ENGLISH 396 - MELODRAMA, HORROR, AND CULTURAL THEORY
Young, Elizabeth
Thursday, 1:00-2:50 p.m.
Screening, Monday, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
This course will analyze two important film genres, melodrama and horror,
through the lens of contemporary cultural theories of gender, race, and
sexuality. Topics of particular interest will include: feminist analyses
of gender and genre; racial difference and studies of "whiteness"; normative
and alternative sexualities; identification and spectatorship; recent revisions
of genre. Directors may include Cronenberg, Dash, Haynes, Hitchcock,
Onwurah, Polanski, Ray, Romero, Sirk, Vidor, and Whale. One seminar
meeting and one screening per week; 4 credits. (To pre-register, please
obtain a questionnaire in the English Department Office at Smith
College, Pierce Hall 105.) Course is open to juniors and seniors
only; some background in film studies required; experience with women's
studies and/or cultural theory desirable.
FLS 200 INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES CRN#: 10536
Credits: 4
KELLER, Alex
M-W 1:10-2:30 Lec Rm - TBA
M 7:00-10:00pm Film Rm -TBA
An overview of cinema as an artistic and social force. Students will
become familiar with the aesthetic elements of cinema (visual style, editing,
cinematography, sound, narration and formal structure), the terminology
of film production, and the relations among industrial, ideological, artistic,
and social issues. Films (both classic and contemporary) will be discussed
from aesthetic, historical and social perspectives, enabling students to
approach films as informed and critical viewers. Enrollment limited to
60.
FLS 241 GENRE/PERIOD: WOMEN & AMERICAN CINEMA: REPRESENTATION,
SPECTATORSHIP, AUTHORSHIP CRN#: 15143 Credits:
4
KELLER, Alex
M-W 2:40-4:00 Lec Rm - TBA
T 7:00-10:00pm Film Rm - TBA
Topics course.: This course provides a broad survey of women in American
cinema – women on screen, as spectators, and as filmmakers – from the silent
period to the present. It examines how women are represented in films,
and how those images relate to actual contemporaneous American society
and culture. The course also explores issues of female spectatorship and
female authorship as they relate to genre, the star and studio systems,
dominant codes of narration, and conceptions of the female gaze.
FLS 280 INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO PRODUCTION CRN#: 14719 Credits:
4
Prerequisite: 200 (which may be taken concurrently)
MILLER, Liz
T 1:00-4:50 Lec Rm -TBA
W 7:30-9:30pm Lec Rm - TBA
Topics course.: Video I is an introductory video production course.
This class will introduce you to the history and contemporary practice
of video art/documentary video and will provide you with the technical
and conceptual skills to complete creative video projects in small groups
and individually. Over the course of the semester, students will gain experience
in pre-production, production and post-production techniques. Projects
are designed to develop basic technical proficiency in the video medium
as well as practical skills for the completion of the creative project.
Prerequisite: 200 (which may be taken concurrently). Enrollment limited
to 13.
FLS 281 VIDEO PRODUCTION WORKSHOP: NARRATIVE CRN#: 15124 Credits:
4
Prerequisite: 200
WEST, Justin
T-Th 7:30-9:30pm Lec Rm - TBA
This course provides students with basic production skills (camera,
lighting, sound, story structure, editing) with an emphasis on narrative.
Course work includes both group and individual production projects in the
context of a close study of narrative film technique. Each student will
produce a short individual work. Prerequisite: 200. Enrollment limited
to 13.
GERMAN 230 TOPICS IN GERMAN CINEMA: NAZI CINEMA
Instructor: Vaget, Hans
Course Section: 01 Lecture Credits: 4
Meeting Times: M W 02:40-04:00 Location: N/A
Topics course.: A study of German cinema during the Third Reich: the
legacy of Weimar cinema; popular and high culture in Nazi ideology; the
political function of entertainment; the question of fascist esthetics;
constructions of masculinity and femininity; imaginations of the Other.
With special focus on the films of Leni Riefenstahl. For comparison we
will draw on some American examples (F. Capra, C. Chaplin, F. Zinnemann).
Films to be studied: Hitler Youth Quex; Triumph of the Will; Olympia; Jew
Suess, Muenchhausen, and others. Conducted in English