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ENGL 202-01, Introduction to Cinema, Spring 2009
Richards, Rashna
Richards, Rashna
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English, Department of, Syllabus, Text, Curriculum, 2009 Spring
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Abstract
While the cinematograph was a product of scientific innovation--Louis Lumière, one of its
creators, declared it an invention without a future--film quickly became the most popular and
influential cultural medium of the twentieth century. Only a decade after its invention, cinema
had spread to all parts of the globe, and the motion pictures became a way of telling our stories to
ourselves while simultaneously transporting us away from our lives to what Maxim Gorky called
"the Kingdom of Shadows." Since then, films have intrigued and frustrated, perplexed and
inspired billions of viewers worldwide. The issues that preoccupied the earliest film critics
continue to puzzle later generations: What is cinema? Is it an art? Is it a language? What do
movies reveal about the underlying ideologies of the cultures that produce them? How do they
address, exploit, and satisfy various audience desires? This course offers an introduction to film
studies. We will learn and practice close reading of films through an examination of various
cinematic elements, such as mise en scène, editing, sound, lighting, framing, and so on. Using
different interpretive approaches, we will also consider questions of ideology, aesthetics, and
power as well as issues of race, gender, sexuality, and representation. Most of the examples will come from the tradition we are familiar with--Hollywood narrative
cinema. But we will also sample international cinema, silent films, as well as other forms of film,
such as experimental, avant-garde, and documentary cinema. Specifically, ENGL 202 will
enable you to:
use key technical terms in thinking and writing about the movies
analyze films using various critical approaches and methodologies
develop an understanding of cinema as an art and an industry, an imaginary pleasure and a
symbolic language, a hallucination and a fact
Description
This syllabus was submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor.