Courses > 2008 Spring

Electives

CINE 231 - Anthropology and the Cinema

ANTH 231
401 | TR 10:30am-12pm | MUSE B17

While it has traditionally studied the expressive behaviors of many other cultures around the globe, American anthropology has rarely used its tools of cultural analysis to look its own storytelling, especially as seen in mass-market Hollywood movies. This course will apply textual and contextual analysis, cross-cultural comparisons, mythological and symbolic approaches, and cognitive, linguistic and discourse analysis to look at the form, content and effects of popular movies. This semester, the last segment of the course will focus on movies about baseball and will consider issues of national identity, play and games, and baseball as myth and magic. Baseball films considered will include The Natural, Fields of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, Eight Men Out, The Rookie, Angels in the Outfield, and The Jackie Robinson Story.