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Courses in Film Studies
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Film Studies Minor
James Holte, Coordinator, 2211 Bate Building
The minor in film studies provides students with an opportunity to study the history, theory, criticism, cultural uses, aesthetics, and production practices of cinema. The courses are designed to help students meet the new challenges they will encounter as citizens and workers in the information age and to learn how to analyze and engage critically with the visual media that has become a fixture of contemporary life. This curriculum complements a wide range of liberal arts majors by teaching students textual analysis, critical thinking, and writing skills. |
Interested in Film Studies? Scroll down for Summer and Fall 2010 Courses.
This interdisciplinary minor asks students to forge connections between the discipline of film studies and other disciplines, including literature, creative writing, rhetoric, music, communications, history, foreign languages, sociology, and political science, among others. Courses in the minor will address cinema within its social, political and cultural contexts including an understanding of how race, ethnicity, gender, religion and class are constructed through the cinematic image. Courses taken towards the minor must come from at least three different prefixes (ART, COMM, ENGL, GERM, MPRD, RUSS, SOCI, SPAN, or POLS). Other appropriate courses may be considered for inclusion as electives change or upon review by the director.
Minimum requirement for the minor in film studies is 24 s.h. of credit as follows:
- Core - 6 s.h.
- Choose one of the following:
- ENGL 2900. Introduction to Film Studies (3) (F,S) (FC:HU) (P: 1000-level writing intensive course or advanced placement or consent of instructor)
- MPRD 2260. Image Theory and Aesthetics (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001,1002)
- Choose one of the following:
- ENGL 4530. Special Topics Seminar (3) (WI*) (F,S) (P: Consent of instructor; ENGL 1200)
- COMM 4060. Special Problems in Communication (3) (F,S,SS) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002)
- Cognates - 9 s.h.
- Choose one from each cognate:
- Film Theory:
- ENGL 3920. Film Theory and Criticism (3) (WI) (FC:HU) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of the instructor)
- ENGL 4980. Topics in Film Aesthetics (3) (F) (May be repeated with change of topic for maximum 6 s.h.) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- SOCI 3025. Sociology of Mass Media (3) (FC: SO) (P: SOCI 2110)
- Film History:
- ENGL 3900. American and International Film History, Part I (3) (F) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 3901. American and International Film History, Part II (3) (S) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 4910. Survey of Film Styles and Movements (3) (WI*) (F) (FC:HU) (P: 6 s.h. of literature or consent of instructor)
- MPRD 2250. Classic Documentaries, 1900-2000 (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001,1002)
- MPRD 3660. History of the Moving Image (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002)
- Multicultural/Transnational/International Film:
- COMM 4040. Media, Culture, and Society (3) (F,S) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002; 15 hours COMM courses or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 4920. Contemporary American and International Cinema (3) (WI*) (S) (FC:HU) (P: 6 s.h. of literature or consent of instructor; RP: ENGL 4910)
- ENGL 4985. Issues in Cinema and Culture (3) (S) (May be repeated with change of topic for maximum 6 s. h.) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ETHN 3501. Selected Topics in Ethnic Studies: Humanities (3) (F) (FC:HU)
- GERM 3700. Special Topics (3) (May be repeated for maximum of 6 s.h. with change of topic) (P: GERM 2210 or 2211; or consent of instructor)
- POLS 3012. Politics Through Film (3) (S) (FC:SO)
- RUSS 3230. Russian and Soviet Film (3) (FC:HU) (P: RUSS 2120 or consent of instructor)
- SPAN 5445. Hispanic Cinema (3) (May be repeated for maximum of 6 s.h. with change of topic) (P: Consent of chair)
- Electives - 9 s.h.
Note: Courses taken for the core requirement or as cognates may not be repeated as electives.
- ART 3080. Introductory Video Art (3) (P for art majors: ART 1015, 1030; P for communication arts students: ART 2220)
- ART 3081. Intermediate Video Art (3) (P: ART 3080)
- COMM 4040. Media, Culture, and Society (3) (F,S) (Formerly COMM 4600; EMST 3530) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002; 15 hours COMM courses or consent of instructor)
- COMM 4060. Special Problems in Communication (3) (F,S,SS) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002)
- ENGL 2900. Introduction to Film Studies (3) (F,S) (FC:HU) (P: 1000-level writing intensive course or advanced placement or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 3660. Representing Environmental Crisis (3) (F) (P: ENGL 1200)
- ENGL 3900. American and International Film History, Part I (3) (F) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 3901. American and International Film History, Part II (3) (S) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 3920. Film Theory and Criticism (3) (WI) (FC:HU) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 4910. Survey of Film Styles and Movements (3) (WI*) (F) (FC:HU) (P: 6 s.h. of literature or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 4920. Contemporary American and International Cinema (3) (WI*) (S) (FC:HU) (P: 6 s.h. of literature or consent of instructor; RP: ENGL 4910)
- ENGL 4930. Film: The Writer’s Perspective (3) (S)
- ENGL 4980. Topics in Film Aesthetics (3) (F) (May be repeated with change of topic for maximum 6 s.h.) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 4985. Issues in Cinema and Culture (3) (S) (May be repeated with change of topic for maximum 6 s.h.) (P: ENGL 2900 or consent of instructor)
- ENGL 5350. Special Studies in Film (3)
- GERM 3700. Special Topics (3) (May be repeated for maximum of 6 s.h. with change of topic.) (P: GERM 2210 or 2211; or consent of instructor)
- MPRD 2250. Classic Documentaries, 1900-2000 (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001,1002)
- MPRD 2260. Image Theory and Aesthetics (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001,1002)
- MPRD 3235. Advanced Writing for Media (3) (P: COMM major or consent of instructor; COMM 1001,1002; MPRD 2210)
- MPRD 3660. History of the Moving Image (3) (P: COMM major or minor or consent of instructor; COMM 1001, 1002)
- POLS 3012. Politics Through Film (3) (S) (FC:SO)
- RUSS 3230. Russian and Soviet Film (3) (FC:HU) (P: RUSS 2120 or consent of instructor)
- SOCI 3025. Sociology of Mass Media (3) (FC: SO) (P: SOCI 2110)
- SPAN 5445. Hispanic Cinema (3) (May be repeated for maximum of 6 s.h. with change of topic) (P: Consent of chair)
Summer 2010 Courses
Summer I
ENGL 2900: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Dr. Jim Holte
Times Offered: M-W 2-3:15
Film Screening: M6:30-9
Introduction to Film Studies is designed to provide students with an overview of film history and the skills necessary to analyze and critique film. Students will also learn about film aesthetics, film genres, and American and international films as well as basic film criticism.
SOCI 3001-001: Sel. Topics: Sociology Through Film (SSI 2010)
Instructor: Dr. Sitawa R. Kimuna
Class Hours: M-F: 11:30a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
This course advances media literacy in a media-ted world by focusing on film analysis as one of the primary agents of socialization from a sociological perspective. We will analyze the nature of film in terms of its organization and presentation for public consumption and questionwhether the pervasiveness of the mass media (especially film and documentaries) in our everyday lives has given these entities undue influence in both shaping and creating cultural perceptions.
POLS 3012: Politics Through Film
Instructor: Dr Peter L. Francia
Times offered: TR, 1:15-5:15
This course examines the political messages communicated in various films from the 1930s to the present. Some of the movies covered in class are overtly political (i.e., they depict various aspects of the political system) whereas others are devoid of explicit political references but convey important political or social messages. As the syllabus outlines below, I have organized the course around specific political themes that capture the mood of a given historical period.
ENGL 3480: Science Fiction
Instructor: Donald Palumbo
Times Offered: M-Th 1:15-3:15
This introductory course in science fiction will cover three classic science fiction novels and four popular science fiction films, all chosen because no previous familiarity with science fiction is necessary to understand them.
Summer II, 2010
ENGL 2900: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Dr. Jim Holte
Times Offered: M-Th 1:15-3:15
Introduction to Film Studies is designed to provide students with an overview of film history and the skills necessary to analyze and critique film. Students will also learn about film aesthetics, film genres, and American and international films as well as basic film criticism.
ENGL 4985 (Issues in Cinema and Culture): Science Fiction Films from 1960
Instructor: Donald Palumbo
Times Offered: MTuWTh, 3:30-5:30 pm
This course will cover ten films and the original short novel version of three of them. It will consider a range of SF films from 1960 to 2009, but will focus most closely on several selected but prominent aspects of SF films from this 50-year period: adaptation of mythological plot structures to SF films, adaptation from SF novel to SF film, SF film comedy and social satire, time travel films, and apocalyptic/dystopian SF films.
Fall 2010 Courses
ENGL 2900: Introduction to Film Studies
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the broad field of film studies, including formal analysis, genre studies, film history and theory. This course is part of the required core for the film studies minor and is recommended before students take a 4000 level film course. 2 sections available:
Instructor: Dr. Anna Froula (ENGL2900, section 001)
Times offered: MWF 2:00-2:50 pm
Film screenings: M 6:30 pm
Films to be screened include: Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz), Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), The ConversationHot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007), Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), Miller's Crossing (Coen brothers, 1990), 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995), 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002), This is Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, 1984), Run, Lola, Run (Tom Tykwer, 1999)
Instructor: Dr. Jim Holte (ENGL2900, section 002)
Times Offered: T, TH 12:30-1:45 pm
Film Screenings: T 6:30-9:30 pm
Films to be screened include: Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang), Stagecoach (1939, John Ford), The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston), Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski), A Fish Called Wanda (1988, Charles Chrichton), Persepolis (2007, Marjane Satrapi), Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo del Toro). (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974),
ENGL 2900-001: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Dr. Anna Froula
Times offered: T, TH: 11:00-12:15
Film screenings: M 6:30 pm
Films to be screened include: Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz), Battleship PotemkinCitizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Das Cabinet des Dr. CaligariThe Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007), Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard), The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceMiller's Crossing (Coen brothers, 1990), 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995), 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002), This is Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, 1984), Run, Lola, Run (Tom Tykwer, 1999)
ENGL 2900-001: Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Dr. Jim Holte (ENGL2900, section 002)
Times Offered: MW 2:00-3:15
Film Screenings: T 6:30-9:30 pm
Films to be screened include: The Immigrant (1917, Charlie Chaplin), The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston), Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski), A Fish Called WandaPersepolis (2007, Marjane Satrapi), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006,Guillermo del Toro).
FORL 2600-001: Foreign Literature in Translation/The Holocaust
Instructor: Dr. Susanne Lenne Jones
Times offered: T,TH 9:30-10:45
Film Screenings: TH 6:30-8:30 pm
This course will provide opportunities to examine the Holocaust and its changing representation in literature, film and theoretical texts. Discussions focus on the origins of anti-Semitism and other National Socialist justifications for genocide as well as the theories of Freud, Levi and Friedlander treating the psychology of mourning, repression, trauma, and memory.
Films to be shown include: Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935), Jud Suss (Veit Harlan, 1940), Europa, Europa (Agnieskzka Holland, 1990), Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, 1982), Jakob the Liar (Frank Beyer, 1975), The Nasty Girl (Michael Verhoeven, 1991), The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008)
ENGL 3025-001: Sociology of Mass Media
Instructor: Dr. Sitawa R. Kimuna
Times offered: T, TH: 11:00-12:15
Film Screenings: in class
Understanding the media and their implications for contemporary society has taken on a new urgency in an interconnected world of cyberspace, convergence, consumerism, and celebrities. This course provides a new dimension by focusing on the social dimensions of media-society relations, including impact of film/documentaries and effects on society, with particular attention to how this often contested relationship is mediated (created, sustained, challenged, transformed) by way of images, texts, and messages
Films to be shown include: Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002), Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959), Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981), Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Peirce, 1999), Girl Interrupted (James Mangold, 2000)
ENGL 3920: Film Theory and Criticism (3) (HU, WI)
Instructor: Dr. Amanda Ann Klein
Times offered: M, W: 12:00 - 2:00
Film Screenings: M or T 6:30-8:30 pm (twice a month)
This course introduces the basic problems and arguments addressed and engaged by film theory and criticism. These problems and arguments address the function and the basic nature of the film medium, analyzing the ways in which it affects viewers and their relationship to reality, to the arts, and to society.
Films to be shown include: Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973), Umberto D (Vittorio DeSica, 1952), Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929), Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932), Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
ENGL 3501: Ethnic-American Images in Hollywood Film (3) (HU)
Instructor: Dr. Joyce I. Middleton
Times offered: T,TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
Screenings: in class
In this class, we will look at images of ethnicity in American popular culture by closely examining Ethnic-American images in film. We will begin the semester by exploring major issues, questions, and key terms in Ethnic Studies. Throughout the semester, we will read literature and see films that explore U.S. Ethnic experiences. All of the films in the class are contemporary. But we will discuss both the modern and historical contexts for the films in the class.
Screenings; Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle), Good Hair (2009, Jeff Stilson), Sucker Free City (2004, Spike Lee), The Namesake (2006, Mira Nair), Tropic Thunder (2008, Ben Stiller), Precious (2009, Lee Daniels), The Hurt Locker (2009, Katheryn Bigelow), Traitor (2008, Jeffrey Nachmanoff), Gran Torino (2008, Clint Eastwood)
ENGL 3810: Advanced Composition (WI)
Instructor: Dr. J.I. Middleton
Times offered: T, TH: 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm
Screenings: In class
This section of advanced composition focuses on film as a rhetorical text. Students will learn how to read films beyond their entertainment value and to analyze how films work rhetorically for their target audiences & then write about them. Students will practice writing in a variety of genres that will help them to develop skills for analyzing & writing about visual rhetoric in film. Screenings:Office Space (1999, Mike Judge), Traffic (2000, Steven Soderbergh), Syriana (2005, Steven Gaghan), Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg), Lord of War (2005, Andrew Niccol), The Visitor (2007, Thomas McCarthy), Juno (2007, Jason Reitman), Inglorious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino), Avatar (2009, James Cameron), The International (2008, Tom Tykwer)
ENGL3900: American and International Film History, Part I
Instructor: Dr. Jim Holte
Times offered: W: 4:00 pm- 9:00 pm
Screenings: In class
Course description: English 3900 is designed to provide students with a history of American and international film movements, developments, and achievements through the first half of the twentieth century. Students will examine a variety of films within the context of an influential growing industry from a variety of critical aesthetic and cultural perspectives. Students will study censorship, genre, technology, as well as the influence of film on popular culture. Screenings: Easy Street (1917, Charlie Chaplin), Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang), The Rules of the Game (1939
ENGL 4930: Film: The Writer’s Perspective
Instructor: Robert Siegel
Times Offered: M: 4:00 pm- 5:15 pm
Screenings: Thursdays, 6:00 pm
Course description: Rather than analyzing film from a theoretical or technical perspective, this course will analyze the screenwriter’s tools and how they are used to convey meaning. Students will learn to analyze a film’s content as they would literature. By studying classic and contemporary films we will look at how culture changes and how ideas evolve with different writers from different eras. We will view films and read the screenplays of the films we watch to better understand how a film changes from script to final cut. We will also read interviews with screenwriters and videoconference with a screenwriter. The last two years those conferences were with Callie Khouri, screenwriter for Thelma and Louise & Kasi Lemmons, screenwriter for Eve’s Bayou.
ENGL 5350: Special Studies in Film: The Frontier in American Literature and Film
Instructors: Dr. Anna Froula and Dr. Tom Shields
Times offered: T, TH: 2:00-3:15 pm
Screenings: screen independently
Course description: This course will explore the idea of the frontier in American literature and film and its influence on American culture, mythology and national identity. We will start with the idea of the frontier in colonial-era writings and study its literary and cinematic evolutions into the twenty-first century. This class will include a field trip to Deadwood theme park and restaurant in Bear Grass. Screenings: High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952), The Searchers (John Ford, 1956), True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969), Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969), Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1971), First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982), Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987), Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992), Shanghai Noon (Tom Dey, 2000), The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003), Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005), and episodes from such TV shows as Daniel Boone (1964–1970) and Firefly (2002)
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