This course offers an introduction to comparative literary and cultural studies through a consideration of the figure of the modern diva, with a particular focus on Britney Spears, whom we will place at the heart of a twenty-first century constellation comprising Beyoncé Knowles, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. The course foregrounds the global dimensions of the modern pop star, mainly in the French context. And since pop stars assume the role of global modern-day goddesses, students will be encouraged to explore and research their crossover reach across languages and cultures. This course delves deep into the curious cultural history of the modern-day reincarnation of the diva. We will pay homage to several twentieth-century precursors to the diva along the way, from Marilyn Monroe to Dolly Parton to Madonna. We will study why some divas become subcultural icons, while others defy interpretation and remain eternally empty signifiers.
Modern Divas will allow you to explore this cultural history in a deeply personal and experiential manner, all while exposing you to some of the classic theoretical paradigms of comparative literature (New Criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, deconstruction, postcolonialism, cultural studies), along with cutting-edge approaches to the field (New Lyric, sound studies, media studies, queer studies, celebrity studies, translation studies). We will adopt a light touch to theory by leading with primary sources, specifically chosen for how they open us up to new horizons of interpretation.
Every week, the course will feature weekly student-led listening parties focused on a single album of your choice. The format is left deliberately open, offering you the opportunity to lead a class discussion, for instance, on a theoretical reading, or to offer a close reading of song lyrics alongside your pop star’s intertextual influences. For example, how does the New York School of poetry pop up in Taylor Swfit’s Folklore? How is Kraftwerk’s Computer World reincarnated by Britney Spears’s Blackout? How does Britney’s discussion of lithium therapy in her memoir evoke the history of literary writing on drugs? How does Beyoncé draw on Dolly Parton? What history of dance music does Taylor draw on for 1989? Why is Lady Gaga a gay icon, and how and why do queer subcultures form around her but not other divas?
Book-length readings by Britney Spears, Rachel Cusk, Omis’eke Natasha Tinsley, Abdellah Taïa, Louise Chennevière, Nelly Arcan, J. Jack Halberstam, Dick Hebdige, and Jeff Weiss. Theoretical and secondary readings by Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, John Ashbery, Harold Bloom, Charles Baudelaire, Paul B. Preciado, Gérard Gennette, Sophia Lewis, Stephanie Burt, and William Cheng.