ANT 295-04 - Special Topic: Are You Not Entertained? The Anthropology and Semiotics of “Fun”

4 credits (Spring)

This seminar in linguistic anthropology follows a range of genres through kindred 19th-21st century culture industries. Sharpening tools to analyze performance and the self, affect and emotion, discourse and ideology, we will consider entertainment’s dynamic relationships to politics. We take seriously the questions of critics: Do seemingly lighthearted institutions and techno-gadgets amplify extractive capitalism’s continued transnational primacy through their capacity to distract? Are pressing social problems including gross wealth imbalance and punitive policing often ignored in favor of 24/7 streaming amusement? Ethnographic and semiotic attention to audiences and entertainers’ own reflections on their crafts will add moral complexity to discussion. This course fulfills the Linguistic Anthropology subfield requirement.

Prerequisite: ANT 104 or LIN 114 .
Instructor: Kohl