Worldmaking
You feed the worlds you pay attention to
A world is a human reality, in the sense that we can talk about the world of a dairy farmer, or the world of a Hell’s Angel, or the world of a combat officer in Iraq or the world of a student at Polson High School.
All human worlds are shaped by communication. A tribe of Scottish Highlanders singing songs about their battles around a fire at night created one kind of world that was quite different from the world created by Jesuit Missionaries praying and conducting a mass around their evening fire.
Modern worlds are often powerfully shaped by mass media. A person who listens to hip hop and watches MTV much of the day lives in a different reality than someone who hums church hymns to himself or herself and reads scripture during free time.
In a world where we have many choices, we can think of various worlds as competing for our attention. Worlds that get a lot of attention become larger and more powerful. Worlds that get less attention fade away and disappear. If this is true, then you “feed” various worlds by paying attention to them. You are a partner in the worldmaking that goes on without pause around us.
We will study media by asking what worlds various songs and movies and advertisements and publications would create, who is trying to create those worlds, and why they want to create them. We will also look at the techniques mass communicators use to get your attention and to persuade you to enter into their world.
We will begin with stories.
Much mass media relies on story more than on exposition or reasoning. Be able to discuss the differences between narrative (story) and exposition (explaining).
Movies are an unusually powerful storytelling medium, combining techniques from the arts of poetry, music, theater and dance, painting and architecture. Be able to discuss how techniques from each of these arts are used in Casablanca.
Be able to discuss the basics of story:
- character
- desire
- complications
- actions
- resolution
- theme
Be able to discuss what the main characters in Casablanca desire, what obstacles they face, what actions they take, what happens, and what that resolution shows about the world they live in.
After we watch Casablanca, you will work in teams to create slide shows that teach others what you have learned. Pick a symbols or motif and explain how it is used in the film. How is it illustrated? When do we see it or hear about it? What does it mean to the characters? Consider these: the idea of neutrality, the inescapability of the past, the role of luck in our lives, the meaning of travel and exile, the dream of America, the spotlight, the piano, the plane to Lisbon.
Themes and Motifs in Casablanca