TOPIC: Fast Forward: Contemporary Theories of the Spectator in Film and
Television Studies

Since the 1970s when the film spectator was defined largely through
psychoanalytic approaches, competing theories of the viewer have grown
exponentially. These theories, influenced by developments in Cultural
Studies, historiography, postmodernism, sociology, ethnography, and other
areas, have conceived of the film and television spectator as existing
within a concrete social and historical context, shaped by considerations
of gender, race, and class, and, at times, exhibiting resistance to
mainstream ideologies that often characterize the media.

This course will introduce students to two major contemporary schools of
thought on the spectator: historical reception studies and
ethnographic/empirical approaches. The former, initially theorized by
British Cultural Studies scholar, Tony Bennett, argues that any theory of
reading or viewing must take into consideration how the material, social,
and historical context in which the encounter between text and reader
takes place affects meaning and interpretation. The latter, inspired by
the work of another British scholar, Stuart Hall, places emphasis on how
everyday forces acting on individual spectators help determine how they
will decode the messages offered by the media. While historical reception
studies tend to engage the "textual surround" for its evidence (that is,
materials surrounding the event of viewing, including censorship
practices, advertisements, reviews, and star discourse), media
ethnographers turn to specific viewers, conducting interviews and other
forms of quantitative analysis as a means of theorizing spectatorship. We
will consider the work of major theorists in each area and entertain the
strengths and weaknesses of each method. Every week we will view films and
television shows which support or challenge the theories under discussion.

Besides Bennett and Hall, authors we may also read include David Morley,
Ien Ang, Henry Jenkins, Janet Staiger, Lynn Spigel, Jane Gaines, Ellen
Seiter, Jackie Stacey, Jostein Gripsrud, and Miriam Hansen. Work will
include at least an oral presentation (in which the student will deliver a
short, conference-style paper) and a final research paper.