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Spring 2006
Course Descriptions
Dramatic Structure/aka Contextual and Intertextual Studies in
Drama (Professor
Judith Milhous): As the change in title
suggests, this course will still be concerned with texts drawn
from world drama throughout recorded history, but in addition to
placing emphasis upon structural analysis, the course will also
look at the social and cultural background of the texts and at
how they relate to other texts thematically or structurally.
Each class will address approximately three plays (lengths
vary), plus ancillary material, with substantial representation
of both the generally accepted canon and of non-canonical works,
and including both pre- and post-1900 drama. Paper requirement:
one short paper (7-8 pages) at mid-term; one longer paper (10-15
pages) at the end of the term. Further specifics when class
meets. Short-essay exam written in class time on May 24, 2006.
Wednesdays, 2:00pm to
4:00pm
History
of Theatrical Theory (Professor Jean Graham-Jones): This course has
two objectives: to introduce students to theatrical theory and
to examine other theories that have influenced contemporary
theatre and cultural studies. The course will begin with a
discussion of what constitutes theatrical theory and then
proceed modularly to examine such key theatrical and performance
concepts as representation, mimesis, character and identity,
genre, and audience response. A modular structure will allow us
to follow and create ongoing dialogues about these concepts as
they have evolved. The second objective of the course will be
met through, again, a modular approach to the presentation and
discussion of such influential critical / cultural theories as
formalism and structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism,
feminism, and post-colonialism, as well as other disciplinary
approaches—coming from, for instance, anthropology, sociology,
and psychology—that have transformed theatre studies. Requirements include two projects: an
annotated bibliography and a short research paper, one due at
midterm and the other due at the end of the semester, as well as
a 15-minute individual oral examination at the end of the course. Only a few texts will be ordered; most
readings will be placed on reserve.
Thursdays, 4:15pm to 6:15pm.
History of Cinema I:
1895-1930 (Professor
Marc Dolan): This is a course in the
history and historiography of the silent cinema, from the
zoopraxiscope experiments of Eadweard Muybridge to the reluctant
conversion of industries, artists, and audiences to fully
synchronized sound. Much of the course will explore how the
foundations of modern filmmaking evolved out of the rudimentary
work of the earliest filmmakers--how the Edison and Lumiere
"actuality" films led to the explicitly labeled "documentary,"
the cinematic tricks of Georges Melies to the fantastic
action/adventure film, the early melodramas of Porter, Guy-Blache,
and Griffith to the so-called "classical" narrative style, etc.
However, the course will not employ an exclusively auteurist
approach. We will also consider the developments of
specific national film industries, particular genres, and the
points of intersection between those two sets of developments
(e.g., American slapstick, Italian historical epics, Swedish
naturalism, German expressionism, Soviet montage).
Moreover, the play between identifiable national cinemas and the
syncretic medium of international cinema will be a central theme
of the course, especially since the idea of film as a
potentially universal language was one of the most powerful
dreams of the silent era. (List of films available upon
request.) Students will view on reserve and in class individual
examples of all these types of films, and two classes during the
term will be devoted to reconstructed programs (including short
subjects, newsreels, cartoons, etc.) of what a typical audience
might have seen when they went to the movies in 1912 and in
1927.Readings will primarily be drawn from David Bordwell and
Kristin Thompson’s Film History: An Introduction and Leo
Braudy and Marshall Cohen’s anthology Film Theory and
Criticism, but other readings will be put on reserve to
reflect the specific interests of registered students. Course
requirements: Class participation; one 15-minute presentation; a
20-page final paper, reflecting students’ original
scholarship. (NO AUDITORS, PERMITS, NON-MATRICS)
Mondays, 11:45am to 2:45pm.
Seminar in Theatre Theory and
Criticism: Toward a Sociology of Theatre (Professor
David Savran): Despite the fact that social scientists and theorists have long
attempted to analyze different forms of cultural production, few
have focused on theatrical practices or texts. This course will
examine the methodologies of the most celebrated and influential
social theorists, charting the development of sociological
approaches to culture and, in particular, to theatre. We will
survey the work of theorists who have tried to answer questions
about cultural hierarchies, the class composition of audiences,
the economics of the performing arts, the politics of production
and consumption, the history of taste, the ideological
specificity of different media, and the role of culture in
effecting (or problematizing) capitalist globalization. The
trajectory of the course will be roughly chronological, from the
Frankfurt School (Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt
Brecht, Georg Lukacs) to the Birmingham School (Stuart Hall,
Tony Bennett, Dick Hebdige, Colin MacCabe), from Raymond
Williams to Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we will critically
examine recent efforts by theatre scholars to formulate a
sociological approach to performance and by Marxist postcolonial
theorists to analyze how culture operates in what Samir Amin
calls actually existing capitalism, the polarization produced by
the global expansion of capital. Assignments will include four
short response papers, a five- to eight-page book review, and a
fifteen-page final research paper.
Tuesdays, 4:15pm to 6:15pm.
Studies in the Current Season (Professor
Marvin Carlson): The course will involve
class attendance at five current New York productions, jointly
selected by the professor and those enrolled in the class. Each
production will take up approximately three class sessions, one
devoted to background readings, one actual attendance at the
production, and one post-production discussion and analysis.
Productions will be selected to represent a variety of dramatic
cultures, historical periods, and production approaches. In
addition to the in-class assignments, students will be asked to
attend and report on two additional productions in the course of
the term.
Thursdays, 6:30pm to 8:30pm.
Seminar
in Film Studies: African-American Film (Professor
Paula Massood): This course is an
introduction to African American filmmaking from the early 20th
century to the present. We will start with effects and the
"after" effects of early films, such as D.W. Griffith’s Birth
of a Nation, and the responses to the film by a selection of
African American filmmakers over time. Throughout the semester,
we will discuss the ways in which African American directors and
other film personnel have addressed issues of representation,
caricature, and stereotype through a variety of filmmaking
styles and stories. We will examine the attempts by different
directors and film theorists to define the parameters—or even
the possibility—of a black film aesthetic or aesthetics and
discuss the different forms these attempts have taken over time.
Screenings throughout the semester will include a cross-section
of films made between 1900 and the present and will be comprised
of films made by African American filmmakers or other relevant
films featuring black life and characters. By the end of the
semester, students will be familiar with the following:
Oscar Micheaux, race film production, the L.A. School of
Filmmakers, blaxploitation, "hood" films, and a variety of
contemporary independent filmmakers. Students will be able
to analyze and discuss African American film and American film
in the context of a number of theoretical and aesthetic
questions, including: "pard softline "What is black film?,"
"What is a black film aesthetic?," Where does black film fit in
Hollywood?," and "What have been the local and global effects of
black filmmaking?" Required Texts: Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film.
Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1993.Paula J. Massood, Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film.
Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 2003. Valerie Smith, Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997. (Smith). Manthia
Diawara, ed. Black American Cinema. New York: Routledge,
1993. (Diawara) Supplemental readings available on
reserve. (SUP) Course Requirements: Writing Assignments: 8–10pp. midterm essay on prearranged topic; 10–15pp. final
essay on topic of choice. Discussion Questions: Each
week, a student will be assigned to prepare and present two
questions to initiate class discussion on the scheduled reading
and screening. Participation/Attendance: Participation in
class discussion and class attendance are basic requirements for
the course (attendance is mandatory). Syllabus available
in the Certificate Programs Office (Room 5109).
Wednesdays, 6:30pm to 10:00 pm.
Seminar in Film Studies: The Cyborg and
Technologies of Imagination: (Professor
Peter Hitchcock): Science
fiction film and literature have conventionally explored the
theme of what makes a human human. The cyborg builds and bends
such conventions by denoting that contestable terrain between
the human subject and technoscience. The course will begin with
several definitions of the cyborg which we will consider
alongside significant early representations (Shelley’s Frankenstein, Lang’s Metropolis, and a few salient
clips from Bride of Frankenstein). Next, we will analyze
the components of early Cold War Cyborgania (Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still) and its relationship to
the cyborg of the nuclear apocalypse (Terminator and its
myriad "progenies"). The third topic, the cyborg and capital,
could easily be a course in itself, but we will restrict
ourselves to the alien and alienation in the Alien series
and the trenchant dystopia of muties and replicants in Blade
Runner--the touchstone of the cyborganic intellectual--(and
its contrast with Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Gibson’s Neuromancer). These readings will
connect to the no-less-important problem of engendering the
cyborg--a space, in particular, where feminist theory and
fiction have been a good deal more radical than most
high-profile film narratives (alongside the plethora of
significant criticism in this area--Haraway, Balsamo, Wolmark,
etc.--we will read at least one feminist sci-fi novel, Russ’s The Female Man or Piercy’s He, She, and It, for
instance). A fifth case study on cyborg narrativity will feature
memory and the fate of history (the memory chip/clip as the
memorial to the death of Time in Total Recall, but also
the time/space reversals of cyborgania in Twelve Monkeys or The Matrix). We will then consider whether AI
stands for artificial imagination and whether this sense of
artifice might ground rather than universalize cinema in the
digital age–an exploration that will propel us into anime and
transnationalism. Students are required to make an
in-class presentation and write a term paper (25 pages in
length).
Wednesdays,
2:00pm to 5:00pm.
Seminar in Film Studies: Expressionist, Dada and
Surrealist Film (Professor
Mary Ann Caws): André Breton, founder of surrealism, declared Murnau’s Nosferatu to be the most haunting of films: what of German expressionism
passes over into Dada and Surrealist film? How does a film in
incarnate a surrealist project? To what extent does the
fantastic militate against the "believable"? What has carried on
into recent films: does ‘transrealism’ work as a notion? This
seminar will examine some classic films of these several genres
– as well as what connects them – and then their legacy, in the
wake of the surrealist epoch, as it can be variously
interpreted. For want of a better term, I am using the term
"transrealist" here. Readings of film critics such as Kyrou,
Matthews, etc. – and discussion of their points of view. The
films will be chosen from this list, most probably, with
substitutions if it seems advisable: I. Murnau: Nosferatu, Last Laugh, Vampyr;Dreyer: Vampyr; Robert Wiene/Fritz Lang: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Fritz Lang: Dr. Mabuse; Paul Leni; The Cat and the
Canary II.Leger: Cinema mécanique;
Bunuel, Dali: Le Chien andalou, L’Age d’or, La voie lactée; Germaine Dulac/Antonin Artaud: La
Coquille et le clergyman; Desnos/Man Ray: L’Etoile de mer, Man Ray: Le mystPre
du Château
de dés (and some other brief Man Ray films); Joseph Cornell: gnir rednow – and Brakhage (Anthology); Jean Epstein: Fall of the House of
Usher. III. Todd Browning: Freaks, 1932, Dracula, 1931; Merian Cooper : King Kong, 1933; Fellini: Satiricon; Kurosawa: Dreams; Leo
McCarey: Duck Soup, The Awful Truth; Bergman: Wild Srawberries; Henry Hathaway: Peter Ibbetson 1935. IV. Albert Lewin: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman 1951; Woody Allen: Zelig; Greenaway: Prospero’s Books;
Jean-Jacques Beneix: 37.2 zero le matin/Betty Blue. And....
Open for discussion. The reading of some of the standard
expressionist, Dada, and surrealist texts will accompany our
examination, and oral reports will discuss those as well as the
films. Two papers, a shorter, mid-term, and a longer, as well as
informal paragraphs commenting on the screenings.
Tuesdays, 6:30pm to 9:30pm.
Seminar in Film Theory (Professor
William Boddy): This course explores some of
the major texts and controversies within classical and
contemporary film theory as well as a number of related
theoretical issues from related fields. Our attention will focus
on the analysis of primary theoretical texts, although films and
secondary writings which assist in contextualizing film theory
will also be examined. This course requires no previous
experience in film studies, and students from a variety of
academic backgrounds are welcome. Primary texts: Leo
Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and
Criticism: Introductory Readings Sixth Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); selections from
Robert Stam and Toby Miller, Film and Theory: An Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000); Toby Miller and Robert Stam,
eds., A Companion to Film Theory (Malden, MA: Blackwell,
1999); Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams, eds., Reinventing Film Studies (New York: Oxford University Press,
2000); John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, eds., Film
Studies Critical Approaches (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2000) . Additional photocopied material will be
placed on reserve at the Graduate Center library. Screenings:
Brief excerpts from the following films will be screened in
class: The Last Machine: Space and Time Machine (BBC,
1994); Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915); Henry V (Olivier, 1942), The Metric Films (Kubelka, 1956-60); Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925); Man With a Movie
Camera (Vertov, 1928); Written on the Wind (Sirk,
1956); Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954); Two or Three
Things I Know About Her (Godard, 1966); Bontoc Eulogy (Fuentes, 1995); The Crowd (Vidor, 1928); A Face in
the Crowd (Kazin, 1957); Network (Lumet, 1976); Tongues Untied (Riggs, 1991); Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (Rappaport, 1992); Jollies (Benning, 1990) Course Requirements: In addition to participation in
seminar discussions (representing 10% of the final grade), each
student is responsible for presenting selected readings to the
class (10%), producing six weekly journal entries in response to
course readings and screenings (20%), writing a 15-page research
paper on a topic selected in consultation with the instructor
(50%), and preparing an in-class presentation of the research
project to the seminar (10%).
Mondays, 4:15pm to 6:15pm.
Seminar in Theatre History and Production:
Twentieth-Century Actor Training: Culture and
Context (Professor
Mira Felner): Since the publication of Joseph Roach’s The Player’s Passion, there has been an increasing awareness
of the relationship of acting styles to prevailing concepts of
human biology and emotion. This course will examine the
evolution of twentieth century actor training as a reflection of
cultural moment. Topics such as Stanislavski and post-Darwinian
psychology; Alexander Technique and the educational theories of
John Dewey; Copeau and the return to nature; biomechanics and
theories of reflex response; organicity--primal feeling and the
search for universal language; and Alba Emoting and the
neurophysiology of emotion will explore the relationship of
particular techniques to scientific and social movements. Each
acting technique will be explained and placed in theatrical,
social, political, and scientific context where applicable. The
work of practitioners such as Meyerhold, Barba, Grotowski, and
Brook will be explored in relation to their methods of actor
training. Theoretical explorations of "authenticity" and
"representation" and "doubling" will be examined in relation to
these techniques. Readings will include works on actor training,
as well as social, scientific, and acting theory. A research
paper and an in-class presentation will be required.Readings on
technique will be assigned from Stanislavski, Meyerhold,
Schlemmer, Copeau, Saint-Denis, Decroux, Lecoq, Brook, Barba,
Grotowski, Strasberg, Meisner, Bloch, Linklater, Alexander,
Chekhov, Brecht, Beck, Chaikin, Bogart, Suzuki, and others.
Critical readings:
Carnicke, Sharon Marie. Stanislavski in Focus.
New York: Routledge, 1998.
Cole, Toby and Helen Chinoy. Actors on Acting.
New York: Crown Publishers, 1970.
Damasio, Antonio M.D., Descartes’ Error. New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1995.
----------. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion
in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harvest
Books, 2000.
Hodge, Alison, ed. Twentieth Century Actor Training.
New York: Routledge Press, 2000.
Hornby, Richard. The
End of Acting. Applause, 1992.
Krasner, David, ed. Method Acting Reconsidered:
Theory, Practice, Future. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
2000.
Law, Alma and Gordon, Mel. Meyerhold, Eisenstein and
Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia.
Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 1996.
LeDoux, Joseph M.D. The Emotional Brain. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1996
Roach, Joseph. The Player’s Passion. Associated
University Presses, 1985.
-------. “It.” Theatre Journal. Vol.56, No.
4, December, 2004.
States, Bert. Great Reckonings in Little Rooms. University of California, 1985.
Wiles, Timothy. The Theatrical Event. University
of Chicago, 1980.
Wilshire, Bruce. Role Playing and Identity.
Indiana University Press, 1982.
Worthen, William B. The Idea of the Actor.
Princeton University Press, 1984.
Zarrilli, Phillip, ed. Acting (Re)considered: Theories
and Practices. New York: Routledge, 1995.
-------. “Between Theory[es] and Practice[s]: Dichotomies or
Dialogue.” Theatre Topics,
Vol 5, No. 2, September 1995.
-------. “Toward a Phenomenological Model of the Actor’s
Embodied Modes of Experience. Theatre Journal. Vol.56, No. 4, December, 2004.
Wednesdays, 4:15pm to 6:15pm.
Seminar in Comparative Drama: Medieval Performance (Professor
Pamela Sheingorn): This course focuses on issues of
performance both in the Middle Ages and in contemporary revivals
and adaptations of medieval drama. We will examine the evidence
for performance practice in medieval dramatic texts and medieval
theories of performance in texts such as the Treatise of
Miraclis Pleyinge. We will consider styles of acting, types
of staging, audience, and audience response in the early, high,
and late Middle Ages, as well as in the reconstructive staging
of academically sponsored productions and the more experimental
productions of the professional theatre in the twentieth
century. We will also become familiar with a range of current
scholarly approaches to our subject. Our primary texts will be
drawn from a variety of geographical areas; all will be made
available in English. Each student will make one in-class
presentation on a secondary book or articles, write 5 short
response papers, and one research paper of 20-25 pages.
Mondays, 4:15pm to 6:15pm.
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