2020-21 Academic Catalog

This seminar introduces students to the history of ideas in classical and contemporary film theory. Emphasis is on close reading of primary texts and class discussion. The course surveys the formalist and realist traditions in classical film theory, the ontology and aesthetics of the photochemical and digital image, and trends in contemporary film theory, including authorship and genre, ideology and psychoanalysis, cultural studies, phenomenology, and post-cinema. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission