- Musical Orientalism in American Pop Culture

Catalog description

An exploration of the ways Asian (formerly known as "Oriental") cultures, commodities, bodies, and sounds have been represented in American popular culture from the 19th century to the present. We will focus on a range of musical case studies to examine institutionalized and systematized projects of Othering and mis-representation and Asian subjectivities, voices of dissent, and aspects of self-Orientalism. Students will consider how sonic sterotypes have generated and maintained discourses of Orientalism in the U.S.; how the markers of "Asianness" (including "Chineseness," "Japaneseness," “Koreanness," "Vietnameseness," etc.) have changed over time in American society; and who has the authority to represent whom. Students will work in small groups to research a musical case study of their choosing and create a short documentary video discussing issues of representation and the implications of those representations for Asian communities in the United States.