Topics: Entertaining America's Children

Catalog description

From Huck's raft to Andy' s room, entertainment for children in America has sought both to delight and to inculcate particular sets of values-and this course will emphasize the ongoing balance between the amusing and the didactic. The class will examine both content and the evolution of form, considering paperback books and the transformation of publishing, the evolution of eel animation, and the digital software revolution. Emphasis of the class will be on popular culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among topics to be discussed: L. Frank Baum, the Oz phenomenon both in print and on screen, and the creation of a particularly American children's literature; Walt Disney, animated anthropomorphism, and the social conservatism of the classic Disney features ; the contrast with the more surrealist house style at Warner Bros.; the reimagination of the amusement park, from carny to family vacation spot; vertical integration and its centrality to corporate culture - off the screen and onto the lunch boxes and bed sheets; multiculturalism, including Song of the South, its production and reception, and attempts to write it out of history; and the notions of universal preschool and kindergarten, and the Children's Television Workshop ; the influence of focus groups on children's entertainment -or, how Steve graduates from Blue's house and goes to college; Pixar as digital pioneer and heir to the Hollywood studio tradition. Restrictions/Requirements:Fulfills 3 credits in Western Heritage (Area of Knowledge II) or 3 credits in Humanistic & Creative Expression (Area of Knowledge IV).