COCO 28 History of Attention
The course will trace a broad outline of the social and cultural history of human attention. We will begin by establishing a firm foundational understanding of attention as a neuroscientific and cognitive phenomenon. We will then proceed to attention in preliterate societies (hunter-gatherers’ attention, attentional strategies in oral literary genres, such as the epic narrative); modern forms of attention in literature, music, pictorial art, and film; attention in the context of religious and spiritual practices; and finally, the current state of attention, including the social and political implications of the generalized ‘attention deficit disorder’ induced by the media and the internet.
Cross Listed Courses
RUSS 38.12