| FILM AND TELEVISION | |||||
| Bachelor | TR-NQF-HE: Level 6 | QF-EHEA: First Cycle | EQF-LLL: Level 6 | ||
| Course Code | Course Name | Semester | Theoretical | Practical | Credit | ECTS |
| POL2411 | Society, Culture and Identity | Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| This catalog is for information purposes. Course status is determined by the relevant department at the beginning of semester. |
| Language of instruction: | English |
| Type of course: | Non-Departmental Elective |
| Course Level: | Bachelor’s Degree (First Cycle) |
| Mode of Delivery: | Face to face |
| Course Coordinator : | Assist. Prof. HAKAN YILMAZ |
| Course Lecturer(s): |
Assist. Prof. HAKAN YILMAZ |
| Course Objectives: | The objective of the Society, Culture, and Identity course is to provide students with a deep and critical understanding of the political and social significance of culture. Students will explore how ideas, beliefs, and preferences shape human actions and social structures, critically examining whether cultural power mirrors economic structures or operates independently to influence politics and society. The course aims to introduce key concepts such as “text,” “narrative,” “discourse,” and “myth,” offering analytical tools to understand how cultural narratives impact political thought and social organization. Through an engagement with classical and contemporary theories, including works by Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward Said, Samir Amin, Hannah Arendt, Erich Fromm, Gabriel Almond, and Ronald Inglehart, students will analyze how culture operates as a form of power in both authoritarian and democratic regimes. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically assess the role of ideology in shaping political systems, social identities, and global power relations. The interdisciplinary approach will equip students with the analytical tools to examine culture’s interaction with economy, politics, and identity formation, preparing them to challenge dominant discourses and contribute to debates on social transformation. |
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The students who have succeeded in this course; Upon completion of the course, you will possess the ability to: 1. Grasp the fundamental role of culture in shaping political and social life. You will understand how beliefs, values, and ideologies become dominant and influence individual and collective behavior.By engaging with classical and contemporary theories, you will develop a critical awareness of how cultural forces operate within power structures and shape identities. 2. Explain how different theoretical traditions—Marxist, Weberian, Gramscian, Bourdieusian, and postcolonial—analyze culture, ideology, and human subjectivity. You will articulate the distinctions between materialist and idealist perspectives on culture and evaluate the extent to which culture is autonomous or a reflection of deeper economic and political structures. 3. Demonstrate an understanding of how culture has historically been used to sustain power, both within nations and at a global level. By analyzing texts such as Orientalism and Eurocentrism, you will critically assess how Western cultural hegemony has shaped political and economic relations with the non-Western world, as well as how these narratives continue to influence contemporary geopolitics. 4.Evaluate the role of culture in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. By examining works such as Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism and Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom, you will analyze how ideological control, propaganda, and the suppression of dissent function to maintain political obedience and consolidate power in non-democratic systems. 5.Apply theories of political culture to contemporary democratic societies. You will engage with works such as Almond and Verba’s The Civic Culture and Inglehart and Welzel’s research on modernization and democracy, to assess how cultural attitudes influence democratic participation, political trust, and civic engagement in different societies. 6.Develop the skills to analyze real-world political and social issues through a cultural lens. Whether examining media discourse, social movements, or global power dynamics, you will be equipped to critically interpret how narratives, symbols, and cultural practices reinforce or challenge existing hierarchies and structures of domination. 7.Gain the intellectual and analytical tools to engage in informed discussions about the intersections of culture, identity, and power. You will be prepared to contribute to debates on nationalism, ideology, globalization, and democracy, drawing from both historical and contemporary perspectives. This will allow you to approach cultural and political issues with a critical, theoretically informed perspective in academic, professional, and civic settings. |
| The Society, Culture, and Identity course will begin by exploring the political and social significance of culture, analyzing how ideas, beliefs, and preferences shape human actions and social structures. The first section will introduce key concepts such as “text,” “narrative,” “discourse,” and “myth,” offering analytical tools to critically assess cultural narratives’ influence on political thought and social organization. Students will then delve into foundational theories examining the connections between politics and culture, engaging with influential works by Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Weber, and Pierre Bourdieu to understand how cultural power operates through ideology, hegemony, social stratification, and symbolic representation. The course will also analyze the cultural foundations of Western hegemony by studying Edward Said’s Orientalism and Samir Amin’s Eurocentrism, evaluating how Western intellectual traditions have historically constructed non-Western societies to legitimize colonial and imperial dominance. In the next section, students will investigate the role of culture in sustaining or challenging political systems in both authoritarian and democratic regimes. Key readings will include Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom, and comparative studies of democratic political cultures by Gabriel Almond, Sidney Verba, Ronald Inglehart, and Christian Welzel. The course will conclude by emphasizing culture as a site of power, contestation, and transformation, equipping students with an interdisciplinary approach to critically assess how culture interacts with economy, politics, and identity formation. By the end of the course, students will have developed the analytical tools needed to challenge dominant discourses and actively participate in debates on social and political transformation. The teaching methods of the course include "Case Study Analysis, Discussion, Individual Study, Lecture, Problem Solving and Reading." |
| Week | Subject | Related Preparation |
| 1) | Introducing the content of and the requirements for the course. | Review the syllabus. Review the lecture notes. |
| 2) | Introduction: Defining culture. Key cultural concepts such as 'text,' 'narrative,' 'discourse,' and 'myth.' | Read the handouts to be uploaded to Itslearning. Review the lecture notes. |
| 3) | Foundational Theories for Examining the Connections between Politics and Culture: Karl Marx | Read the assigned chapters from Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’ The German Ideology. Review the lecture notes. |
| 4) | Foundational Theories for Examining the Connections between Politics and Culture: Antonio Gramsci | Read the assigned chapters from Antonio Gramsci’s Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Review the lecture notes. |
| 5) | Foundational Theories for Examining the Connections between Politics and Culture: Max Weber | Read the assigned chapters from Max Weber’s Economy and Society. Review the lecture notes. |
| 6) | Foundational Theories for Examining the Connections between Politics and Culture: Pierre Bourdieu: Part I | Read the assigned chapters from Pierre Bourdieu’s Language and Symbolic Power. Review the lecture notes. |
| 7) | Foundational Theories for Examining the Connections between Politics and Culture: Pierre Bourdieu: Part II | Read the assigned chapters from Pierre Bourdieu’s Language and Symbolic Power. Review the lecture notes. |
| 8) | Midterm Exam | Exam Preparation |
| 9) | Cultural Foundations of Western Hegemony: Edward Said’s Orientalism and Samir Amin’s Eurocentrism | Read the assigned chapters from Edward Said’s Orientalism and Samir Amin’s Eurocentrism. Review the lecture notes. |
| 10) | Culture and Power in Authoritarian Regimes: Hannah Arendt | Read the assigned chapters from Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. Review the lecture notes. |
| 11) | Culture and Power in Authoritarian Regimes: Eric Fromm | Read Eric Fromm’s Escape from Freedom. Review the lecture notes. |
| 12) | Culture and Power in Democratic Regimes: Civic Culture | Read Gavriel Almond and Sidney Verba’s Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Review the lecture notes. |
| 13) | Culture and Power in Democratic Regimes: Post-Materialism | Read Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel’s “Changing Mass Priorities: The Link between Modernization and Democracy”. Review the lecture notes. |
| 14) | In-Class Essay: Examine and interpret a current political question using learned concepts and methodologies. | Read the relevant chapters of the required readings. Review the lecture notes. |
| Course Notes / Textbooks: | |
| References: | Bu dersin sınavlarda başarılı olabilmek için iki temel bilgi kaynağı gerekmektedir: 1. Dersler: Derslerde verilen bilgiler, sınavlarda başarılı olmanın önemli bir kaynağını oluşturmaktadır. 2. Zorunlu Okumalar: Dersin yapılmasından bir hafta önce, o derste ele alınacak tüm zorunlu okumalar Itslearning platformuna yüklenecektir. Öğrencilerin sınavlarda ve makalelerde en iyi sonucu alabilmeleri için ders notlarını ilgili kitap bölümleri ve makalelerle birleştirmeleri gerekmektedir. Sadece kitaplara ve makalelere güvenmek ve derslere katılmamak, sınavlarda başarılı olmak için gerekli bilgileri sağlamayacaktır. ------ Course Resources This course necessitates two essential sources of information, notably for excelling in the examinations: 1. The professor's lectures. 2. Required readings: Please ensure that you review all of the required readings in the subsequent sections of the syllabus. A week prior to a lecture, all the required readings that will be covered in that lecture will be uploaded to Itslearning. Students must integrate their lecture notes with the pertinent book chapters and articles to attain the optimal information necessary for excelling in tests and essays. Absence from lectures and reliance solely on the books and articles will not provide students with the necessary information to excel in the examinations |
| Semester Requirements | Number of Activities | Level of Contribution |
| Midterms | 1 | % 50 |
| Final | 1 | % 50 |
| Total | % 100 | |
| PERCENTAGE OF SEMESTER WORK | % 50 | |
| PERCENTAGE OF FINAL WORK | % 50 | |
| Total | % 100 | |
| Activities | Number of Activities | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
| Course Hours | 13 | 3 | 39 |
| Study Hours Out of Class | 12 | 9 | 108 |
| Midterms | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Final | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Total Workload | 151 | ||
| No Effect | 1 Lowest | 2 Low | 3 Average | 4 High | 5 Highest |
| Program Outcomes | Level of Contribution | |
| 1) | Being familiar to the main concepts and methods of the social sciences and the fine arts devoted to understanding the world and the society | 4 |
| 2) | Having comprehensive knowledge regarding different media and branches of art | 3 |
| 3) | Knowing the historical background of audio-visual moving images in the world and in Turkey and keeping pace with the new developments in the area | 1 |
| 4) | Having a good command of the language and the aesthetics of audio-visual moving images in the world and in Turkey | 1 |
| 5) | Being able to create a narrative that could be used in a fiction or a non-fiction audio-visual moving image product | 2 |
| 6) | Being able to write a script ready to be shot | 2 |
| 7) | Having the skills to produce the photoboard of a script in hand and to shoot the film using the camera, the lights and other necessary equipment | 2 |
| 8) | Being able to transfer the footage of a film to the digital medium, to edit and do other post-production operations | 2 |
| 9) | Being able to create a documentary audio visual moving image from the preliminary sketch stage to shooting, editing and post-production stages | 2 |
| 10) | Being able to produce an audio visual moving image for television and audio products for radio from preliminary stages through shooting and editing to the post-production stage | 2 |
| 11) | Being culturally and theoretically equipped to make sense of an audio-visual moving image, to approach it critically with regard to its language and narration and being able to express his/her approach in black and white | 3 |
| 12) | Having ethical values and a sense of social responsibility | 5 |