FILM THEORY
Survey of significant trends within both classical and contemporary film theory. Designed for those interested in reading, analyzing, and evaluating the central concepts and intellectual history of writings about film, particularly with respect to film as a medium presenting an array of aesthetic, psychological, and social potentialities. Whereas classical film theory attempts to treat cinema as a unique art form, contemporary film theory addresses issues related to cinema as a mode of communication, a source of visual pleasure, and as an ideological tool. Much contemporary theory attempts to incorporate the insights of other critical and analytical paradigms, such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, and cognitive science. Questions regarding the ontology of cinema, its relation to existing theories of art, its effects on spectators, and the various ways in which its formal properties create meaning are considered.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: COM ARTS 350 or graduate/professional standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities Level - Advanced L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2025 Learning Outcomes: 1. Attain a deep and wide-reaching understanding of the ways in which cinema has been conceptualized by film theorists and practitioners globally, as a distinct aesthetic form with its own medium-specific characteristics Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Parse out the interconnections and influences between the work of film theorists and other disciplines and fields including but not limited to philosophy, psychology, semiotics, political theory, and cultural studies Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand the ways in which ideology, power and hegemony are intertwined with the status of the film object, especially in relation to articulations of gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexuality Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Evaluate and analyze the ways in which film theory and praxis approaches aspects of spectatorship and craft Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Articulate individual approaches to film theory based on the material Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Map the development of the discipline of film studies through an historical understanding of ideas and concepts in the field of film theory Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Attain a deep and wide-reaching understanding of the ways in which cinema has been conceptualized by film theorists and practitioners globally, as a distinct aesthetic form with its own medium-specific characteristics Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Parse out the interconnections and influences between the work of film theorists and other disciplines and fields including but not limited to philosophy, psychology, semiotics, political theory, and cultural studies Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand the ways in which ideology, power and hegemony are intertwined with the status of the film object, especially in relation to articulations of gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexuality Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Evaluate and analyze the ways in which film theory and praxis approaches aspects of spectatorship and craft Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Articulate individual approaches to film theory based on the material Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Map the development of the discipline of film studies through an historical understanding of ideas and concepts in the field of film theory Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027