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Hilary Neroni, Associate Professor, Program Director Hilary.Neroni@uvm.edu 311 Old Mill 802-656-1356 |
FTS 121: Film Theory, Fall 2008
Sec B: T/TH 2:00-3:15pm; Kalkin
001
Screening
for both sections: Thurs
3:30-6; Aiken 104
Phone: 656-1356
Office Hours (Old Mill 311): Tuesday 3:15-5:15 or
by apt
Course
Description: This
course will
serve as a rigorous introduction to film theory. We
will begin with the earliest attempts to theorize the
cinema and move quickly to the film theory explosion of the 1960s and
1970s. The class will center on the
theoretical underpinnings of this explosion—semiotics, psychoanalysis,
and feminism. We will investigate
the thinkers that brought these different theoretical perspectives to
bear on
film. To end the course, we will
investigate recent film theory’s interest in philosopher and film
theorist
Gilles Deleuze.
Required
Books (These
books can be found to purchase in the University Bookstore, on line at
Amazon
or Barnes and Noble.com and to borrow on reserve at Bailey Howe Library): Sigmund Freud’s On Dreams,
Patricia White’s Uninvited,
Deleuze’s Cinema 1
Grade
Distribution:
Assignments
Descriptions:
Quizzes: Random
quizzes will be given throughout the semester. These
quizzes will be on the readings and screening
assignments from the week within which they are given.
Missed quizzes CANNOT be made up. I
will drop your lowest quiz grade at
the end of the semester.
Exams: The Midterm
Exam will cover the first half of the course and the Final Exam will
cover the
second half of the course. Both
exams will consist of short answer questions as well as essay questions. A review sheet will be distributed a
week in advance of the exam.
Paper: The paper will ask
you to engage with
one of the film theories that we will be reading and one or several of
the
films we have watched or that you have chosen. A
detailed handout with instructions and suggestions will be
distributed in class.
Late Work: Papers
turned in late will be lowered one grading step for each day that they
are
late.