Professor Ann Marie Leshkowich
Beaven 231
508-793-2788
aleshkow@holycross.edu
Office Hours: M 1-4, W 1-2:45, F 1-2

 

Course Description: Clothing is among the most visible and meaningful ways in which we express our identities. At the same time, our clothes are material items produced and consumed through an ever-expanding global fashion industry. This course will explore the various social, cultural, economic, political, and personal meanings associated with fashion and consumption. Combining anthropological and historical methods, we will focus on such questions as:

What role does fashion play in the construction of identity?
Why are fashion and consumption seen as feminine concerns?
What role has clothing played in political and cultural resistance movements?
How is clothing used to differentiate people, in both positive and negative ways?
What are the historical origins of consumer societies?
How has consumer capitalism become a global phenomenon? With what consequences?

Readings will include social theory about fashion and consumption (Bourdieu, Barthes, and Veblen) and ethnographies focusing on such topics as veiling in the Middle East, Japanese haute couture, used clothing in Zambia, punks in Britain, and American feminists' critiques of the fashion and beauty industry. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between consumption of fashion and gender, race, and class.

 

Class meetings

The class meets three times per week. Most weeks, two of these periods will be used for lectures, with the additional meeting devoted to viewing films or class discussion. Students will be expected to attend all class meetings (attendance will be taken) and to complete the readings as scheduled on the syllabus. Throughout the semester, students will write brief response papers (2-3 pages) on an assigned topic. These will serve as the basis for group discussion.

 

Course Requirements

Course grades will be based on written work and class participation, broken down as follows:

1. Class Discussion and Participation (15%)

This course takes an active approach to learning; your presence and participation in class are essential to your success! You are required to attend all class meetings, including lectures, films, and discussion sessions. Participation consists of being alert and taking notes during lectures, asking questions to clarify points of misunderstanding, engaging actively in small-group activities, and contributing meaningfully to classroom discussions. Because involvement in class activities is so important, more than two unexcused absences during the semester will result in the lowering of your participation grade by one-half of a percentage point for each additional class missed.

2. Response papers (18%)

In preparation for discussion sections, you will be asked to prepare short response papers on assigned topics. These papers require you to integrate what you have learned from lectures and readings, either by reflecting on them to develop your own insights or by evaluating their methods by completing your own ethnographic research exercise. Nine papers are assigned, and you must complete six. Three of the papers must be completed before the mid-term, and three afterwards. Each of the six assignments will be worth three points, for a total of 18% of your course grade. One extra paper can be completed, in which case the highest six grades will count as your total. Late papers will not be accepted.

3. Mid-term (20%)

An in-class mid-term will be given on Monday, February 27. The mid-term will consist of identification of key terms and concepts from the first half of the class (readings, lectures, and films), and an essay question.

4. Dress or Spending Diary and 3-5 page paper (12%)

By looking at fashion and consumption around the world, this course asks you to evaluate your own dress and spending practices. To help you to do this, one of the requirements of this class is to maintain a dress or spending diary for two weeks during the semester. The format and content of the diary are described in greater detail on the Writing Assignments Handout. Your diary and a 3-5 page essay evaluating it in light of an author studied during the semester are due in Professor Leshkowich's office by 5pm on Tuesday, May 2.

5. Final Exam (35%)

Like the mid-term, the final exam will consist of essays and identification of key terms. There will be a total of two essays: one in response to a broad question synthesizing the major themes of the course and a second question focusing on the material covered after the mid-term. The final exams are scheduled to be held on:
Anth 269-01 (MWF 10-10:50am): Wednesday, May 10 at 8:30 am.
Anth 269-02 (MWF 11-11:50am): Saturday, May 6 at 8:30 am.

 

Grade Calculation

The mid-term, final exam, and course grade will be calculated according to a 100-point scale. The grading scale is as follows:

A, 93 and above	C+, 77-79.99
A-, 90-92.99	C, 73-76.99
B+, 87-89.99	C-, 70-72.99
B, 83-86.99	D+, 67-69.99
B-, 80-82.99	D, 60-66.99
	F, 59.99 and below

Office Hours

My office hours are listed at the top of this syllabus, and I encourage you to visit with me during the semester. I am available to discuss specific issues arising from the course, as well as to exchange more general insights and chat about experiences from your studies or my research.

 

Course Website
(http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/aleshkow/269/269.html)

The website for this course is a center for important information: syllabus, lecture handouts, writing assignments, study guide questions, exam review materials, and announcements. Please check it frequently, and feel free to pass along suggestions for additional links and information which should be included. Also, check out my homepage at:
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/aleshkow/homepage.html

 

Readings

Readings marked "article" on the syllabus are available through ERes. The password for the course is anth269. The following books are required for the course and can be purchased at the bookstore:

Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Routledge, 1979. ISBN: 0415039495
Tarlo, Emma. Clothing Matters. Chicago, 1996. ISBN: 0226789764
el Guindi, Fadwa. Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance. Berg, 1999. ISBN: 1859739296
Hansen, Karen Tranberg. Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia. Chicago, 2000. ISBN: 0226315819
Rooks, Noliwe M. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. Rutgers, 1996. ISBN: 0813523125
Niessen, Sandra, Ann Marie Leshkowich, and Carla Jones (eds). Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. Berg, 2003. ISBN: 1859735398

 

SCHEDULE FOR THE COURSE

Introduction: Fashion, Consumption, and Anthropology: From Evolution to Abercrombie

While anthropology has long documented practices of dress and consumption, only in recent years have anthropologists come to focus on how the ways we dress reflect and shape aspects of our identities (e.g. class, gender, ethnicity, age, location, and personality), as well as global economic, political, and cultural developments. This first part of the course will introduce the concepts of fashion and consumption, provide a brief historical overview of how anthropology has examined them, and explore why both fashion and consumption have become central to current anthropological studies.

January 18 (W): Linking Fashion, Consumption, and Culture
Read: Fiske, "Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistance" (article)

January 20 (F): From Production to Consumption in Anthropology
Read: Miller, "Consumption and Its Consequences" (article)

January 23 (M): The Rise and Fall of Evolution in Dress
Read: Kroeber, "On the Principle of Order in Civilization as Exemplified by Changes of Fashion" (article)
Cannon, "The Cultural and Historical Contexts of Fashion" (article)

January 25 (W): Discussion

January 27 (F): Sex, Race, and "the Look": Making Sense of Abercrombie and Fitch
Read: AFjustice.com description of lawsuit (click for internet article)
Lee, "Pimped by Abercrombie and Fitch" (article)
Guillermo, "Humoring Ethnic America: Abercrombie & Fitch Still Doesn't Get It" (article)

January 30 (M): Discussion
Writing Assignment #1 due in class

 

Why Do We Want Things and What Do Things Mean? Three Approaches to Understanding Fashion and Consumer Society

Adam Smith, credited as the founder of modern economics, claimed that human beings have an innate desire to acquire things so that we might earn the admiration of others. Anthropologists have tended to claim, on the contrary, that the desire to accumulate material possessions is socially and culturally created. How are desires for different types of material possessions created? Why do we want things? In this unit, we will explore three different explanations as to why more and more people around the world have come to live in consumer societies and how their consumption practices relate to culture and class. To ground our theoretical discussion, we will read ethnographies about punks in Britain and secondhand clothing in Zambia.

February 1 (W): Thorstein Veblen and the Conspicuous Consumption of the the Leisure Class
Read: Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class chap. 4-7, pp. 60-131 (article)

February 3 (F): Discussion
NOTE: The paper for this unit is due on Monday, February 6.

February 6 (M): Barthes and the Semiotics of Consumption
Read: Barthes, The Fashion System pp. 3-18 (article)
Neich, "A Semiological Analysis of Self-Decoration in Mount Hagen, New Guinea" (article)
Writing Assignment #2 due in class

February 8 (W): Movie: The Filth and the Fury
Read: Begin Hebdige, Subculture

February 10 (F): The Language of Subculture: The Case of Punk
Read: Continue Hebdige, Subculture

February 13 (M): Is Clothing a Language?
Read: Finish Hebdige, Subculture
McCracken, Culture and Consumption chap. 4, pp. 57-70 (article)

February 15 (W): Discussion
Writing Assignment #3 due in class

February 17 (F): Bourdieu on Cultural Capital
Read: Bourdieu, 1-17, 177-225 (article)

February 20 (M): Movie, T-Shirt Travels
For more information on the film, see its website
Read: Begin Hansen, Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia

February 22 (W): The Cultural Economy of Taste and Style: Secondhand Clothing in Zambia
Read: Finish Hansen, Salaula

February 24 (F): Discussion
Writing Assignment #4 due in class

February 27 (M): MID-TERM

 

Case Study 1: Colonialism, Dress, and Identity in India

It is no accident that the emergence of consumer societies in Europe and North America coincided with colonialism. Focusing on India, we will explore three questions: How and why did colonialism promote increased consumption in England? What role did dress play in colonialism? What has been the legacy of colonialism for fashion in India today?

March 1 (W): Colonialism, Consumption, and Civilizing Fashion
Read: Tarlo, Clothing Matters chap. 1-2, pp. 1-61

March 3 (F): Anti-colonial Dress
Read: Tarlo, Clothing Matters chap. 3-4, pp. 62-128

March 6 (M) - March 10 (F): No class, Spring Vacation

March 13 (M): Post-Colonial Dilemmas: Ethnic Chic?
Read: Tarlo, Clothing Matters chap. 5, 6, 8, 9, pp. 129-201, 251-317

March 15 (W): Discussion
Writing Assignment #5 due in class

 

Case Study 2: Race and Fashion: The Case of the "Japanese Invasion"

In the 1980s, the international fashion press heralded the sudden emergence of Japanese designers as major players in the world of high fashion -- an arena previously dominated by Paris, Milan, and New York. Does race matter in high fashion? How do race and gender intersect? Is ethnic difference simply another marketing ploy to sell a commodity?

March 17 (F): Movie, A Notebook On Cities and Clothes

March 20 (M): Orientalism
Read: Said, Orientalism, pp. 1-28

March 22 (W): Commodifying Difference
Read: Kondo, About Face, chap. 3 ("Orientalizing: Fashioning Japan") and 5 ("Fabricating Masculinity: Gender, Rance, and Nation in the Transnational Circuit"), pp. 55-99 and 157-186

March 24 (F): Discussion
Writing Assignment #6 due in class

 

Case Study 3: Gender, or "Why are Fashion and Consumption Seen as Female?"

Picture in your mind someone shopping or reading a fashion magazine. Is the person you imagine a man or a woman? Most likely, you imagined a woman. In this unit, we will explore the cultural, social, and economic circumstances which have made both consumption and fashion associated with women and feminine concerns. Why is consumption seen as the domain of women? What are the links between gender, fashion, and beauty? Why are these practices gendered in this way? Are they universal? In the US, how is women's fashion related to race and class? How have fashions and their gendered politics changed over time?

March 27 (M): Gendered Consumption
Read: Nava, "Women, the City and the Department Store" (article)
Friedan, "The Sexual Sell" (article)
Bordo, "Hunger as Ideology" (article)

March 29 (W): Can You Be Feminist and Fashionable? Can You Be Masculine and Care How You Look?
Read: Wilson, "Feminism and Fashion" (article)
Gladwell, "Listening to Khakis" (article)
Campbell, "Shopping, Pleasure, and the Sex War" (article)

March 31 (F): Movie, Killing Us Softly

April 3 (M): Discussion: Women, Men, and Fashion
Read: Begin Rooks, Hair Raising

April 5 (W): The Politics of African American Women's Hair
Read: Finish Rooks, Hair Raising

April 7 (F): Discussion
Writing Assignment #7 due in class

 

Case Study 4: The Cultural Politics of Veiling

To many in North America and Western Europe, veiling makes a powerful fashion statement which signifies women's subordination among the Islamic populations who practice it. If this is the case, why are many educated, modern women choosing to wear the veil? Can veiling in fact be a form of resistance? If so, what is being resisted? Is the resistance successful?

April 10 (M): The Multiple Meanings of Veiling
Read: Begin el Guindi, Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance

April 12 (W): Is Veiling a Form of Resistance?
Read: Continue el Guindi, Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance

April 14 (F) - April 17 (M): No class, Easter Break

April 19 (W): Movie: Under One Sky: Arab Women in North America Talk about the Hijab
Read: Finish el Guindi, Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance

April 21 (F): Discussion
Writing Assignment #8 due in class

 

Case Study 5: Globalization and Asian Fashion

With more and more people, goods, and ideas circulating around the world, we are witnessing two somewhat contradictory fashion trends. First, people around the world are wearing so-called Western clothes. Second, many consumers have greater opportunity to appreciate different fashions and see the spread of the global marketplace as a chance to consume diversity, and so-called "ethnic clothing" is more popular than ever before. How can we make sense of these developments? What economic and social relationships does globalization promote? Focusing on the production and consumption of dress in Asia, we will explore the impact of globalization on different types of people and societies.

April 24 (M): The Globalization of Asian Dress
Read: Niessen, Leshkowich, and Jones, eds. Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. Introduction, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

April 26 (W): Movie, Affluenza

April 28 (F): Discussion
Writing Assignment #9 due in class

 

Conclusion: Alternatives to Consumer Society
While globalization may have different impacts on different people and places, one thing seems certain: more and more societies are becoming "consumer societies." What are the benefits and disadvantages to consumer societies? What are the alternatives? Are they desirable?

May 1 (M): The Debate about Consumer Society
Read: Twitchell, "Two Cheers for Materialism" (article)
Schor, "The Downshifter Next Door" and "Learning Diderot's Lesson" (article)

 

Diary and 3-5 page paper due on Tuesday, May 2 by 5pm in Prof. Leshkowich's office.

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu