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LeedsMetropolitanUniversity

School of Cultural Studies

BA (Hons) Humanities and Social Studies

SOC 208 OUTSIDERS

MODULE BOOKLET

2004-2005

Contents
  • Module descriptor
  • Schedule of weekly topics

and aims for each session

  • Reading list
  • Assessment process
  • Notes on the Harvard

referencing system

Tutor: Dr Max Farrar

Office: Room: 9th floor of D Block

Email:

Phone: 0113 283 2600

LeedsMetropolitanUniversity

Faculty of Cultural and Education Studies

SCHOOL OF CULTURAL STUDIES

Module Title / Outsiders
Module Code / Module Size / Credits / Hours / Level
SOC 208 / Single / 15 / 150 / 2
Rationale / This module will apply disciplinary concepts and knowledge acquired in Level 1 to a theme which has pre-occupied social analysts throughout the modern period: where is the centre, and where are the margins of society, and what constitutes the divide between the two? Students will develop sociological analyses of identity introduced during Level 1; they will apply the historical and conceptual knowledge of modernity acquired in Level 1; and they will enlarge the analysis of literary and cinematic texts which started during level 1. This module is designed to complement issues and theories raised in the other Level 2 Humanities and Sociology modules, and to provide a basis for the further study of sociology at Level 3. It should also prove relevant to students taking modules in twentieth century literature at Levels 2 and 3.
Learning Outcomes / On completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate:
a)Knowledge and critical understanding of the sociological theories of symbolic interactionism and labelling
b)Knowledge and critical understanding of the philosophical school of existentialism
c)Knowledge and critical understanding of foundational sociological, philosophical, literary and cinematic texts which exhibit these theories
d)Knowledge of the sociological method of participant observation, and the methods of reading sociological, philosophical, literary and cinematic texts
e)Understanding of the limits of these forms of knowledge – in particular, understanding the critique of humanism offered by structuralist and poststructuralist theory
f)the ability to apply these theories and methods to the analysis of contemporary phenomena, particularly those within youth subcultures
g)the ability to communicate effectively information, arguments and analysis in written and oral form
h)the ability to work effectively as a member of a small group with a defined research and presentational task.
Indicative Content / This module will address the following fields:
a)Symbolic interactionism and labelling theory: the work of Howard Becker and David Matza
b)Existentialism: Sartre and De Beauvoir
c)Relevant novels (e.g. Albert Camus, Richard Wright, Brett Easton Ellis) and films (e.g. Bergman, Godard, Lynch)
d)The critique of humanism and alternative theorisations of the Outsider – the Other, the Abject: Foucault, Kristeva, Cixous
Teaching and Learning Methods / The module will be delivered in various forms – audio-visual (mainly film), short lectures from the tutor, and student-led sessions (group presentations) – all supported by a Module Reader of key texts to be studied prior to each class, and guided by a comprehensive Module Booklet containing the aims of each session, readings lists and assessment processes. Three films will be shown during the course of the module. High levels of student participation in the learning process will be required throughout the module.
Assessment / Two types of formative assessment:
  1. Students will submit a portfolio of notes and answers to questions made in preparation for each class, and during each class, plus at least two examples of representations of ‘outsiders’ obtained during the course of the module from any type of media. Marks will be deducted if more than two classes have not been covered, unless mitigating circumstances apply. This will assess coverage of most or all of the learning outcomes 1-5, and the written aspect of outcome 7. 20% of total mark.
  2. Each student will make a short (no more than five minutes) presentation as a member of a group in which he/she will summarise part of the required reading and viewing for that week’s class, and contribute to a class discussion on that week’s topic. Notes used for the presentation (up to 500 words) and a personal reflection on the learning process (200 words) will be handed in. This will assess at least one of the outcomes 1-5 above, the oral aspect of outcome 7, and outcome 8. 30% of the total mark.
Summative assessment:
  1. A one hour, one question examination on a topic other than the one which was the subject of the presentation. This will assess outcome 6 above, and at least one of outcomes 1-5. (50% of the assessed work for this module.)

Indicative Reading / Theory
De Beauvoir, Simone (1974) The Second Sex, London: Penguin.
Becker, Howard (1973) Outsiders - Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, New York : Free Press.
Craib, Ian (1976) Existentialism and Sociology, Cambridge :
CambridgeUniversity Press.
Elias, Norbert and John Lloyd Scotson (1994) The Established and the Outsiders - Sociological Enquiry into Community ProblemsLondon : Sage.
Evans, Ruth (1998) Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex - New Interdisciplinary Essays,Manchester : ManchesterUniversity Press.
Fanon, Frantz (1992) Black Skins – White Masks, London: Pluto Press.
Matza, David (1969) Becoming Deviant, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. London : Prentice-Hall.
Oliver, Kelly (1997) The Portable Kristeva, Oxford: Blackwell.
Rabinow, Paul (ed.) (1985) The Foucault Reader, London: Penguin.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1946) Existentialism and Humanism, London: Methuen.
Novels
Camus, Albert (1983) The Outsider
Ellis, Brett Easton (1986) Less Than Zero
Morrison, Toni (1984) Sula
Wright, Richard (1964) The Outsider

Films

Godard, Jean-Luc (1959) A Bout de Souffle
Lynch, David (1991) Wild at Heart
Van Sant, Gus (1990) My Own Private Idaho

Max Farrar \ May 2001

LeedsMetropolitanUniversity

School of Cultural Studies

SOC208 OUTSIDERS

Semester 1, 2004 – 5

TIME, DAY, ROOM: 0900-1100 THURSDAYS, ROOM H510

CLASS TOPICS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

130th September 2004

Introduction
  • what this module aims to achieve
  • required reading/viewing
  • how the module will be assessed
  • forming study/presentation groups

27th October

The Outsider in symbolic interactionism’s sociology of agency

(1)Howard Becker on making and breaking the rules

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • The sociology of rules, enforcement and labelling
  • The contingent and changing forms of some social rules
  • The concept of deviancy in the relation to the concept of crime
  • The method of participant observation

Reading

  • From Becker, H (1963) Outsiders, New York: Free Press, pages 41-78 on marijuana use
  • Max Farrar Applying Symbolic Interactionist Theory
  • Reading of the chapter by Ken Plummer (see week 4) will help you place Becker’s work in context

Activity

Answer the questions listed in handout titled Applying Symbolic Interactionist Theory – Some more information and an assessed exercise, as applied to marijuana users in Becker’s analysis.

Presentation by Group 1

Howard Becker’s key ideas

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

314th October

The Outsider in symbolic interactionist sociology (2)
Crack dealers in East Harlem – methods, findings

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • The operation of signs and symbols in Latino crack culture in New York
  • The methodological issues raised in studying ‘outsiders’

Reading

  • From Bourgois, Philippe (1995) In Search of Respect – Selling Crack in El Barrio, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press: Ch 1 ‘Violating Apartheid in the United States
  • Reading of the chapter by Ken Plummer (see week 4) will help you place Becker’s and Bourgois’ work in context

Activity

Answer the questions listed in handout titled Applying Symbolic Interactionist Theory – Some more information and an assessed exercise, as applied to marijuana users in Bourgois’ analysis.

Presentation by Group 2

Key ideas in Philipe Bourgois’ analysis of crack use

Comparison with Becker’s analysis

Observations on participant observation as a sociological method

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

421st October

Sociology (3)
Symbolic interactionism – its history and theory

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • the intellectual and institutional history of symbolic interactionism
  • the theories advanced by symbolic interactionists
  • some of the criticisms of this school of thought

Reading

  • From Smith, Philip (2001) Cultural Theory – an Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell, Ch 4 ‘Culture as Action in Symbolic Interactionism, Phenomenology, and Ethnomethodology’, pp. 58-73
  • ‘Stories as Symbolic Interactions’ pp. 20- 31 in Plummer, Ken (1995) Telling Sexual Stories – Power, change and social worlds, London: Routledge
  • ‘Criticisms’ (of symbolic interactionism) pp 207-214 in Downes, D and Rock, P (1995) Understanding Deviance (2nd edn), Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • From Turner, Bryan S (ed.) (1996) The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell: Ch. 8 – Plummer, Ken ‘Symbolic Interactionism in the c20’ pp. 223-251

Presentation by Group 3

Symbolic interactionism’s history and its key concepts

Does Howard Becker’s analysis completely conform with symbolic interactionist theory?

Does Philipe Bourgois’ analysis completely conform with symbolic interactionist theory?

Are their sociological methods consistent with those proposed by symbolic interactionism?

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

528th October

Sociology (4)

Understanding ‘crime’ – can symbolic interactionism do the business?

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • Some of the sociological research on the ways that people who are defined as criminal do the business of crime
  • The use of symbolic interactionism in analysis crime

Reading

  • ‘Enter Robbers Armed’ in Taylor, Laurie (1984) In The Underworld, Oxford: Blackwell
  • ‘East End Entrepreneurship’ in Hobbs, Dick (1988) Doing The BusinessOxford: OUP
  • From Rabinow, Paul (ed.) (1991) The Foucault Reader: ‘Illegalities and Delinquency’ pp226-33

Activity

Answer the questions listed in handout titled Applying Symbolic Interactionist Theory – Some more information and an assessed exercise, as applied to the descriptions of criminal activity in this week’s readings.

Presentation by Group 4

  • What do criminals do, according to Taylor and Hobbs?
  • What sociological methods have Taylor and Hobbs employed?
  • What theories have Taylor and Hobbs adopted and adapted?
  • How convincing are these accounts of crime?

64th November

The Outsider in structuralist social theory: Michel Foucault

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • Foucault’s analysis of the development of power and control over the subject: the structuring effects of discourse
  • The historical generation of the categories of ‘criminal’ and ‘insane’ (as specific examples of the category ‘Outsider’
  • Foucault’s theory of the relationship between truth and power
  • Foucault’s critique of humanism in social thought
  • The implications of Foucault’s work for symbolic interactionist and existentialist theory

Reading

  • From Rabinow, Paul (ed.) (1991) The Foucault Reader: ‘The Means of Correct Training’ pp. 188-225.
  • From Smart, Barry (1995) Michel Foucault, London: Routledge: Ch 3 ‘Subjects of Power; Objects of Knowledge, pp 72-92

Additional recommended reading:

  • Danaher, G, Schirato, T and Webb, J (2000) Understanding Foucault, London: Sage
  • Dumm, T (1996) Michel Foucault and the Politics of FreedomLondon: Sage
  • Foucault, Michel (1991) Remarks on MarxNew York: Semiotext(e)

Presentation by Group 5

Key ideas in today’s readings: discourse, truth, power, knowledge

How does Foucault help us understand the making of a concept or category such as ‘the Outsider’?

Can Foucualt’s analysis be integrated with symbolic interactionism? If so, how?

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

711th November

Outsiders in the movies.

Film extracts and discussion:

A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) (Jean Luc Godard, 1959)

Wild at Heart (David Lynch, 1990)

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • Godard’s ‘new wave’ construction of the outsider as ‘anti-hero’
  • Lynch’s Amercian/commercial construction of the outsider
  • The film-Outsider’s relationship to the Hollywood film industry
  • Some uses of film in sociological and cultural analysis

Reading

  • Narboni, J and Milne, T (eds.) (1986) Godard on Godard, New York: Da Capo Press
  • There are 11 books in the library on Godard – consult any or all of them.
  • On Lynch/Wild at Heart, consult these web-sites:
  • Google will find lots of other references to David Lynch and his work
  • The Learning Centre catalogue will direct you to films by, and documentaries about, David Lynch
  • Stam, Robert (2000) Film Theory, Oxford: Blackwell; all references to Godard, esp. the chapter ‘1968 and the Leftist Turn’ pp. 130-140.

Presentation by Group 6

A brief review of Godard’s and Lynch’s careers as film-makers

How do these films ‘frame’ crime? (Apply symbolic interactionist concepts.)

What is the ‘discourse’ of crime that is being represented in these films? (Apply Foucault’s theory.)

How might the concept of ‘outsider’ be applied to these films?

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

818th November

The Outsider in Philosophy: Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism and neo-Marxism

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • Sartre’s early analysis of the free man
  • The consequences of this analysis for the position of the Outsider
  • Sartre’s later move towards a Marxist social theory

Reading

  • From: Kearney, R and Rainwater, M (eds.) (1996) The Continental Philosophy Reader, London: Routledge: J-P Sartre ‘Existentialism and Humanism’ (pp. 65-76)
  • From Kaufman, Walter (1956) (ed.) Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, Cleveland: World Publishing Company (Meridian Books): J-P Sartre: ‘Self-deception’ (pp 241-270) [often translated as ‘bad faith’]
  • Max Farrar ‘Jean-Paul Sartre [1905-1980]’

Max Farrar ‘Existentialism and Sociology – Craib on Sartre’

Additional recommended reading

  • Craib, Ian (1976) Existentialism and Sociology – a study of Jean-Paul Sartre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Douglas, Jack D and Johnson, John M (eds.) (1977) Existential SociologyCambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press
  • Kotarba, J and Johnson, J (eds) (2002) Postmodern Existential SociologyNew York: AltaMira Press
  • Fox, Nik F (2003) The New Sartre — Explorations in PostmodernismNew York and London: Continuum

Presentation by Group 7

What are the key ideas in existentialism? [do NOT repeat my notes – these are only provided to help you find your way around the difficult work you’ve been given to read by Sartre!]

What connections are there between Sartre’s work and symbolic interactionism?

How does Sartre’s work differ from SI?

What themes and ideas were there in Breathless and Wild at Heart which picked up on existentialist philosophy?

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

925th November

The Outsider in literature: Albert Camus (France)

and Richard Wright (USA)

Learning outcomes After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • Two or more classic texts in modern literature
  • The emotional and social world of the self-defined ‘everyday’ Outsider
  • Sociological and philosophical analysis of Being Black in a white dominated society
  • The use of literature in sociology: the problems of reading, and the problems of making sociological generalisations on the basis of individual narratives

Reading

  • Camus, Albert (1942) The Stranger/The OutsiderLondon: Penguin(essential)
  • Wright, Richard (2000) Black BoyNew York: Vintage (essential)
  • Wright, Richard (1953) The Outsider New York: HarperCollins(the whole novel is recommended, but the reading provided for you is essential)
  • ‘Richard Wright’s Blues’ pp. 77-94 in Ellison, Ralph (1972) Shadow and ActNew York: Vintage Books

Viewing

Almos’ A Man (Madge Sinclair, 1976, 51 mins)

Additional recommended reading on Albert Camus:

  • A search under ‘subject’ for Camus, Albert in the library catalogue indicates that the following books are available which will help you understand Camus’ work: Cruickshank (1960), Hanna (1958), Masters (1974), Brée (1962 and 1974), Pollmann (1970) and O’Brien (1970). Most of these are in the Beckett Park Learning Centre, so you must order them early!

Additional recommended reading on Richard Wright:

  • Gilroy, Paul (1993) The Black AtlanticLondon: Verso, chapter 5, on Richard Wright
  • Robinson, Cedric (1983) Black Marxism, London: Zed Press, chapter 11 on Richard Wright

Key philosophical text on existentialism and ‘race’

Gordon Bad Faith and Anti-Black Racism …………….

Presentation by Group 8

The themes and ideas in these novels which can be explained in by applying symbolic interactionist concepts

The themes and ideas in these novels which can be explained in by applying existentialist concepts

The themes and ideas in these novels which can be explained in by applying Foucault’s concepts

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

10 2nd December

Simone de Beauvoir – sociological philosophy: Woman as Other

Learning outcomes

After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • De Beauvoir’s theorisation of the position of woman as Other
  • The relationship of her theory to Freud’s and to Sartre’s theories
  • The binary opposition as an underlying structure of social and psychological life

Reading

  • De Beauvoir, S (1972) The Second Sex Harmondsworth: Penguin; Introduction pp 13 –29 and Part 3 Ch 3 ‘Myth and Reality’ pp. 282-292

Additional recommended reading

  • Evans, Ruth (1998) (ed.) Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex - New Interdisciplinary Essays,Manchester: ManchesterUniversity Press

Presentation by Group 9

A brief account of de Beauvoir’s theory of woman’s position

The connections between her theory and Sartre’s existentialist theory

The connections between her theory and sympbolic interactionism

Trigger questions for the class to discuss

119th December

Trans-Gender: once an Outsider, now part of the mainstream?

Learning outcomes After attending this session and doing the required reading, students will have gained a critical understanding of:

  • the social construction of gender identities
  • the changing definition of gender ‘deviancy’ over the past forty years

Reading

  • Extracts provided from JayneCounty (1995) Man Enough To Be A WomanLondon: Serpents Tail
  • From Smart, Barry (1995) Michel Foucault, London: Routledge: ‘On the Subject of Sexuality pp 93-102.
  • From Burr, Vivien (1998) Gender and Social Psychology, London: Routledge: Gender research in social psychology – pp 124-131

Activity