Indian Popular Culture

ABOUT THE COURSE: The proposed course will facilitate students to interpret and develop theoretical understanding of Indian popular culture. The course will cover topics such as Indian Popular Culture and its history, comics and graphic narratives, rise of OTT platforms, visual narratives: films, series, and advertisements. It will also familiarize students with the interrelations between resistance, protests and their engagements with social media and popular culture.INTENDED AUDIENCE: Undergraduate students of any disciplineINDUSTRY SUPPORT: Cultural Studies and Social Science Institutions

Week 1: Introduction to Popular Culture: History and Early Developments,High Culture and Low Culture, Subcultures, Mass Culture, Counterculture

Week 2:History of Indian Popular Culture: Genealogy, Iconography, Print Culture

Week 3:Comic and Graphic Narratives: Graphic and Comic History, Graphic on and as Cultural Margins, Activism through Comics

Week 4:Visual Narrative (Films): Emergence of Indian Cinema, From Silent to Contemporary, Celebrity culture and its shift from Stars to Influencers

Week 5:Visual Narrative (Advertisement): Campaigning, Political influence of brands, Constructing the Indian Consumer, Everyday Nationalism and Indianness through advertisements

Week 6:Visual Narrative (Series): Tracing the evolution, Telefilms, Soaps to Series,Changing Dynamics - Benevolent Sexism

Week 7:Rise of the OTT Platforms: Shifts, Art vs Content, Is there something called Artistic Economy?

Week 8:Resistance and Social Media/ Change: Understanding Hobbes and Marx, Cybercultures, changing face of Activism/ Protest