Are puzzles just playful artefacts, intended merely to entertain? Or are they mirrors of something much more fundamental in human life? The course will take a close look at what puzzles tell us about the human mind and human culture. Students will analyze the diverse motivational factors behind excursions and expeditions, and apply a critique to written accounts in light of such factors as self-discovery, knowledge and imagination, Eurocentrism, orientalism, cultural relativism, colonialism/imperialism, race, gender, and eco-tourism. The focus is on the exchange between film, fiction, and ‘fact’, and on how the values and concerns of the present shape creative recreations of the past in popular culture.
Are puzzles just playful artefacts, intended merely to entertain? Or are they mirrors of something much more fundamental in human life? The course will take a close look at what puzzles tell us about the human mind and human culture. Students will analyze the diverse motivational factors behind excursions and expeditions, and apply a critique to written accounts in light of such factors as self-discovery, knowledge and imagination, Eurocentrism, orientalism, cultural relativism, colonialism/imperialism, race, gender, and eco-tourism. The focus is on the exchange between film, fiction, and ‘fact’, and on how the values and concerns of the present shape creative recreations of the past in popular culture.
