CMCL-C 410: Media Theory
(Topic: Introduction to Media Theory and Aesthetics)
Class Number: 25683

TuTh, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM, Location: TBA
Required film screenings: Tu, 7:00 PM-10:00 PM

Prerequisite: successful completion of CMCL-C 190 or permission of
instructor

Carries COLL Intensive Writing Credit

Instructor: Joan Hawkins
E-Mail: jchawkin@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 113
Phone: 855-1548




This course will examine key trends in film and  television theory
and aesthetics through a series of  case studies: the controversy
surrounding the recovered print of the “original” Shadows, the
career of Rod Serling, the funeral of Rudolph Valentino, and the
murder of Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh.

Readings will include essays on auteurist theory, montage and
realism, feminist theory,
critical race theory, spectatorship and the gaze, paracinema, DVD
technology and the emergence of authorized and unauthorized digital
archives, and Third Cinema.

Written work will include a short paper (5 pages long), a longer
paper (12-15 pages long; this must be revised at least once for
intensive writing credit), a take-home midterm (5-7 pages) and a
final exam.

Films to include titles by John Cassavetes, Stan Brakhage, Maya
Deren, Theo Van Gogh, Isaac Julien, Andrew (The Night Holds Terror)
Stone, Cecilia Berriga, Sam Fuller, Jean-Luc Godard, Mark Rappaport
and the Mitchell-Kenyon Films.  TV shows to include The Continental,
Playhouse 90, The Twilight Zone, Homicide: Life on the Street, and
American Masters.

Required texts:
Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism, Sixth
edition. Oxford University Press.
Selection of essays on e-reserve.