Film & Television Studies: What is Love?

Investigations of nation and identity in film and/or television approached in their specific cultural, historical, and theoretical terms. May be repeated for credit. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: FTS 1400, FTS 1420, or FTS 1430.

Prereqs enforced by the system: FTS 1400 or FTS 1420 or FTS 1430; PACE students by permission and override

Love hurts. It comes to us when we are least prepared to receive it. It can involve existential crises, placing us in a position where we mutter to ourselves: “I don’t know what this is, but it is shaking the ground of my very existence.” Bad timing and existential crisis are themes found in many genre and auteur films about love. The scope of our experience of love resonates with the historical and cultural conditions in which we emerge and exist as social subjects. In this course, we look at love as a cultural, political, psychical, as well as revolutionary, phenomenon. In doing so, we will engage with serious theoretical interrogations of those phenomena through global genre and auteur films.

This is a discussion-based class, focused on actively exchanging ideas and opening space for thinkers who engage with questions about the world and themselves. Rather than passively listening to lectures and looking at Power Points (which I DO NOT use) you will be expected to formulate your own thoughts. I expect you will come to class having completed the assigned reading and viewing, and prepared to share your analyses of what you have read and viewed. To facilitate these exchanges, we will have several in-class group activities.

There will be quizzes and weekly screening notes, two essay exams, a group creative project, and a final project (essay or short film).