MEDS 235 - Introduction to German Cultural Studies

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as GERM 235) Topic for 2022/23a: Toy Stories: Histories, Narratives, and Theories of Toys and Play. This course explores the development of the modern toy industry, beginning with the rise of mass-produced toys in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We examine the history of a range of iconic toys and games—for instance, Lego blocks, Barbie dolls, and Monopoly—within the wider discursive context that helps give them meaning. This includes not only advertisements, but also literary and cinematic texts ranging from the fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nutcracker and the King of Mice, to the Toy Story series and recent Lego films. We ask how toys and games propagate norms such as those of gender and ethnicity, and how narratives about toys and play promote but also subvert such values. Of special concern is the discovery and development in both literary and psychological texts of the concept of imaginative or make-believe play, and the ways in which toy makers lay claim to promoting this kind of play. In addition to analytic essays, assignments include drafting a concept for a new toy or board game. Readings and discussions in English. Elliott Schreiber.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS