CATHOLICISM AND POPULAR CULTURE

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the ways that Catholicism and Catholic figures have entered into the public sphere and influenced particular discourses. Depending on the topic, this influence can range from the subtle shaping of the popular imagination to impassioned participation in public controversies. Students will employ communication, media, and/or rhetorical frameworks to analyze these discourses as they unfold across a variety of media, which may include speeches, debates, interviews, essays, new s articles, novels (fiction, non -fiction, graphic), campaigns (political, advertising, social media), television shows, and/or films. Possible topics include Discourses of Faith and Reason, Visions of Utopia and Dystopia, Catholic Controversialists, Cathol icism in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Imagining the (Post) Apocalypse, etc.