Summer 2019 Courses
A Session
HUMN 4135 Art and Psychoanalysis
Paul Gordon
Explores psychoanalytic theory as it relates to our understanding of literature, film, and other arts. After becoming familiar with some essential Freudian notions (repression, narcissism, ego/libido, dream work, etc.), students apply these ideas to works by several artists (e.g., Flaubert, James, Kafka, Hoffmann, and Hitchcock). Prerequisite, HUMN 2000 or junior/senior standing. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.
A Session
Humn 4004 Topics in Film Theory
Cinephilia, Reflexivity... or Movies about the Movies. This course explores some of the historical and theoretical implications of the practice of reflexivity in classical and contemporary cinema. Parting from the reflexive, deconstructive works of Buster Keaton, to contemporary "meta" exercises like Tropic Thunder, the course will interrogate and explore Hollywood's own historic obsession with the "mystique" and "magic" of the movies. We will approach these topics from the perspectives of film history and the theoretical concepts of cinephilia, spectatorship, and reflexivity. Films include: Sherlock Jr., A Star is Born, Sunset Boulevard, Singin' in the Rain, Silent Movie, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hearts of Darkness, The Player, Ed Wood, etc.