Communication 616 - Introduction to Film Theory

This course offers an overview of the major theoretical and critical approaches to the study of cinema, as well as their historical development and applications. We will examine various formalist and realist film theories (together constituting so-called "classical" film theory), as well as theoretical and critical methods informed by structuralism and semiotics, phenomenology and cognitive science, psychoanalysis and politics, visual and cultural studies, and media studies (among others). Theoretical topics to be considered will likely include the following: cinematic representation and reality; montage and dialectics; narrative and textuality; film?s status as art and its relationship to other arts; authorship, gender and sexuality; genre; spectatorship and identification; stardom and performance; ideology and the apparatus; alternative aesthetics; globalization, national cinemas, postcolonialism; and mediation and convergence culture in a digital age. Seminar participants will be responsible for watching films outside class on a regular basis. There are no prerequisites for the course, except a strong interest in interdisciplinary film studies and in cinema -- as an international art form, cultural text, ideological tool, industrial/artisanal product, and mode of entertainment. This course fulfills a requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Film Studies.

Open to Doctoral & Masters students only.