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CS92PROD
Narrative and Ideology

COL 249
Fall 2017
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: ENGL 247
Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory

When ballads were popular songs that told stories, Andrew Fletcher (1655--1716) emphasized the importance of controlling dominant narratives: "If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation." Nowadays, stories take various forms, among them cinematic, and they circulate and are consumed in vast quantities. People make stories, and the consumption of those stories, in turn, "makes" people, helping to construct individual subjectivity and collective discourse. How do narratives function as the vehicles for both overt and covert ideologies? How do stories change as they become such vehicles, and how do ideologies change when they are embedded in stories? This course pursues these questions through the analysis of the narrative structure of post-1980 American films, supplemental by reading some film theory. It combines short lectures (mainly in the first few weeks) with much discussion.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL)(ENGL-Literature)(FILM-MN)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on NOV-03-2024
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