Anthropology 255 - Modernity's Media

(Offered as ANTH 255 and ASLC 255)  This course on modernity and media starts from the premise that modernity today is a global experience. Most societies possess the means to produce their own versions of the modern, Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge have argued. In this course, we will collectively study popular culture in South Asia--a staggeringly complex cultural entity--with an eye towards understanding changing forms of subjectivity, enjoyment, agency, and bodily experience. These are all areas that have been shaped by the experience of modernity. While rethinking the predominantly European notion of the modern, we will study how mass media and public culture in South Asia help us reflect on processes of nationalism, globalization, inequality, and economic liberalization. We will discuss film, advertising, public space, and popular art to make sense of the region’s postcolonial public life.

Limited to 25 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Chowdhury.