- Brainstorm lists, write journal notes on uses, functions, pleasures of entertainment industries. (EIs) Written responses to the follow prompts required.
- Brainstorm, list the varied functions/pleasures you associate with the EIs.
- Brainstorm, list all industries (in the broadest sense) to classify as part of the EIs.
- Discuss some of the industries to which you have a regular connection: uses, pleasures, functions served, costs, concerns, things you might question or change.
- What are some ways — plus and minus — in which these industries/uses may impact social relationships?
- Regular entertainment activities (leisure, fun, play, information, socializing, what else?) that operate independently of the EIs?
- Following our discussion on the role of play and the carnivalesque as basic human imperatives, any trends you observe in popular culture that come from the grassroots, from the bottom up rather than top-down from corporations?
- Stallybrass and White From Carnival to Transgression theorize the carnivelsque as a mode of understanding that expresses certain tensions and a critical perspective on the “order of things.” What are example of the carnivalesque in media, popular culture, the entertainment industries, and everyday life? If you cite an example you think would be purposeful to discuss in class, post it on the course FB page.