Film Studies 397T - ST-Tragic Cinema

This course examines the idea of "tragedy," both as a genre and as a mode of cultural expression. On the one hand, much of the time will be focused on considering cinema's reception (i.e., adaptation, appropriation, reworking) of traditional tragedy. This will involve looking at instances of tragic theater--including Greek, Roman, early modern, modern--and at their reincarnation on the screen. On the other hand, this course explores the more general question of whether or not tragedy, as it is traditionally understood, continues to work as an effective or legitimate genre in the modern era, or whether it has in fact been replaced by other expressive modes, like melodrama. We will consider as well how cinema Has influenced and affected our notion of what it means to say something is "tragic." Fulfills UMass Undergraduate Film Studies Certificate Category: IIB, V