Menu
Tools
Listed in: European Studies, as EUST-239 | History, as HIST-237
Onni L Gust (Section 01)
(Offered as HIST 237 [EU] and EUST 239.) From the Beatles to the World Cup, from punk to protest, popular culture flourished in Europe in the fifty years between 1950 and 2000. With the increase of leisure time, expendable income and a "baby boom" that resulted in a youth-heavy population, art, film, fashion, music and sport had an increasingly wide appeal. At the same time, anti-war activism, right-wing nationalism, feminism, gay liberation and anti-racism all used music, art, sport, literature and film to rally support and carve out distinctive cultural idioms. This course looks at the ways in which popular culture and popular movements reflected and responded to broader changes in post-war Europe. Although focused on Western Europe, the course places the history of popular culture in the context of the Cold War world and post-colonial cultural transfer. Topics include: fashion and fascism in the context of post-war immigration; football, class and racism; anti-capitalism and art; punk and popular politics; the Beatles, religion and sexual liberation; feminism and gay rights in art and film; and responses to racism through literature, television and in film. Two class meetings per week.
Spring semester. Visiting Professor Gust.