Cinema and Media Studies Courses
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CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES COURSES AY 2016 - 2017 Autumn 2016 C LIT 520 Methods & Issues in Cinema J. Bean Studies This course is designed to give graduate students a basic grounding in the theory, history and criticism of cinema and media studies, and introduce them to central debates, topics, and methods in the field. The central objectives of the course include familiarizing class participants with the: *theories most germane to film and media critics since the early 20th century *methods and problems of textual analysis and interpretation of films *representative cannon of films and related media texts from diverse historical periods *historical and cultural paradigms as they relate to film and media studies (mass culture/modernity/nationalism/etc.) *pedagogical techniques specific to film and media studies To achieve these goals, all class members will offer a 20-minute “pedagogical presentation” during the quarter in order to practice teaching film analysis; class members also will write several responses to reading materials and to films in order to facilitate weekly seminar discussions, and will participate in a “course conference” at the end of the quarter to practice techniques for professional panel presentations. C LIT 597 Special Topics in Cinema and Sinophone Culture in the Y. Braester Media Studies Eighties The 1980s marked a transitional and transformative period in Sinophone culture. The seminar explores major discursive shifts, including: - The changing definitions of culture and realignement of intellectuals vis-à-vis popular culture. - The reassessment of past cultural events, at the end of Mao and Chiang dictatorships and in anticipation of the Hong Kong handover. - The reintroduction of the PRRC as a key player in the Sinophone sphere and subsequent responses. - Trends in film culture: the rise of the Fourth and Fifth generations, New Taiwan Cinema and “the death of New Cinema”, the Hong Kong New Wave In addition, the seminar will address methodological questions about the cross-cultural historical study and the influence of our present perspective, as the generation born in the 1980s is dominating the cultural scene. Winter 2017 CMS Special L. Mercer 597 Topics in Cinema and Media Studies This course examines the construction of the Spanish nation in the context of cinematic production stretching from the silent era to the present day. We will interrogate common assumptions regarding Spain’s uneven experience of modernity, at the same time as we consider and complicate the canonical periodization of Spanish cinema. Topics will include: “Las dos Españas, or the two Spains; childhood and the Franco dictatorship; the decadence of machismo; the culture of crisis; and Spanish responses to immigration and globalization. CMS Special Film and the S. Mahadevan 597 Topics in Photographic Cinema Imaginary and Media Studies This cross-disciplinary seminar introduces students to the theories, histories and creative practices that link film and photography. To what extent has the photographic imaginary influenced portraiture, reenactments, or the tableau in the cinema? In what instances have the overlaps between film and photography informed visual ethnography? Is the opposition between stillness and movement obsolete in the digital era? What other ontologies of the moving and still image can be found in non-Western contexts? Readings will be drawn from three areas: historical studies of the two media, film and photography theory, and the ethics and the politics of representation. Among others, we will read Marta Braun, Serge Gruzinsky, Seigfried Kracauer, Catherine Russell, and WJT Mitchell. We will watch films by Atom Egoyan, Agnes Varda, Michelangelo Antonioni, Errol Morris, among others, as well as artists working across film and photography. Spring 2017 CMS 597 Special Topics in Cinema and Classical Hollywood Cinema J. Tweedie Media Studies CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES COURSES AY 2015 - 2016 Autumn 2015 C LIT 520 Methods & Issues in Cinema J. Bean Studies This course is designed to give graduate students a basic grounding in the theory, history and criticism of cinema and media studies, and introduce them to central debates, topics, and methods in the field. The central objectives of the course include familiarizing class participants with the: *theories most germane to film and media critics since the early 20th century *methods and problems of textual analysis and interpretation of films *representative cannon of films and related media texts from diverse historical periods *historical and cultural paradigms as they relate to film and media studies (mass culture/modernity/nationalism/etc.) *pedagogical techniques specific to film and media studies To achieve these goals, all class members will offer a 20-minute “pedagogical presentation” during the quarter in order to practice teaching film analysis; class members also will write several responses to reading materials and to films in order to facilitate weekly seminar discussions, and will participate in a “course conference” at the end of the quarter to practice techniques for professional panel presentations. C LIT 597 Special Topics in Cinema and Y. Braester Media Studies Winter 2016 Spring 2016 C LIT 597 Special Studies in Cinema & Comparative Film Studies S. Mahadevan Media This course offers an introduction to comparative film studies as a project and approach to film and media history, theory and aesthetics. The global circulation of cinema from its earliest days has sustained an interest in cinema's broad currency in diverse locations. We will survey these transnationally oriented discussions. We also wish to go further in this course. Do cinemas need to be connected through geography or history to be comparable? What about comparisons across vast stretches of time? Or across media and performance spaces? Comparative perspectives can prioritize similar causal processes; identify historical and social connections that may not have been readily apparent; discover contingencies and differences in ostensibly similar cases; and question ontological sureties about a medium. Topic considered include: - the staggered historical emergence of the cinema in various parts of the world, and its relevance for comparative film history. - The encounters between various stylistic movements such as Italian neo-realism and the left cultural avant-garde in India; or the French New Wave and the New Waves of the cinemas of East Asia. - The emergence of a Third Cinema across Latin America as an aesthetics of resistance. - the transnational forces that shape conceptions of national cinema, such as piracy, or "art cinema" as a global commodity, or auteurism as a mode of film production. - the functions of modes of representation and dramaturgy such as realism and melodrama in various locations. We will read texts drawn from film studies (focusing for instance on film history, genre theory, national cinema paradigms, close textual analysis). Readings will also more generally be drawn from comparative history, globalization theory, literary theory and art history. Some familiarity with film vocabulary and analysis would be helpful but not essential. Students should expect to watch at least two movies a week. Films cover the gamut, from the popular cinemas of Hollywood and Bollywood to art cinemas to experimental and avant-garde impulses. Interdisciplinary engagement is welcome! Assignments will include weekly reading summaries and a final research paper. CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES COURSES AY 2014 - 2015 Autumn 2014 C LIT 497 Special Topics in Disability in Russian Cinema J. Alaniz Cinema Studies DISABILITY IN FILM What is “disability”? What is “health”? What is “normal”? What is a “body”? The course will first examine how these questions have historically been answered in American culture. We will discuss And critique disability theory, the disability rights and movements and the representation of the disabled. Armed with these “western” concepts and insights, we then turn our attention to Russia and its cultural productions involving diability (i.e., works about the disabled or made by disabled artists), focusing on 19th and 20th century literature/art. Among our topics: The grotesque, the “holy fool”, the “cult of suffering.” What role have paganism, orthodox Christianity, nationalism, communism and World War II played in Russia’s answers to our initial questions? WE conclude with a consideration of the disabled in late/post-Soviet Russia. C LIT 520 Methods & Issues in Cinema J. Tweedie Studies This course is designed to give graduate students a basic grounding in the theory, history and criticism of cinema and media studies, and introduce them to central debates, topics, and methods in the field. The central objectives of the course include familiarizing class participants with the: *theories most germane to film and media critics since the early 20th century *methods and problems of textual analysis and interpretation of films *representative cannon of films and related media texts from diverse historical periods *historical and cultural paradigms as they relate to film and media studies (mass culture/modernity/nationalism/etc.) C LIT 596 Special Studies in Comp Lit Eco-cinema: Documenting J. Bean Modern Culture in Theory & Practice The catastrophic effects of modern culture on our bodies and the environment have become the subject of a 21st century film and media movement ranging from Showtime sponsored television programs to independent filmmakers who take their own bodies