Religion, Film & Media @ SJSU Online Fall 2016


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Class Meets Fully Online Starting August 24, 2016!

We will:

  • Identify the roles of religions & religious symbolism in film & media
  • Critically analyze themes & issues including: religion & gender, religion & culture/ethnicity/race, religion & nature, religious conflict, etc.) as defined & depicted in film & media;
  • Identify & compare both explicit & implicit meanings, messages, & interpretations
  • Evaluate the relationship between religion, film, & media in the current and shifting cultural, social, & political climate. 

Films to be studied include (among others):

Agora (2009): Pagan philosopher Hypatia & the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria during the rise of Christianity.

Even the Rain (2010): Spanish film crew shooting movie about Columbus gets caught up in modern-day indigenous uprising.

The Way (2010): A father makes peace with his son’s death and his own estrangement from Catholicism on pilgrimage in northern Spain

Malcolm X (1992): The life & death of activist Malcolm X and his conversion to Islam

Selma (2014): The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights movement, & the black church

Black Orpheus (1959): The Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice retold against the backdrop of the Brazilian Carnival

Daughters of the Dust (1991): Ancient African religious themes inform a family’s struggle to reconcile past, present, & future. (an inspiration for Beyoncé’s Lemonade!!) 🍋🍋🍋

 

 

Syllabus/Greensheet

  • [PDF to be posted]

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