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This lecture course introduces students to some of the major critical approaches associated with the interdisciplinary field of “cultural studies,” with a particular emphasis on how that field has reshaped our understanding of popular fiction. Cultural studies draws on a variety of disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, film and media studies, but the primary focus here will be on the ways in which it intersects with literary studies and helps us better understand (for example) distinctions between “high” and “low” or “middlebrow” literary production, and the often disavowed relations between literature and the marketplace. The course proceeds chronologically, charting changing conceptions of popular fiction—and, more broadly, popular culture—in (for the most part) Britain and North America from the nineteenth century to the present. The course will be organized into seven sub-units, each focused on a particular sub-genre of popular fiction (e.g., mystery, horror, romance).