PARANOIA AND POP CULTURE

Catalog description

Open only to juniors and seniors.From mainstream films like The Manchurian Candidate and JFK to TV series like The X-Files, popular culture in the US has been filled with themes of conspiracy and paranoia. Film makers and writers have given expression to widespread suspicions that forces "out there" are determined to take us over, while we are never told "What is really going on" In this class, students will examine the causes and representations of these fears and obsessions as they appear in contemporary literature, film, and television. Class discussions and writing assignments will focus on precisely how writers and artists re-create conspiracy theories and just how much such theories permeate our everyday lives and cultural worldview.