ENGL 111(F) Thinking and Writing about Television+
Has Friends changed your life? Do you know more about Monica Lewinsky than you thought you needed to? Would you rather watch the Weather Channel than look out the window? This course begins from the assumption that television is a major shaping force for culture, politics, and society in the late-twentieth century, and thus deserves our notice and our considered engagement. It offers the student a chance to examine, in a critical context, his or her own relation (deep love? intense loathing? sheer boredom?) to the Tube in all its forms: the soap, the sitcom, the made-for-TV movie, the documentary, 24-hour music and news channels, the infomercial, and so on. Special attention will be paid to the way in which television's modes of address and technologies of representation constitute and transform race, gender, and class identities in the U.S. Students will be required to do assignments "in the field," which will involve viewing broadcasts and researching current writing (journalistic and scholarly) about television; we will use this writing as a model for our own forays into the growing field of television criticism. Requirements: access to cable television, active participation in discussion, and 15-20 pages of writing in the form of short papers. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 19. Two sections.