Fall 2017 Special Topics Courses

MF 351D: History of Media and Communication

History of Media and Communication is a survey course that traces the development of communications technologies from prehistoric cave art to the internet.  While doing so, it introduces students to important topics in the fields of Media and Communications Studies.  Historical subjects covered in the course include the ancient Near Eastern invention of writing; the media landscapes of ancient China, Greece and Rome; media of the Middle Ages; and the development of various modern technologies and practices, including the printing press, book publishing, newspapers, film, radio, television, and new media.  Units vary in focus from the prevailing media of specific eras to the long-term development of technologies over time.  Readings include excerpts of works by historians of media and communication, as well as media theorists, anthropologists, and experts on specific periods.  Central themes of the course include the difference between relativistic and universalistic theorists of media’s history, the role of media in social change, and the complex relationship of media technologies to public spheres and politics.  At points throughout the course, students are encouraged to engage the history of media through assignments involving the analysis of historical artifacts.  Lessons involve lectures, screenings of films and documentaries, and class discussions.

MF 351C: The Suspense is Killing Me! The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock’s place among the greatest exponents of film is well established. His career spanned two continents, began in the silent period and ended in the 1970s, some ten years into a renewal of cinema that began in France where Hitchcock was one of the touchstones of French New Wave criticism. Vertigo (1958) the film recognized as his masterpiece, has been voted the “greatest film” of all time in the most recent Sight and Sound magazine poll of film experts ,unseating for the first time Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, which had held the title for 10 years.

This course will involve close study of a selection of films by Hitchcock (for example: Notorious, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Birds, Psycho) as well as other films whose styles are strongly marked by his example (such as Elevator to the Gallows, Body Double,  The Bride Wore Black, Monsieur Hire). Class sessions will be devoted to lecture and discussion of the films, with projection of specific sequences for analysis. Beyond developing a strong sense of the core components and thematic constants of Hitchcock;s films, our objectives in the class will center on writing about the visual. How does one effectively speak of what one sees? How does the way visuals are presented affect what we feel and think we know about what they depict? Hitchcock’s reliance on elaborate illusionistic techniques provides a constantly provocative arena for the consideration of such questions. Students will be expected to watch additional films not discussed in class,. They will write a weekly reaction paper, a mid-term sequence analysis paper, and a final paper that will include research into secondary sources.   3 credits

MFS 251C:  From Super-Heroes to Anxiety Attacks, or Comics Here and There, Now and Then

A synoptic look at the medium of comics as they have evolved from the strip to the comic book to the graphic novel in America and elsewhere. Attention to the evolution leading from the super-hero craze of the 40s to the return to genre-based story telling in the fifties and the great explosion of innovation in the 60s when the medium “discovered” neurosis. Important touchstones: the pulps of the 30s and their influence; the witch hunt of the 50s led by the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by the psychiatrist Frederick Wertham; the powerful influence of EC horror and science fiction comics on the field; the transition to “adult” themes that herald the coming of the graphic novel.

We will also consider briefly comics in other places such as France and Japan to understand both the reach of American comics and their limitations.
Readings will include Michael Chabon’s Kavalier and Clay, selections from comics from the 40s to the 60s, close reading of EC genre comics in an exercise I call the “EC Mash-up, ; study of “Master Race” by Bernard Krigstein, quite possibly the most important comic book story ever written; a Tintin novel; some manga/animé selections (with guest lecturers Professors Masako Inamoto and Masami Tamagawa); graphic novels from among a list including but not limited to Maus, Fun Home, Jimmy Corrigan, God-damn this War, Palestine, Love and Rockets; Optic Nerve. Students will submit a weekly one page reaction paper, and write two extended papers, one at mid-semester, one at the end of term. At least one of these will have a research component. At least one may be a work of creative emphasis in terms of either scripting or drawing a strip of your own invention. 3 credits