Schedule

Summer 2023: Session 1

FILM 4200 (Topics in Film) Hollywood and American Film History
Wessels (ONLINE)

This course will trace the economic, social, and aesthetic history and influence of the Hollywood studio system, while simultaneously examining the rise of independent cinema in America. Considering film as ideology, we will examine the ways that issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, and nationality figure within American film.

This course may count toward the history requirement for the Film and Media Studies minor.

Required text:
Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema, John Alberti

Fall 2023 Session (08/28/23 - 12/14/23)

FILM 3000 Methods in Film Studies
Wessels(online)

“As good a way as any towards understanding what a film is trying to say to us is to know how it is saying it” (André Bazin). This course introduces core concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and industries. The coursework covers a wide range of styles and historical periods in order to assess the multitude of possible film techniques (camera techniques, editing, shot selection, etc.), organizational principles such as narrative structuring and documentary, and introduces formative film theories. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Required coursework entails both films and readings and requires students to watch, analyze, and write about film in new ways.

Required Text:
The Film Experience: An Introduction, 6th edition, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

FILM 3100 Rise of the Moving Image
Wessels (TR 1:20-2:40)

Emerging in the late nineteenth century, at the height of technological change and imperial politics, cinema is sometimes called one of the first global mediums. This course offers a historical survey through World War II, treating all kinds of cinema, including narrative, documentary, and experimental films and their hybrids. We will range widely in time and space, watching films made in a variety of styles and genres from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the Soviet Union, China, etc. Cautioning against a simple understanding of cinema history as a history of technological progress, the course will explore a variety of ways in which filmmakers in different countries developed different ways of telling stories visually. We will also consider how experimental, documentary, and narrative films responded to contemporary issues, such as urbanization, modern technological innovation accompanied by widespread poverty, changing notions of gender, etc. Together, the films considered in this course do not constitute a comprehensive list, but offer a chronological, geographical, stylistic, generic, and thematic overview.

ENGL 3150 Literature, Ethics and Values -
Here Be Monsters: Monstrosity and the Monstrous in Literature and Film
Reid/Wessels (TR 10:10-11:30am)

Frankenstein. Medusa. Vampires. Godzilla. Grendel. Zombies. The Xenomorph. They horrify us,
they fascinate us, they stalk the dark boundaries of our subconscious. In this course we will use
the ideas of monstrosity, the grotesque, and otherness to explore topics including gender,
sexuality, race, class, science, violence, and culture. Our journey into the monstrous will cover
literature (The Faerie Queene, Zone One, Borne), graphic novels (My Favorite Thing Is
Monsters), and film (Alien, Night of the Living Dead, Let the Right One In, Jennifer’s Body, Bride
of Frankenstein, Gojira, etc.). Join us if you dare.

Required texts:
The Faerie Queen, Book One – Edmund Spenser
Zone One – Colson Whitehead
Borne – Jeff VanderMeer
My Favorite Thing is Monsters - Emil Ferris

ENGL 4507/5507 Weird Fiction (Film and Literature)
Holtmeier (W 4:00-6:50pm

Weird fiction is a difficult genre to characterize. It has features in common with horror, but ‘weird’ is often a categorization used to position it as separate from the genre of horror. Perhaps the best-known contemporary author of weird fiction, Jeff Vandermeer, suggests that weird fiction is marked by “some indefinable and perhaps maddeningly unreachable understanding of the world.” Similarly, Mark Fisher argues that it centers on “a fascination for the outside, for that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition and experience.” The literary techniques used to express the inexpressible will be the focus of this course.

Weird fiction might also be defined historically, as a type of fiction emerging from Weird Tales, a legendary pulp dating back to 1923, which has been published off and on to the present. Many well-known writers got their start writing stories for the magazine, including H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, and Tennessee Williams.

In this course we will read stories that span the last century, from Robert Chambers’ King in Yellow to the work of contemporary local author Nathan Ballingrud. The literature will be accompanied by films such as Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968), Stalker (1979), Under the Skin (2013), and Midsommar (2019).

Required Texts:
The Weird – Jeff and Ann Vandermeer
The Weird and the Eerie – Mark Fisher

If enrolled at the graduate level (5507), also purchase:
Sisyphean – Dempow Torishima

SPRING 2023 SESSION (01/17/23 - 05/04/23)

FILM 3000: Methods in Film Studies (formerly ENGL 3290 Introduction to Film)
Wessels (M/W 3:10-4:30pm)

Required Text:

The Film Experience: An Introduction, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

FILM 3200: Postwar Global Film
Holtmeier (T/R 1:20-2:40pm)

This course surveys the cinematic landscape post-World War II. Each week focuses on a particular nation in order to highlight developments in the history of that location's film production, such as New Waves or innovative formal expressions. Films such as The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966), Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975), and Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001) are drawn from defining oments.

We start by looking at Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave for critical models of film historiography. Italian Neorealism formed in the wake of World War II, and responded directly to the postwar environment. The relationship between political, cultural, and historical contexts and film production will provide our first approach. The French New Wave responded to the “Tradition of Quality” in France that preceded it, providing a reactionary break from an earlier industry. Other films we examine will provide a similar break from previous traditions in establishing 'New Waves' of cinematic practice. Looking to these models as ways of understanding the development of cinema globally, we will explore the ways cinematic production has interacted with global politics, cultures, and histories.

Required Text:

Traditions in World Cinema, Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer

Note: free e-book access is available via the library, but you may choose to purchase a paper copy

FILM 4000: Film Theory (formerly ENGL 4320 Film Criticism)
Wessels (online)

This course introduces a range of political, philosophical, and cultural approaches to the cinema, centering on the key insights and breakthrough critical ideas that have informed the study of film and its role in society. The cinema -- as a new and revolutionary art form -- attracted many of the most powerful thinkers of the 20th century. And with every technological advance in film -- including sound, color, and computer animation -- new theories of “what is cinema” emerged, contributing to core theoretical frameworks that have been used to understand film historically. Theories and films will be drawn from around the world, to illustrate how theories of film have developed differently depending on cultures and contexts, which in turn shapes the form the films take. Films screened may include: Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936), The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), and Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014). Readings will be available via D2L.

Pre-requisite: FILM 3000 or ENGL 3290

FILM 4200-001: (Topics in Film) Television: From Networks to Netflix
Wessels (M/W 1:40-3pm)

Television has been a powerful form of communication for the last 80 years, binding together the globe with shared knowledge and experiences, and molding our opinions and outlook on the world. Today, we increasingly watch television on a variety of devices, using streaming services to binge watch the latest season or rewatch old favorites. Through studying the historical development of television programs and assessing the industrial, technological, political, aesthetic, and cultural systems out of which they emerged, this course will investigate the catalysts responsible for shaping this highly influential medium. Our readings and viewings will explore the economics of the television industry, television’s role within American democracy, the formal attributes of a variety of television genres, television as a site of gender and racial identity formation, television’s role in everyday life, and the medium’s technological and social impacts.

Required texts:

You will not be required to purchase a textbook for this class – all readings will be provided via D2L and the library. Screenings will be accessed through sites like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc. so you will need to be able to stream video and audio online and an account for Hulu and/or Netflix.

FILM 4200-201: (Topics in Film) The Video Essay
Holtmeier (Thursdays 4-6:50pm)

The video essay has emerged as a popular critical form with the rise of screen communication via hosting sites like YouTube and various forms of social media. Video essays often dissect films, television, video games, or other media, using their own images and sounds reconfigured to make an argument about them, while others creatively highlight themes and ideas through remixing the material. More recently, video essays have been accepted as a critical form of scholarship, peer-reviewed and published by digital journals. We will study the proliferation of methods, types, and styles of this new form of critical audio-visual composition and build the skills to create our own. No previous production experience is required, but through this course you will learn the principles of editing video using Adobe Premiere. By the end of the course, you will create a video essay that contributes to this growing field of practice.

SUMMER 2022 SESSION (05/16/22 - 06/03/22)

FILM 4200 (Topics in Film) Hollywood and American Film History
Wessels (ONLINE)

This course may count toward the history requirement for the Film and Media Studies minor.

Required text:
Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema, John Alberti

FALL 2022 SESSION (08/22/22 - 12/8/22)

FILM 3000 Methods in Film Studies
Holtmeier (online)

Required Text:
The Film Experience: An Introduction, 6th edition, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

FILM 3100 Rise of the Moving Image
Wessels (online)

FILM 4100 Film Genres: The Martial Arts Film
Holtmeier (online)

In contemporary western cinema, martial arts action is relatively commonplace, but martial arts have a long history in the east, which is reflected in the cinemas of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This course looks at the history, cultures, and forms of martial arts on screen and how they eventually influenced western filmmaking. Topics include the genres of martial arts cinema, martial arts stars, and how the various philosophies of martial arts translate to the screen. Films range from the poetic acrobatics of the Wuxia tradition to the Silat-inspired films of Southeast Asia, and include classics such as Seven Samurai (1954), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Drunken Master (1978).

Required Text:
Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film, David West

ENGL 4507/ENGL 5507 Film and Literature: Feminist Adaptations
Wessels (M/W 3:10-4:30pm)

Combining the study of adaptation, film and literary form, and feminist film theory, this course will consider women’s writing as it is adapted to a new medium and cultural moment. Issues of fidelity and authorship are critical to this shift, alongside film-specific understandings of agency, the gaze, and representations of gender and sexuality. Case studies will include Jane Austen’s Emma and Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt. Students will have the opportunity to work with additional texts of their choosing. Films screened may include: Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020), Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995), Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan, 2018), and Bridget Jones’s Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001).

Required texts:
Emma (Jane Austen), The Price of Salt (Patricia Highsmith), and one additional book to be selected in class.

ENGL 4957/HIST 4957/WGSS 4957 Where we stand: possibility and practice in bell hooks
Carter, Thompson, Wessels (M/W 1:40-3pm)

This course introduces students to the range of work by bell hooks, a Black feminist scholar and activist. As a class, we will consider her writings on race, class, gender, sexuality, pedagogy, art, mass media, and more. Following hooks' belief in education as the practice of freedom, students will have opportunities to contribute to course design, undertake independent research, and participate in community focused reading groups throughout the semester.

SPRING 2022 SESSION (01/18/22 - 5/5/22)

FILM 3000: Methods in Film Studies

Wessels (T/Th 11:15-12:35pm)

Required Text:
The Film Experience: An Introduction, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White (any edition)

FILM 3200: Postwar Global Film
Holtmeier (online)

This course surveys the cinematic landscape post-World War II. Each week focuses on a particular nation in order to highlight developments in the history of that location's film production, such as New Waves or innovative formal expressions. Films such as The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966), Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975), and Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001) are drawn from defining moments.

Required Text:
Traditions in World Cinema, Badley, Palmer, and Schneider
Note: this book is available onlin via the ETSU library

FILM 4000: Film Theory (formerly ENGL 4320 Film Criticism)
Wessels (T/Th 9:45-11:05am)

This course introduces a range of political, philosophical, and cultural approaches to the cinema, centering on the key insights and breakthrough critical ideas that have informed the study of film and its role in society. The cinema -- as a new and revolutionary art form -- attracted many of the most powerful thinkers of the 20th century. And with every technological advance in film -- including sound, color, and computer animation -- new theories of “what is cinema” emerged, contributing to core theoretical frameworks that have been used to understand film historically. Theories and films will be drawn from around the world, to illustrate how theories of film have developed differently depending on cultures and contexts, which in turn shapes the form the films take. Films screened may include: Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936), The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), and Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014). Readings will be available via D2L.

Pre-requisite: FILM 3000 or ENGL 3290

FILM 4200: The Video Poem
Holtmeier & Jones (T 4-6:50pm)

This course combines creative writing with video production to explore both the remediation of poetry and new compositional practices. We will practice combining text or voice with images, as well as composing poetry alongside images. While experimental media has long had a ‘poetic quality,’ this course further interrogates the relationship between word and image.

Book/chapbook trailers have emerged as a popular form of advertising with the rise of screen communication via hosting sites like YouTube and various forms of social media. The skills developed in this course will provide the tools to create video essays and other forms of multimodal writing, but we will also explore the role that audiovisual media plays for creative writers today.

No previous creative writing or production experience is required, but through this course you will learn the principles of editing video using Adobe Premiere and will create video poetry.

Required Text:
The Videographic Essay, Keathley, Grant, and Mittell
Note: No purchase required, the book is now free online: http://videographicessay.org/works/videographic-essay/contents

FALL 2021 SESSION (08/23/21 - 12/9/21)

FILM 3000: Methods in Film Studies
Holtmeier (online)
Wessels (T/Th 2:15-3:35pm)

Required Text:
The Film Experience: An Introduction, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White (any edition)

FILM 3100: Rise of the Moving Image
Wessels (T/Th 9:45-11:05am)

FILM 4100: Film Genres
Wessels (T/Th 11:15am-12:25pm)

This course will examine film genres through theory, history, and culture by working through some of the major genres: the western, musical, melodrama, horror, science fiction, and film noir. For each, we will consider both theoretical lenses for genre more broadly, as well as the ways in which the genre works to respond to contemporary issues for different historical, social, and political contexts. Films screened may include The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014), The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984), Bride and Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, 2004), and Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010).

FILM 4200 Topics in Film: Environmental Media
Holtmeier (M/W 1:40-3pm)

This course introduces the ways that environments are communicated through media representation. It covers a variety of media, from film to new media and video games, to consider how they represent and engage with environments and environmental issues. We will explore questions of human impact on the environment, but also non-anthropocentric representations of environments. Films range from narrative, to documentary, and experimental media.

After surveying various ways in which we might communicate the environment, we will experiment with our own creation of media. Leveraging the potential of technology to document the non-human, we will take a closer look at the environments of Appalachia.

ENGL 4507/5507 Cybernetic Screen Fictions
Holtmeier (M 4-6:50pm)

This course will explore the convergence of twentieth-first century narrative and technology through literature, film, and video games. In particular, we explore the influence of cybernetics on the arts, or the feedback loop created between animal and machine. Accordingly, we’ll look at the ways in which the novel has enlarged and redefined its territory of representation and its range of technique and play. With film, we will examine how digital technology communicates the interface between human and machine, and how it alters classical formal practices to communicate this relationship. Finally, we look to the influence of both literary and filmic traditions on games and the role of play within digital storytelling. We’ll engage in media-specific analysis, which attends to the specificity of form as well as to citations of one medium in another, and finish the course by producing critical or creative technotexts that engage with the interface between written work and screen technologies.

Required Texts:
If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler, Italo Calvino ($6)
Crash, J. G. Ballard ($16)
House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition, Mark Danielewski ($13)

Writing Machines, N. Katherine Hayles ($11)

SPRING 2021 SESSION (01/19/21 - 5/6/21)

FILM 3000 (online): Methods in Film Studies
Holtmeier

Delivery method: this course is fully asynchronous

“As good a way as any towards understanding what a film is trying to say to us is to know how it is saying it” (André Bazin). This course introduces core concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and modes of production. The coursework covers a wide range of styles and historical periods in order to assess the multitude of possible film techniques (cinematography, editing, shot selection, etc.) and principles of narrative structure. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Success in the course demands rigorous attention to both the films and the readings and requires students to watch, analyze, and write about film in new ways. Throughout the semester, students will learn different methods of viewing, analysis, exposition, and criticism and will have the opportunity to write about the films seen in class.

Required Text:
The Film Experience: An Introduction, 4th edition, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

FILM 3200: Postwar Global Film
Holtmeier

Delivery method: this course contains both synchronous and asynchronous materials, and meets synchronously via Zoom only on Thursdays 11:15-12:35pm

This course surveys the cinematic landscape post-World War II. Each week focuses on a particular nation in order to highlight developments in the history of that location's film production, such as New Waves or innovative formal expressions. Films such as The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966), Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975), and Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001) are drawn from defining moments.

Required Text:
Traditions in World Cinema, Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer
Note: free e-book access is available via the library, but you may choose to purchase a paper copy

FILM 4000: Film Theory
Wessels

Delivery method: This course will meet synchronously on Wednesdays from 1:40-3pm via Zoom. Additional course materials will be delivered asynchronously.

This course introduces a range of political, philosophical, and cultural approaches to the cinema, centering on the key insights and breakthrough critical ideas that have informed the study of film and its role in society. The cinema -- as a new and revolutionary art form -- attracted many of the most powerful thinkers of the 20th century. And with every technological advance in film -- including sound, color, and computer animation -- new theories of “what is cinema” emerged, contributing to core theoretical frameworks that have been used to understand film historically. Theories and films will be drawn from around the world, to illustrate how theories of film have developed differently depending on cultures and contexts, which in turn shapes the form the films take. Films screened may include: Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936), The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002), and Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014). Readings will be available via D2L.

FILM 4200: The Video Essay
Holtmeier

Delivery method: this course contains both synchronous and asynchronous materials, and meets synchronously via Zoom only on Thursdays 2:15-3:35pm

The video essay has emerged as a popular critical form with the rise of screen communication via hosting sites like YouTube and various forms of social media. Video essays often dissect films, television, video games, or other media, using their own images and sounds reconfigured to make an argument about them, while others creatively highlight themes and ideas through remixing the material. More recently, video essays have been accepted as a critical form of scholarship, peer-reviewed and published by digital journals. We will study the proliferation of methods, types, and styles of this new form of critical audio-visual composition and build the skills to create our own. No previous production experience is required, but through this course you will learn the principles of editing video using Adobe Premiere. By the end of the course you will create a video essay that contributes to this growing field of practice.

Required Text:
The Videographic Essay, Keathley, Grant, and Mittell
Note: No purchase required, the book is now free online: http://videographicessay.org/works/videographic-essay/contents

ENGL 4507/ENGL 5507: Film and Literature - Feminist Adaptations
Wessels

Delivery method: Synchronous discussion will take place in the scheduled course time on Mondays from 4-5:30pm via Zoom. Additional course materials will be delivered asynchronously.

Combining the study of adaptation, film and literary form, and feminist film theory, this course will consider women’s writing as it is adapted to a new medium and cultural moment. Issues of fidelity and authorship are critical to this shift, alongside film-specific understandings of agency, the gaze, and representations of gender and sexuality. Key case studies will include Jane Austen’s Emma, My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin), and Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt. Students will have the opportunity to work with additional texts of their choosing. Films screened may include: Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020), Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995), Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015), My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan, 2018), and Bridget Jones’s Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001).

Required texts: Emma (Jane Austen), My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin), The Price of Salt (Patricia Highsmith), and one additional book to be selected in class.

FALL 2020 SESSION (08/24/20 - 12/10/20)

FILM 3000: Methods in Film Studies

Holtmeier (online)

Wessels (T/Th 3:10-4:30pm)

Films will be screened Tuesdays at 4:40pm.

Required Text:

The Film Experience: An Introduction, 4th edition, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

FILM 3100 Film History: Rise of the Moving Image

Wessels (T/Th 1:40-3pm)

Films will be screened Thursdays at 4:40pm.

FILM 4100 Film Genres: The Martial Arts Film

Holtmeier (M/W 1:40-3:00pm)

In contemporary western cinema, martial arts action is relatively common place, but martial arts have a long history in the east, which is reflected in the cinemas of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This course looks at the history, cultures, and forms of martial arts on screen and how they eventually influenced western filmmaking. Topics include the genres of martial arts cinema, martial arts stars, and how various philosophies of various martial arts translate to the screen. Films range from the poetic acrobatics of the Wuxia tradition to the Silat-inspired films of Southeast Asia, and include classics such as Seven Samurai (1954), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Ashes of Time (1994).

Films will be screened Wednesdays at 4:40pm.

Required Text:

Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film, David West

FILM 4200 Topics in Film: The Video Essay

Holtmeier (M 4:00-6:50pm)

The video essay has emerged as a popular critical form with the rise of screen communication via hosting sites like YouTube and various forms of social media. Video essays often dissect films, television, video games, or other media, using their own images and sounds reconfigured to make an argument about them, while others creatively highlight themes and ideas through remixing the material. More recently, video essays have been accepted as a critical form of scholarship, peer-reviewed and published by digital journals. We will study the proliferation of methods, types, and styles of this new form of critical audio-visual composition and build the skills to create our own. No previous production experience is required, but through this course you will learn the principles of editing video using Adobe Premiere. By the end of the course you will create a video essay that contributes to this growing field of practice.

Required Text:

The Videographic Essay, Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell, and Catherine Grant

FILM 4200 Topics in Film: Film Festivals

Wessels (T/Th 11:15am-12:35pm)

Film festivals provide a key site for immersion in film culture, creating meaningful dialogue about significant issues around the world through film screenings, panels, workshops, and other events. This course will explore and analyze the history, politics, and creative impact of film festivals around the world. Students will participate in the marketing, planning, programming, and operation of the Appalachian Film Festival (November 12-14, 2020). Through learning about how film festivals work with independent film, community engagement, and other creative industries, the course offers an immersive experience in being part of a film festival team while also providing the opportunity for students to practice writing about film for public audiences through interviews, blogging, and creating marketing materials.

SPRING 2020 SESSION (01/21/20 - 05/08/20)

ENGL 3290: Introduction to Film

Holtmeier (online)

Wessels

Films will be screened Tuesdays at 4:40pm.

Required Text:

The Film Experience: An Introduction, 4th edition, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

ENGL4320: Film Criticism

Wessels

This course introduces a range of political, philosophical, and cultural approaches to the cinema, centering on the key insights and breakthrough critical ideas that have informed the study of film and its role in society. The cinema -- as a new and revolutionary art form -- attracted many of the most powerful thinkers of the 20th century. And with every technological advance in film -- including sound, color, and computer animation -- new theories of “what is cinema” emerged, contributing to core theoretical frameworks that have been used to understand film historically. Theories and films will be drawn from around the world, to illustrate how theories of film have developed differently depending on cultures and contexts, which in turn shapes the form the films take. Films screened may include: Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936), The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002), and Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014).

Films will be screened at 4:40pm on Thursdays.

ENGL 4340: Postwar Global Film

Holtmeier

Films will be screened at 6:50 on Mondays. This course may count towards the Film History requirement for the Film Studies Minor, with approval.

Required Text:

Traditions in World Cinema, Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer

ENGL 4340: Hollywood and American Film

Holtmeier

Films will be screened at 4:40 on Wednesdays.

Required Text:

Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema, John Alberti

FALL 2019 SESSION (08/26/19 - 12/06/19)

ENGL 3290 Introduction to Film

Holtmeier (online)

Wessels (on campus)

Required Text:

The Film Experience: An Introduction, Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White

ENGL 3350 Film History

Wessels

Emerging in the late nineteenth century, at the height of technological change and imperial politics, cinema is sometimes called one of the first global mediums. This course offers a historical survey treating all kinds of cinema, including narrative, documentary, and experimental films and their hybrids. We will range widely in time and space, watching films made in a variety of styles and genres from the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the Soviet Union, China, etc. Cautioning against a simple understanding of cinema history as a history of technological progress, the course will explore a variety of ways in which filmmakers in different countries developed different ways of telling stories visually. We will also consider how experimental, documentary, and narrative films responded to contemporary issues, such as urbanization, modern technological innovation accompanied by widespread poverty, changing notions of gender, etc. Together, the films considered in this course do not constitute a comprehensive list, but offer a chronological, geographical, stylistic, generic, and thematic overview. Films will be screened Thursdays at 4:40pm.

ENGL 4290 Film Genres: The Western

Wessels

Beginning with questions of genre more broadly, this course will trace the evolution of the western genre from early cinema to contemporary examples. We will examine westerns from America and around the world to consider how the western is shaped by history, politics, and culture. Through screening films and reading texts drawn from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and East Asia, we will consider the interrelation of national and global factors that have led to the emergence and the adoption of the western as a popular genre. Films screened may include: My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966), The Ballad of Little Jo (Maggie Greenwald, 1993), and Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005). Films will be screened Wednesdays at 4:40pm.

ENGL 4340 Topics in Film Studies: The Video Essay

Holtmeier

The video essay has emerged as a popular critical form with the rise of screen communication via hosting sites like YouTube and various forms of social media. Video essays often dissect films, television, video games, or other media, using their own images and sounds reconfigured to make an argument about them, while others creatively highlight themes and ideas through remixing the material. More recently, video essays have been accepted as a critical form of scholarship, peer-reviewed and published by digital journals. We will study the proliferation of methods, types, and styles of this new form of critical audio-visual composition and build the skills to create our own. No previous production experience is required, but through this course you will learn the principles of editing video using Adobe Premiere. By the end of the course you will create a video essay that contributes to this growing field of practice.

ENGL 4507/5507 Lit and Film: Cybernetic Screen Fictions

Holtmeier

Required Texts:

If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler, Italo Calvino

Crash, J. G. Ballard

House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition, Mark Danielewski

Writing Machines, N. Katherine Hayles