LS 697 - Reading Television

(3.00 cr.)

This course contends that, while television is primarily a visual and oral medium, anything like an adequate appreciation of its pervasive contributions to American culture requires something much more akin to mastering a unique and comprehensive literacy. Students learn how to "read" television by viewing a handful of exceptional seasons of highly successful television series and placing them in social, historical, generic, aesthetic, and theoretical contexts. Possible series include: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Dallas, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, 24, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, and Deadwood.