PLAN DE COURS MIDDLE EASTERN CINEMA AND POLITICS Teacher: Diana Gonzalez-Duclert, PhD/Docteure en sociologie Academic Year 2017/2018: Fall semester COURSE SESSION Week 1: Introduction to Middle Eastern cinema, politics and film analysis I. Presentation of films and thematic organization II. Geography and basic political and social themes in Middle East studies • Access to films for the class will also be discussed… Kamrava, Mehran. The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War. 2nd ed. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2011. (Introduction, pp.1-6; Chapter 10, “The Question of Democracy,” pp. 345-355). • Access to films for the class will also be discussed… Week 2 I. Reflections on national cinema, aesthetics and film interpretation II. Basic principles of film analysis: Mise-en scène, narrative, framing, lighting, camera movement and editing (with film excerpts) Readings: • SHAFIK Viola. Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity, Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press, 2000 (not required reading, but pages will be provided for better understanding of the lecture) • Bordwell, David and Kristen Thompson. Film Art: an Introduction, 5th edition. New York: McGraw Hill Co., Inc., 1997 (pp. 169-183, 226-227, 236-263) Week 3: Power, Religion and Oppression 1: Fundamentalism and intellectual freedom Destiny (El-Maseer) (Youssif Chahine, Egypt, 1997) 10.07.2017 1 PLAN DE COURS Readings: • Chahine, Youssef, Joseph Massad. “Art and Politics in the Cinema of Youssef Chahine,” in Journal of Palestine Studes, Vol. 28, No. 2, Winter 1999, pp. 77-93. Haut du formulaire Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/253793 • Berman, Sheri. “Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society” in Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 257-272. Published by: American Political Science Association. Article Stable URL: https://acces-distant.sciences-po.fr:443/http/www.jstor.org/stable/3688899 Short quiz on film vocabulary (from Bordwell and Thompson’s text and glossary) Week 4: Power, Religion and Oppression 2: Women, sexuality and oppression Dunia: Kiss Me not on the Eyes (Jocelyne Saab, Egypt/Lebanon, 2006) Kadosh (Amos Gitai, Israel, 1999) (No readings this week) Week 5: Question of Territory, internal conflict and war: Lebanon West Beirut (Ziad Doueiri, Lebanon, 1998) Readings: • Denney, Julie and Martha Wenger, “Lebanon's Fifteen-Year War 1975-1990” in Middle East Report, No. 162, Lebanon's War (Jan. - Feb., 1990), pp. 23-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3013281. • Lina Khatib, Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond, New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2008 (pgs. xvii-xxv). Week 6: Question of Territory, war and memory: Lebanon and Israel Lebanon (Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009) Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008) Readings: • Reilly, James A. « Israel in Lebanon, 1975-82 » MERIP Reports, No. 108/109, The Lebanon War (Sep. - Oct., 1982), pp. 14-20. • Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992 (pp. 37-40; 46-51). 10.07.2017 2 PLAN DE COURS Week 7: Territory, cultural identity, violence and internal political conflict: Palestinian and Israeli Conflict Wedding in Galilée (Michel Khleifi, Palestine, 1987) Reading: • Khleifi, Michel. “From Reality to Fiction – From Poverty to Expression, in Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema. Ed., Hamid Dabashi. London and New York: Verso, 2006 (pp. 45-57). • Paradise Now (Hany-Abu-Assad, 2004) Reading: • Bozarslan, Hamit. Violence in the Middle East: From Political Struggle to Self-Sacrifice. Princeton: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 2004 (pp. 126-141; 160-161) Week 8: ORAL PRESENTATIONS Week 9: The case of Turkey 1: State violence and minorities Yol (Yilmaz Güney, Turkey, 1982) Readings: • Bozarslan, Hamit. “Kurds and the Turkish State,” in R. Kasaba (ed.), Cambridge History of Modern Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 333-356. Continuation of last 2 groups for oral presentation Week 10: The Case of Turkey 2: Society, Modernism and State – Towards the Upheavals of Spring 2013 Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2009) Readings:Haut du formulaire • Patton, Marcie J. “Turkey's Tug of War” in Middle East Report , No. 239, Dispatches from the War Zones: Iraq and Afghanistan (Summer, 2006), pp. 42-47. Published by: Middle East Research and Information Project. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25164731 • Interview with filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/06/nuri-bilge- ceylan-interview-transcript Three Monkeys may be replaced by either Once Upon a Time in Anatolia or Winter Sleep (TBA) 10.07.2017 3 PLAN DE COURS Week 11: Syrian Cinema: Poetics vs. Politics The Night (Mohamed Malas, Syria, 1992) Reading: To be announced Week 12: Iranian Cinema: National cinema vs. globalization of aesthetics The Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2011) Reading: • Dabashi, Hamid. “Masters and Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema,” Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 2007, (“Introduction,” pp. 11-36). FINAL PAPER DUE 10.07.2017 4 .