Post-Cinema: Technology, Politics, Audiences

elective courses

Classroom

What we know as cinema has never been a homogenous body but really a range of diverse entities. Nevertheless, in the 20th century, most of them utilized a fairly uniform spectrum of formal devices and narrative grooves. In the 21st century, though, a number of transformations and innovations, many triggered by the arrival of digital technologies, make it possible to talk about post-cinema. We will examine these developments and aesthetics through close readings of selected films to discover how they change our ways of thinking about and feeling with the movies.

What we know as cinema has never been a homogenous body but really a range of diverse entities. Nevertheless, in the 20th century, most of them utilized a fairly uniform spectrum of formal devices and narrative grooves. In the 21st century, though, a number of transformations and innovations, many triggered by the arrival of digital technologies, make it possible to talk about post-cinema. Some of these departures are spectacular and staggering; others less obvious but no less game-changing. We will examine these developments and aesthetics through close readings of selected films to discover how they change our ways of thinking about and feeling with the movies.

Selected primary texts:

- Gamer (dir. Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor 2009)

- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (dir. Kerry Conran 2004)

- Southland Tales (dir. Richard Kelly 2006)

- Paranormal Activity (dir. Oren Peli 2007)

- Detention (dir. Joseph Kahn 2012)

- Unfriended (dir. Leo Gabriadze, 2014)

- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ram-sey, Rodney Rothman, 2018)

Selected secondary texts:

- Shane Denson & Julia Leyda Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film (2016)

- Shane Denson Discorrelated Images (2020)

- Deborah Levitt The Animatic Apparatus: Animation, Vitality, and the Futures of the Image (2018)

- selections of book chapters and journal articles

Upon completing this course, a student:

1. KNOWLEDGE

• has a knowledge of American film in the last two decades

• recognizes key texts of post-cinema

• is aware of multiple contexts of contemporary American film, including technological, economic, and industrial

2. SKILLS

• is able to use critical tools

• is able to formulate critical arguments about American film and media

• is able to use a range of theoretical apparatuses in analyses of individual films

3. SOCIAL COMPETENCES

• is aware of cultural differences between American and European popular cultures

• is open to new phenomena and ideas in American popular culture

• understands and appreciates the role of popular literature in the United States

Students are expected to watch assigned movies, read assigned texts, at-tend classes, participate in class discussion, and write a final es-say/project.

1) final paper

2) class participation

3) weekly activities