FMS Theory Syllabus – Full PDF.
CLASS SCHEDULE
WK 1 HOW DO WE THEORIZE MEDIA?
WED 9/4: Introductions; Approaches to Reading Theory
- Arnold, “Culture and Anarchy” (Red 3-11)
- Leavis, “Mass Civilization and Minority Culture” (Red 12-19)
WK 2 MARXISM
MON 9/9 – The Basics
Storey: “Classical Marxism,” (Blue 59-61)
Selected Marx & Engels (Red 58-61)
SCREENING: A Face in the Crowd (Kazan 1957)
WED 9/11 – The Culture Industry
- Storey, “The Frankfurt School” (Blue 62-69)
- Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (CLEo)
- Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (B&C 665-685)
WK 3 SEMIOTICS / STRUCTURALISM
MON 9/16: The Study of Signs
- Berger, “Semiotic Analysis” (CLEo)
- Explore: “Semiotics and the Media” (CLEo)
SCREENING: Queen Christina (Mamoulian 1933)
WED 9/18: Structuralism
- Storey, “Roland-Barthes: Mythologies” (Blue 118-125)
- Barthes, “Myth Today” (Red 261-269)
- Barthes, “The Face of Garbo” (B&C 471-473)
WK 4 IDEOLOGY / RESISTANCE
MON 9/23 – Ideology
- Storey, “Althusserianism” (Blue 70-78)
- Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” (Red 302-312)
SCREENING: The Matrix (Wachowski Brothers 1999)
WED 9/25 – Hegemony
- Storey, “Hegemony” (Blue 79-81)
- Gramsci, “Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State” (Red 75-80)
- Storey, “Rockin’ Hegemony: West Coast Rock” (Red 88-97)
WK 5 MODES OF RESISTANCE
MON 9/30: Alternate Readings
- Storey, “Post-Marxism and Cultural Studies” (Blue 82-87)
- Hall, “Encoding/Decoding” (CLEo)
SCREENING: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks 1954)
WED 10/2: Queering Pop Culture
- Doty, “What Makes Queerness Most?” “There’s Something Queer Here” (CLEo)
- Sontag, “Notes on Camp” (CLEo)
WK 6 PSYCHOANALYSIS/FEMINIST THEORY
MON 10/7: Psychoanalysis
- Storey, “Freudian, Lacanian, Cine-Psychoanalysis” (Blue 91-106)
- Freud, “The Dream-Work” (Red 246-254)
- Lacan, “The Mirror Stage” (Storey 255-260)
SCREENING: Rear Window (Hitchcock 1954)
WED 10/9: The Male Gaze
- Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema” (B&C 711-722)
- Modleski, “The Master’s Dollhouse: Rear Window” (B&C 723-735)
WK 7 FEMINISM POST-MULVEY
MON 10/14: NO CLASS – FOUR DAY
WED 10/16: Abjection
- Kristeva, “Approaching Abjection” (CLEo)
- Creed, “Horror and The Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection” (CLEo)
WK 8 CRITICAL RACE THEORY
MON 10/21: Racial Ideologies
- Storey, “Race and Racism” “Ideology of Racism” “Orientalism” (Blue 167-178)
- Said, “Introduction to Orientalism” (CLEo)
- Dyer, Selections from White (CLEo)
SCREENING: Bamboozled (Lee 2000)
WED 10/23: Race and the Media
- Hall, “Racist Ideologies and the Media” (CLEo)
WK 9 POSTMODERNISM
MON 10/28: Postmodernism/Postmodernities
- Malpas, “The Postmodern” (CLEo)
SCREENING: Moulin Rouge (Luhrmann 2001)
WED 10/30: Postmodern Media Culture
- Storey, “Jean Baudrillard” “Postmodern Music,” “Postmodern Television”
- Baudrillard, “The Precesssion of Simulacra” (Red 409 – 415)
WK 10 THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM
MON 11/4: The Studio System
- Jewell, “How Howard Hawks Brought Baby Up” (B&C 515-522)
- Schatz, “The Whole Equation of Pictures” (B&C 523-528)
WED 11/6: The Star System
- McDonald, “Stardom as a System” (CLEo)
- Allen, “The Role of the Star in Film History” (CLEo)
WK 11 GENRE THEORY
MON 11/11: Making Lists
- Altman, “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre” (B&C 552-563)
- Schatz, “Film Genre and Genre Film” (B&C 564-575)
WED 11/13: Body Genres
- Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess” (B&C 602-616)
WK 12 CANONS AND TASTE FORMATION
MON 11/18: The Auteur Theory
- Sarris, “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962” (B&C 451-454)
- Wollen, “The Auteur Theory” (B&C 455-462 (stop after Hawks))
- SCREEN ON OWN: His Girl Friday (Hawks 1940) or Red River (Hawks 1950)
WED 11/20: The Aristocracy of Culture
- Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital” (CLEo)
- Wilson, “Let’s Talk About Love” (CLEo)
THANKSGIVING BREAK
WEEK 13 – CHOOSE YOUR OWN THEORY ADVENTURE
WEEK 14 – CONFERENCING
FINAL PAPER DUE: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19TH 5 PM
Film & Media Studies Theory 