Topic: Performance, Acting, and Stardom
James Naremore

	This seminar will focus on actors and performers in film and
television, and will involve readings on several topics, including the
history of acting in film, the changing nature of performance in the
age
of mechanical and electronic reproduction, the work of specific
actors in
particular movies or TV shows, and the cultural and social
implications of
stars and media celebrities. Over the past two decades a good deal of
important writing has been published on these topics, but much
remains to
be done. In our seminar we will read recent as well as classic essays
and
books dealing with our central themes, and I hope we will develop our
own
ideas for writing and research. Throughout, I'll try to maintain a
dialectic between the sociological approach to celebrity and the
formal
study of performance styles. Each week the class will meet to discuss
assigned readings and to hear brief oral reports by the students.
Besides
giving an oral report, students are required to submit an article-
length
term paper. A time and place will be set aside for occasional
screenings
related to the class, should we need them.