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ENGL 382-01, Film Theory, Spring 2009
Richards, Rashna
Richards, Rashna
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English, Department of, Syllabus, Curriculum, Academic departments, Text, 2009 Spring
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Abstract
It has been over a century since the first grainy images flickered on a silent screen. Legend has it
that at an early screening in Paris, spectators were so stunned by the image of a life-sized train
hurtling toward them that they shrieked and ducked for cover. Since then, films have intrigued
and frustrated, perplexed and inspired billions of viewers around the world. The issues that
preoccupied the earliest film theorists continue to puzzle later generations: What is cinema? Is it
an art? Is it a language? Is the filmed world realistic or artificial? In addition, since the 1960s,
other important issues have been considered: What do movies reveal about the underlying
ideologies of the cultures that produce them? How do they manipulate audience beliefs? How do
they address, exploit, and satisfy various audience desires?
Offered as a directed inquiry, this course provides a comprehensive history of film theory as it
has developed over the "century of cinema." We will begin with classical film theorists, such as
Rudolph Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, and André Bazin, evaluating the twin concerns of cinema's
relation to reality and its status as art. Then, we will direct our attention to writers who
challenged the classical tradition and destabilized the meaning of such terms as art, nature,
reality, illusion, author, work, and artist. Assessing the semiotic turn in film theory, we will
analyze the influence of new interpretive approaches, such as psychoanalysis, feminism, and
critical race theory. Finally, we will focus on the latest developments in contemporary film
theory, tracing in particular the role of globalization and digitization. We will end by reflecting
on the future of film and film theory in an age of new media.
While more-or-less chronological, the course does not present the evolution of film theory
merely as a linear progression of ideas and movements. International in scope, our study of film
theories and theorists will stress the links between developments in cinematic thought, from such
countries as France and the United States to Russia and Italy to Brazil and India. As a
synaesthetic medium that has produced a tremendously heterogeneous body of texts, cinema
demands multiple frameworks of understanding; this course is designed to offer a wide-ranging
introduction to those frameworks within the complex and evolving body of film theory.
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This syllabus was submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor.