2016-17 Catalog

An investigation into the variety of ways history has been and can be represented on the screen. Some terms the focus will be a specific historical period or nation; other terms the focus will be the nature of film as a medium for history and biography. The class will include weekly screenings of films as well as weekly discussion sections. Not offered 2016-17.

Based upon the premise that a great deal of the history and culture of a nation is inscribed in the dramatic features its film makers produce, the course will each term focus on a single nation and/or culture. Each week there will be a screening, supplemented by appropriate readings dealing with history, culture, and film analysis. During the two hour weekly seminar, students will be expected to discuss the film and the readings, while the instructor will provide additional background material and introduce them to the language of cinema. Possible topics include the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. On occasion the class may deal with particular periods in history (e.g. the Italian Renaissance, Imperial Rome) or with cultures that cross national boundaries, such as the Arab World or Latin America. Students will be expected to write short papers after most screenings and one formal term paper. Not offered 2016-17.

The course will focus each term on one kind of motion picture-either a film genre, or films made by an individual director, or from a single nation or region of the world or particular historical era. Included are weekly screenings, readings on film, a weekly discussion meeting, and a term paper. Not offered 2016-17.

This course will introduce students to some of the classic works of the science fiction film from the earliest days of cinema until the present. It will analyze aesthetic, historical, and social documents, and will show that such films, while describing alternative, hypothetical, and futurist worlds, also serve as a commentary upon and/or a critique of contemporary (to the film) historical, social, political, and ideological systems and attitudes. Not offered 2016-17.

In recent decades, directors from ethnic minorities that are often un- or misrepresented in mainstream Hollywood films have been making dramatic features depicting the history, problems, and prospects of their own communities. This course will feature a selection of such films by directors from African, Latino, Asian, Muslim, and European American ethnic groups, with an eye toward assessing the similarities and differences in the processes of immigration, acculturation, and Americanization. Not offered 2016-17.

This course examines the post-classical era of Hollywood filmmaking with a focus on the late 1960s through the 1970s, a period of significant formal and thematic experimentation especially in the representation of violence and sexuality. We will study American culture and politics as well as film in this era, as we consider the relation between broader social transformations and the development of new narrative conventions and cinematic techniques. We will pay particular attention to the changing film industry and its influence on this body of work. Films covered may include Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, The Last Picture Show, Jaws, and Taxi Driver. Not offered 2016-17.