MDST3559: Media Franchises – Star Wars
Professor Sean Duncan (sean.duncan@virginia.edu)
Meets 12:30pm-1:45pm on T/R in 368 New Cabell Hall
In this new course, we seek to explore media franchises, as cultural, social, and economic phenomena that cut across multiple media (films, television/streaming series, novels, games, comic books, theme parks, toys, etc). Focusing on a single media franchise per semester, this course uses a dedicated example to explore the multiple textual, ethnographic, cultural, and industrial/creative labor approaches to understanding the dynamics of media franchises.
For this inaugural section, we will focus on the Star Wars franchise.
As it nears its 50th anniversary, Star Wars is still an enormously impactful and perhaps surprisingly controversial media franchise. Upon its original release in 1977, Star Wars became a global cultural phenomenon, changing the industrial logics of Hollywood blockbusters while creating an “expanded universe” of ancillary “paratexts” around the franchise. These, ranging from novels to games to lunch boxes, will be an equal focus to the twelve films in the series, as we take on an expansive look at how media franchises evolve over time. Students will be provided a limited number of these films to screen, and will be encouraged to maintain an active Disney+ account throughout the term to facilitate further exploration of the franchise.
Other than this, there will be no required texts for students to purchase. Our primary texts will be:
… all of which will be available in electronic form via the UVA University libraries. We will augment these readings with selected scholarly papers, popular press writing about Star Wars, and even engagement in ongoing online debates around the franchise. These PDFs will be linked up in the course syllabus and/or posted to the course Canvas page.
As this is a media studies seminar, there will be no exams in this course — all assessment will be in the form of written papers and in-class presentations. Students will work toward a long-form written paper (or potentially a video essay) that allows them to explore media franchising scholarship and a topic of their own interest. Active, engaged participation throughout the term will be a requirement for success in the course.
Students will be regularly tasked with leading class discussions or presenting on brief out-of-class experiences with parts of the Star Wars franchise, which is frankly enormous at this point. That’s a good thing! Students will have a wealth of options on what to bring in to class discussions. These may include everything from Disney+ streaming series like The Mandalorian or The Acolyte to High Republic comic book series to the Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor video games. Students will also be encouraged to dig into fan films (everything from Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars through Troops, Chad Vader, and beyond), cosplay communities, and even fan community/charity work (e.g., the 501st Legion). Regardless of one’s interest in Star Wars, each student will have a great deal of latitude to explore media franchises from directions and in ways that interest them.
Additionally, we should note that Star Wars has not been a friendly space for all people, and we discuss multiple scholarly works that attempt to understand how and why Star Wars has become a space of harassment. We will not shy away from challenging contentious and sometimes overtly racist and homophobic fan cultures around Star Wars, as well as connecting these media-related “culture wars” to other, recent moments of fan contention. We will engage in discussions around the evolution of this franchise from its earliest conceptions through the present day, meaning we will, to some extent, dive into critical discussions of Disney, the owner of the Star Wars intellectual property since 2012.
Hopefully, it’s obvious that this is a critical media studies course — while some courses have attempted to tackle the bigger “meaning” of the Star Wars story from religious and political directions, our goal is different. We will look at Star Wars as an opportunity to investigate a large social and economic media phenomenon, and develop understandings of how franchises change over time. Absolutely no familiarity with the franchise is required to enroll in the course — the course is designed for students who have no experience with Star Wars and related media. Conversely, students very familiar with or invested in the franchise will be expected to move past their fandom and to deepen their preexisting understandings of it through critical engagement with media franchising scholarship.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email Dr. Duncan at sean [dot] duncan [at] virginia.edu.