Course code

HIK6331.HT

old course code

Course title in Estonian

Kultuuriteooria

Course title in English

Cultural Theory

ECTS credits

6.0

Assessment form

Examination

lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester

Lauri Linask (language of instruction:Estonian)

lecturer of 2024/2025 Spring semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

Course aims

The course presents various ways of defining, studying, and understanding culture. It deals with various points of contact between disciplines studying culture, and the historic development of cultural theories. Various points of views on culture provide a gateway and the context for a deeper understanding of the theory, analysis and discussion of culture and cultural topics.

Brief description of the course

The course will give an overview of varios approaches and contexts for defining and understanding culture (culture and environment, culture and society, culture and thinking, culture and communication etc.). Comparative overview of main disciplines studying culture (cultural anthropology, cultural studies, semiotics of culture, cultural pschology, cultural sociology, cultural philosophy etc.) will be given. Main terms of cultural theory will be discussed (language, communication, memory, identity, text etc.).

The course will deal with the following topics:
- the area and task of study for cultural theory;
- genesis of thinking in cultural theory;
- cultural determinism and universalism;
- cultural theory and cultural criticism;
- ways of defining culture;
- ways of studying culture;
- outcomes of cultural theory;
- main terms for understanding various cultural communities;
- cultural areas;
- culture and practice.

Students are expected to work through mandatory literature, write midterm essaus and prepare for exams using mandatory and supplementary literature.

Learning outcomes in the course

Upon completing the course the student:
- understands basic terms in cultural theory and its main methods of study, knows the more important disciplines that study culture and their main lines of thinking;
- knows the central authors in cultural theory and is able to differentiate between their basic ideas comparatively;
- is able to critically read texts about cultural theory, to debate their basic claims and to contextualize them;
- knows how to analyze culture in its basic characteristics and compare various definitions of culture;
- understands the methodological bases of cultural theories and qualitative methods of study;
- knows how to delimit objects of cultural study.

Teacher

Lauri Linask

Study programmes containing that course

Choreography (KUKRB/24.FK)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/24.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/23.HT)
Choreography (KUKRB/22.FK)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/22.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/21.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/20.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/19.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/18.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/17.HT)
Theory of Culture (HIKTB/16.HT)