Communication 394RI - Race, Gender and the Sitcom

Fall
2015
01
3.00
Demetria Shabazz;Siyuan Yin
TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
UMass Amherst
33274
This course examines the situation comedy from sociological and artistic perspectives. We will seek, first of all, to understand how situation-comedy is a rich and dynamic meaning-producing genre within the medium of television. Secondly we will work to dissect narrative structures, and the genre's uses of mise-en-scene, cinematography/ videography, editing, and sound to create specific images of the family through social constructions of race, class, and gender. In addition we will use various critical methods such as semiotics, genre study, ideological criticism, cultural studies, and so on to interrogate why the sitcom form since its inception in the 1950s has remained one of the most popular genres for audiences and industry personnel alike and assess what the genre might offer us in terms of a larger commentary on notions of difference and identity in the US and beyond.
Satisfies the IE require for BA-Comm majors.
Open to Senior and Junior Communication majors only. This course was formally numbered COMM 397NN.
If you have already taken COMM 39NN you cannot take this course.
This course is an IE(Integrative Experience ) course.
Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.