2022-2023 Academic Catalog

May 11, 2024

2022-2023 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

SCRN 130 - Film Genre

Devoted to the study of the major storytelling formats into which much narrative filmmaking (especially that of the American cinema) may be categorized. The course considers theoretical perspectives, formal description, historical background and social implications of genres such as the western, gangster film, musical, melodrama, etc., and through this work enables students to engage in and experience the interpretive insights of this critical perspective on the cinema. This course is taught as a variable topic, and may be offered as either an overview of several film genres or as a course concentrating on intensive study of a particular genre.

May be repeated for credit.

FALL 2022 TOPIC 01: MELODRAMA

Generally derided as empty and excessive pap, the melodramatic mode is inherently subversive ideologically. This course will examine melodrama in its various iterations within a US and global context. We will consider studio and post-studio-era Hollywood films like the women’s film of the 1930s, film noir, male weepies, and films by directors like Douglas Sirk and Ritwik Ghatak. As a genre that had its heyday under the studio era, as a style of cinematic excess, and also as a modality that characterizes other generic forms, melodrama itself becomes a problematic term worthy of investigation. The glorious excess of its extreme emotionalism, overwrought mise-en-scène, and impossible resolutions provides fodder for our feminist, postcolonial, queer, and camp readings of the films.

While there is no pre-requisite for this course, please refer to Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White’s The Film Experience for basic film vocabulary.

FALL 2022 TOPIC 02: HORROR

Subtitled “Final Girls and Final Cuts,” this course examines the horror genre of film within larger historical, socio-cultural, theoretical, and philosophical contexts. In addition to studying the genre’s evolution in U.S. cinema and abroad, we’ll focus on a fundamental dimension of horror media: the role of women both in front of and behind the camera. Subcategories to be studied include the slasher, the psychological thriller, the B-movie, and analog horror. Through lectures, discussion, and close analyses of weekly film screenings, students will develop a stronger understanding of the cultural value of horror cinema and the centrality of women across horror media production.(This is an FYI section)

Course Designation/Attribute: AP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year