Film and Popular Culture of the 1950s

The 1950's has been written about variously as the age of innocence, the height of the Cold War, a decade of great economic prosperity which gave birth to the suburban way of life, the decade in which television first became a mass phenomenon, and the decade of the baby boomers which produced youth culture in its first mass incarnations.  How did these political, economic and demographic events influence the development of a gendered culture and modes of experience in the U.S. in the 1950's?  How was the experience of gender intimately connected to that of race?  What role did popular culture play in this process?  In this course, we will read about gendered experiences in the 1950's in the U.S., examining some recent historical work which has looked at women's experiences in that decade.  In addition, we will analyze a variety of popular cultural phenomena particularly vivid in the 1950's, especially that pertinent to the creation of gender roles identified with the era. The 1950's was a particularly rich period for U.S. popular culture, and there is a tremendous cultural studies literature focusing on the popular culture of that period. In the course we will emphasize film and television, but look briefly at developments in popular music as well.