Duke University Offers Course In ‘The O.C.’

College classes based on TV shows aren’t a new thing, as series such as ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘The Wire’ have made their way into course catalogs.

Thanks to Duke University, the latest show to make the lecture hall is ‘The O.C,’ the popular teen drama that ran between 2003 and 2007.

Josh Schwartz, the show’s creator, proudly tweeted out a photo of the syllabus of “California Here We Come, The O.C. & Self-Aware Culture of 21st Century America.” “This is a class taught at Duke! Think I could pass,” he wrote in the picture’s caption. (Read a course description below.)

59.03 “California Here We Come” The O.C. & Self-Aware Culture of 21st Century America

“Everybody is hyper self-aware. We live in a post-everything universe.”
-Josh Schwartz, executive producer of The O.C. and Gossip Girl

If Josh Schwartz is correct in saying that we live in a post-everything universe, a post-postmodern world, how do you innovate? You do it with a nerdy, comic book reading, plastic horse loving, half-Jewish sailor with a keen taste in music named Seth Ezekiel Cohen. Seth inhabits the land of Southern California, where cardio barre, yogalates, and rehab are not so much vernacular as they are facets of quotidian Orange County life.

“Welcome to the OC, [expletive]. This is how it’s done in Orange County.” Welcome to a world where popular culture is turned on itself, where alcoholism is as normal as high school, where Death Cab for Cutie went “mainstream” and liked it, where guns, sex, social awkwardness, cage fighting, and rage blackouts can’t tear apart the fantastic foursome of characters that rules like the royal family. (Everyone on the show is related in some way or another by the end of 2007). We’ll explore the “hyper self-awareness” unique to The O.C. and analyze Californian exceptionalism and singularity in history and popular culture, girl culture, 21st century suburban revivalism, the indie music scene, the meta-series, and more. We’ll go on the excessive journey of the foursome that captured the hearts of millions and changed teen television dramady forever. Get out your surfboards (or skateboards, if you’re more a land shark).

California, here we come.

Don’t get settled in Newport Beach though. We’ll also travel south to Laguna Beach, behind the gates of Orange County’s private neighborhoods of the Real Housewives, up to The Hills of LA, to get like, really real, and finally to New York City for a serene(a) ride to get out of the bla(i)ring sun.

You know you’ll love it, xoxo Your Instructors.”

Post-postmodernism. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the questions is will the course feature a class on the mystery of Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows? And will Mischa Barton guest lecture? Lord knows she could use the work.

Source: Duke University Offers Course In ‘The O.C.’