Media, Animation, and the Semiotic Construction of Social Life

Undergraduate / Graduate

Human beings have constituted other objects as possessing some kind of vitality, from the fetish objects that early colonial authorities found among African societies to fictional characters that seem to have lives of their own. This course investigates the construction of such figures in contemporary social worlds, understanding said worlds as composed not only of humans but also their creations. What do robots and AI chatbots have to tell us about people's desire for intimacy, and how do entities like corporations come to be seen as having forms of personhood in contemporary legal formations? The course draws on social theory and contemporary anthropology of media and religion to address these questions. Students will learn how to apply this literature to develop insights about the analysis of social worlds.