FILM THEORY/CTA 356

	FILM THEORY
CTA 356 Fall 2005				Hugh McCarney B 213 837-8254 mccarneyh@wcsu.edu

ERes Discussion
PW=COM356

Texts:

Braudy and Cohen. Film Theory and Criticism, latest ed. [B&C]

On-line materials are linked to the syllabus.
Also check Cinetext Annotated Bibliography

SCHEDULE

Week Of:	Reading	Work due
8/29	B&C, p. 7: Pudovkin, "[On Editing.]" B&C, p. 13: Eisenstein, "Beyond the Shot." B&C, p. 23: Eisenstein, "The Dramaturgy of Film Form."

9/5	B&C, p. 65: Metz, "Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema." B&C, p. 72: Metz, "Problems of Denotation in the Fiction FIlm.": B&C, p. 87: Prince, "The Discourse of Pictures: Iconicity and Film Studies." B&C, p. 106: Dayan, "The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema."

9/12	B&C, p. 143: Krackauer, "Basic Concepts." B&C, p. 154: Krackauer, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." B&C, p. 187: Deren, "Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality." B&C, p. 199: Brakhage, From "Metaphors on Vision."

9/19	B&C, p. 332: Carroll, "The Specificity Thesis." B&C, p. 355: Baudry, "Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematic Apparatus."	Paper Topic

9/26	FILM SEMIOTICS (members.tripod.com/~afronord/theory.html) Read M,C&B, p. 118, Nick Browne, The Spectator -in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach"

10/3	B&C, p. 445: Chatman, "What Novels Can Do That Films Can't (and Vice Versa)." B&C, p. 461: Andrew: "Adaptation."	Working Bibliography

10/10	Chandler, Daniel "An Introduction to Genre Theory" (www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html) B&C, p. 691: Schatz, "Film Genre and the Genre FIlm." B&C, p. 680: Altman, "A Semantic/Syntactiv Approach to FIlm Genre."

10/17	Small, Edward S. "Cognitivism and Film Theory" . (www.film-philosophy.com/portal/writings/small) Sweeney, Kevin (1994). "Constructivism in Cognitive Film Theory" Film and Philosophy, 2. (www.hanover.edu/philos/film/vol_02/sweeney.htm)

10/24	Read B&C, p. 746, Laura Mulvey,"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" B&C, p. 727: Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess."

10/31	Rodowick, D.N. (1991) "Preface", The Difficulty of Difference: Psychoanalysis, Sexual Difference, and Film Theory. New York: Routledge. (www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/filmstudies/Rodowick/Publications/DNRDifference.html) Rodowick, D. N. (1994) "Preface," The Crisis of Political Modernism: Criticism and Ideology in Contemporary Film Theory 2nd ed. University of California Press. (www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/filmstudies/Rodowick/Publications/DNRCrisis.html)	Outline

11/17	Freeland, Cynthia A. "Feminist Film Theory: Draft for the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics" (www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/aesth/femfilm.html) Smelik , Anneke. "Feminist Film Theory" (http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/anneke/filmtheory.html)

11/14	Polan, Dana (1987). "Film Theory Re-Assessed", Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture,1 (wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/1.2/Polan.html) B&C, p. 791: Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

11/21	Miller, Blair. "The Work of Interpretation: A Theoretical Defence of Film Theory and Criticism" (www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/FINE/juhde/miler991.htm) B&C, p. 812: Comolli and Narboni, "Cinema/Ideology/Criticism	*Papers Due*

11/28	Reports

12/5	Reports

ERes Board Discussion:

The Web Board discussion centers around the topic "Problems I'm having making sense of this stuff." All theories are abstract; some have a specialized vocabulary and others assume you have background information that you may be missing. This discussion is designed to help us fill the gaps so these theories do make sense to us. While the discussion is informal, proofreading is recommended. The link to the discussion is at the top of this page.

Formal Paper:

The major paper for the course will be due the week of November 25. You are asked to choose a film in the Haas Library holdings and examine it from a particular theoretical perspective (For example,"The Gaze in Jezebel" or "The Semiotics of Clothing in Young and Innocent").You will be asked to identify the major question(s) the theory attempts to answer, and answer them in terms of this film. You are welcome to use outside sources in preparing the paper, however you are cautioned to cite all sources, whether the information is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. All reference material must be credited using the form presented in The Publication Manual of the APA. Failure to document sources is plagiarism, and will not be tolerated.

Conventions Followed in Writing about Film:

Film titles are underlined, not put in "quotes".
The year of the film is put in parenthesis following the film the first time the film is mentioned. Subsequent mentions do not include the date.
Characters are referred to by the character's name, not the name of the actor playing the part.

Grades:

Grades will be based on the Major Paper, the oral presentation, class participation, and the Web Board discussion. Late work will not be accepted without a physician's statement.

Course page