ANTH 308 – Television Storytelling: The Conditions of Narrative Complexity

This course examines the industrial and cultural conditions for the development of relatively complex forms of storytelling in commercial U.S. television. Narrative complexity is a cross-generic phenomenon that emerged over the 1980s and has proliferated within an increasingly fragmented media environment. In class discussions and individual research projects, students will analyze particular programs in-depth, with attention to their industrial and social conditions of production, their aesthetic and ideological appeals, and the cultural tastes and viewing practices they reflect and promote. We will also consider how television studies has responded and contributed to the increased prestige of certain types of programs.