Film Studies 351 - SEM:FILM THEORY

This upper-level seminar explores central currents in film theory in a historical framework. Among the ideas, movements and concepts we examine are formalist, realist, structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist and poststructuralist theories, as well as auteur, genre, queer and cultural studies approaches to questions regarding the nature, function and possibilities of cinema. We also consider how new media and new media theories relate to our experience in film and film theory. We understand film theory readings through the sociocultural context in which they were and are developed. We also are particularly attentive to the history of film theory: how theories exist in conversation with each other, as well as how other intellectual and cultural theories influence the development, nature and mission of theories of the moving image. We emphasize written texts (Bazin, Eisenstein, Kracauer, Vertov, Metz, Mulvey, DeLauretis, Doty, Hall, Cahiers du Cinema, the Dogme Collective, Manovi

Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores