For further information: florian.grossengsem.uni-hannover.de

Unterrichtete Kurse

Wintersemester 2010/2011

Proseminar "The Graphic Novel" (Leibniz Universität Hannover

Wintersemester 2009/2010

Grundkurs "Introduction to Literary Studies" (Leibniz Universität Hannover)

Wintersemester 2008/2009 

Hauptseminar "Studying Popular Culture" (Leibniz Universität Hannover)

Sommersemester 2008

Hauptseminar "Current U.S. Fiction" (Leibniz Universität Hannover)