Undergraduate Courses (list)

This is a capstone course for all Cinema Studies Majors and Minors. In this iteration of the Senior Seminar, we will focus on the theoretical and historical mutation of "Realisms", as it pertains to cinema studies as a discipline. From the earliest years, film theorists have been engaged in debate over cinema's unique mimetic capabilities: from André Bazin's "myth of total cinema" to Sigfried Kracauer, Rudolph Arnheim and Sergei Eisenstein, we will read a range of critics who have wrestled with the notion of cinema's "true" calling as an art-form. In more recent years, the theoretical turn towards affect and phenomenology has once again compelled us to revisit the question of Realism in the era of New and Digital Media. Beyond theoretical approaches focusing on realism, this course will also consider distinct historical forms of global realisms—Italian Neorealism and its many global avatars, the classical Hollywood cinema, documentary and non-fiction film traditions, as well as certain well-known alternatives to realist film traditions such as Surrealism, Expressionism, Magical Realism, etc. will be critically explored.