A survey of major theories and the critical literature on film from the 1920s through to the present. The course builds an overall view of film theory and criticism with respect to the various modes of inquiry that have impacted on the study of cinema including Structuralism, Semiotics, Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Race and Ethnicity Studies, Post-Colonial Theory, Queer Theory, and Cultural Studies. Students additionally become familiar with key concepts in Cinema Studies including realism, montage, auteurism, genre, and Star Studies. As students acquire a general familiarity with the literature that defines film theory and criticism, they become better prepared to form surer and sounder judgments about their own film experiences and to speak and write about those judgments with greater clarity and skill. Pairing readings with screenings and discussions about a range of films students expand and refine their own impressions and responses to the cinema, variously incorporating and responding to the theories, key concepts, and critical approaches studied in class.

A survey of major theories and the critical literature on film from the 1920s through to the present. The course builds an overall view of film theory and criticism with respect to the various modes of inquiry that have impacted on the study of cinema including Structuralism, Semiotics, Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Race and Ethnicity Studies, Post-Colonial Theory, Queer Theory, and Cultural Studies. Students additionally become familiar with key concepts in Cinema Studies including realism, montage, auteurism, genre, and Star Studies. As students acquire a general familiarity with the literature that defines film theory and criticism, they become better prepared to form surer and sounder judgments about their own film experiences and to speak and write about those judgments with greater clarity and skill. Pairing readings with screenings and discussions about a range of films students expand and refine their own impressions and responses to the cinema, variously incorporating and responding to the theories, key concepts, and critical approaches studied in class.