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Mission Statement:

Our mission is to serve as a leading center of Christian thought and action providing an excellent

education from a biblical perspective and global context in pivotal professions to equip Christian

leaders to change the world.

COURSE SYLLABUS

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION & THE ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF CINEMA-TELEVISION

CTV 600-MAD

THEORY & CRITICISM OF CINEMA-TV

SPRING 2012

ON LINE COURSE

POSTINGS ON WEDNESDAYS

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor: J. Dennis Bounds, Ph.D.

Phone: 757-352-4134

Fax: 757-352-4275

Skype: jdennbou

Twitter: @jdennbou

E-mail: dennbou@regent.edu

Office Hours: Mondays 1 – 4 PM, Thursdays 1 – 4 PM

Office Location: COM 260

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All students are required to read and have a thorough understanding of the syllabus. Any

questions or concerns need to be addressed to the instructor.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course involves the analysis of cinema and television from the early realists-formalist to

auteur, genre, reception, semiotic, feminist, psycho-analytic, Marxist and deconstructive theories

as they apply to both film and television research. Students will complete the course with the

understanding of how to apply these theories to all types of television and cinematic texts.

RATIONALE/COURSE OVERVIEW

If you want to direct, you study the directors. If you want to write, you study the writers. If you

want to produce, you study the producers. But to know these things without grounding in the

theoretical underpinnings of how film form "works" on both the production and receptive levels,

is to disregard decades of media study and analysis. You need to consider the various theoretical

schools that influenced and continue to influence what is being created and how an audience

interprets it. Whether your field is film or television, you still can benefit from study of theory

& criticism. Contemporary media criticism draws from film criticism and theory. Go to the

source.

In this course we will explore the ways film and television are studied. We will proceed, topic

by topic, to identify and examine the film theories of Eisenstein and Kracauer through the tide of

auteur, genre, and semiotic movements. We will consider the work of feminist, Marxist, and

psychoanalytic theorists, considering their draws and drawbacks.

We will further compare and contrast film and television critical approaches. We will examine

the ways film theory has impacted television criticism through the works of such writers as

Newcomb, Thorburn and Hartley.

We will end with what can be termed a "critique of criticism." The student will be expected to

understand these theories and be able to discuss them cogently with the professor and the class.

The aim of this course will be to examine each of these theories in comparison or contrast within

the Christian worldview that demands of us that we come to Him and reason. Throughout this

course we will progress toward the concept of Christian film theory.

This as all courses in the College of Communication and the Arts is ultimately concerned with

how the committed Christian can blend his/her faith with what they learn here. Especially of

concern is how the issues raised by this course are to be considered in comparison to your own a

priori world view. You will be urged to consider all readings, screenings and discussions in light

of your own Christian faith.

PREREQUISITES

None

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DEPARTMENTAL (CINEMA-TV) PROGRAM OUTCOMES

To reclaim the power of "Story" and to weave Christian values and enduring truths in

infinitely fresh and relevant ways.

To allow students to explore and refine their craft through observation, intense study

and practice.

To grow artists who can create media infused with the Light to those with eyes to see

and ears to hear.

COURSE THEORY & CRITICISM OF CINEMA-TV OUTCOMES

To examine the various theories and trends in film and television criticism dating

from their inception to the current trends at work today

o This will be done through reading the original texts of the most important

theorists in the field and passing two written essay exams on those writers.

To become well versed in these theories and their practical application.

o This will be demonstrated through a comprehensive presentation to the

instructor and the class of a theory and its importance and impact.

To demonstrate the ability to master and apply a theory to a film or filmmaker.

o This is demonstrated through the writing of a journal-quality final research

paper that applies one or more of the theories we examine.

COURSE MATERIALS

Required Materials:

Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism. 7th

ed. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780195365627.

Newcomb, Horace. Television: A Critical View. 7th

ed. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195301168.

Stam, Robert. Film Theory: An Introduction. New York: Blackwell Press, 2000.

ISBN: 9780631206545

Recommended Resources:

For those of you to whom reading a great deal of material and comprehending it really fast is a

problem or at least a challenge, I urge you to take advantage of the Speed Reading workshop

available through the CTL. Here's the link:

https://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_dev/training/?view=CSD#csd_training_event_511

It is also available as an on-line module. Here’s the link:

http://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_dev/online_workshops/speedreading/

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Also, I’m available for face-to-face conversation during my office hours via Skype.com. I

recommend that you consider downloading this application. The deal will be that, if you skype

me (that’s a verb, right?) during office hours, and I don’t respond, I have someone in my office

or by phone. The best way to set up a Skype session is to email me a request and I will do my

best to set up a Skype session in the time you request. If you are in the area, definitely schedule a

drop-by at my office.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Each week I will present an opening topic introduction On Monday in the

ANNOUNCEMENTS section of Blackboard – which will also be emailed to you. You will be

urged to then go read and explore the topic in the WEEK BY WEEK section based on the week

we are in. This will initiate that week’s discussions which will take place in the DISCUSSION

section. Each of you will respond to my question and begin commenting on my and your other

classmates’ comments through “threaded discussions.”

All assignments should be emailed directly to me, not posted on-line. I will be available for

face-to-face discussion through Skype.com or, for those in the area, office visits.

All submitted assignments should be in MS Word Document (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text File

(.rtf) formats. Further, in posting material, each student should label their assignments with

something that includes their last name and the type of assignment. For example, Jim Smith

would submit his presentation on semiotics as JSmith-semiotics.doc (or JSmith-semiotics.rtf).

A file called “semiotics.doc” will get lost when I copy it to my class file. Plus, any assignment

will be returned in like kind (that is, I will return an attached Word file that is marked up with the

Word Comment function).

And tragic it may be on many levels, losing computer access, a crashed computer or hard drive

or anything of this sort will not excuse lack of participation in the course. Also, all monetary

burdens for computer access are borne by the student.

Screenings:

We are all adults in this school. Any film or video I encourage you to study is purely for

educational and instructive purposes to develop critical abilities -- rather than for entertainment.

In the case that the film or video recommended is at the R rated level, I will offer a substitute at

the PG-13 or lighter rating. All screenings are accessible by internet through Blackboard. In the

Course Materials section, I’ll have a folder labeled Course Videos. By the first week of class I

should have all videos and films available for you to watch by simply clicking on the video file.

Just to warn you, these videos and films are not the best quality if viewed through blackboard.

You are free to set up a Netflix account and get the films delivered to your home for a clearer

viewing.

Assignments:

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A. Participation: (10%) Each student will be graded on how well they participate in

the class discussions. This will be a way of gauging how well a student is grasping

the material. This will be determined by my evaluation of your discussion with me on

Skype and your participation on the Discussion Board (required).

B. Mid-Term Exam: (20%) At about midpoint in the semester, the class will be given

an essay exam that will cover the readings and class discussions-to-date.

C. Presentation: (10%) At some time during the course each student will give a

presentation to be posted on the Discussion Board on any theoretical position.

Ideally, this would be the position the student will take for his/her term paper.

D. Final Exam: (20%) On the last day of class, the class will get a second essay exam

that will cover the readings and discussions since the first exam.

E. Term Paper: (35%) Each person will write a journal-quality Term Paper (20-25

pages) that applies a theory (or theories) to an artifact (or actor, studio, director,

producer, etc.). The topic and theory will need to be approved in advance after

conversation with me.

F. Regent/Hollywood Speaker Series: (5%) At times during the semester we will have

guest speakers coming to the Virginia Beach campus representing the film and

television industries. Those who live in the area are expected to attend these

presentations and write a one-page reaction paper to turn in one week after each

presentation. Those distance students who are unable to come to the campus may

instead write a one-page reaction paper based on viewing any “Making of”

documentary on filmmaking. Note: before you submit the paper, make sure you clear

the artifact with me.

EVALUATION AND GRADING

Assignments will be graded as follows:

Assignment Weight

Participation 10%

Mid-Term Exam 20%

Presentation 10%

Final Exam 20%

Term Paper 35%

Regent/Hollywood Speaker Series 5%

TOTAL: 100%

The grading scale: GRADE PERCENTAGE

SCORE QUALITY POINTS

A 94-100 4.0

A- 90-93.9 3.67

B+ 87-89.9 3.33

B 83-86.9 3.00

B- 80-82.9 2.67

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C+ 77-79.9 2.33

C 73-76.9 2.00

C- 70-72.9 1.67

D+ 67-69.9 1.33

D 63-66.9 1.00

D- 60-62.9 0.67

F 00-59.9 0.00

COURSE SCHEDULE (WEEK-BY-WEEK)

LEGEND: TCV = Television: The Critical View

FTAI = Film Theory: An Introduction

FTC = Film Theory & Criticism

HAND = Handout from professor

1. Aug 23

Read the Syllabus – comment on your background and interest in Film or TV Introduction to

Theory and Criticism:

Why study this in the first place?

Christian Film and Television Theory:

Is there or, better yet, should there be such a thing?

READINGS

None

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents-- “Dip in the Pool”

2. Aug 30

Expressionist vs. Realist; Expressionist Approach to Film and Television

READINGS

FTAI: viii-47

FTC: Kracaur, “Basic Concepts” 147

Arnheim, “The Complete Film" 167

“Film and Reality” 282

“The Making of a Film” 286

Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot” 13

“The Dramaturgy of Film Form” 24

Panofsky, “Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures” 247

Mast, “Projection”

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Balasz, “The Close-Up” 273

“The Face of Man” 275

Cavell, “Photograph and Screen” 304

“Audience, Actor, and Star” 305

“Types, Cycles as Genres” 307

“Ideas of Origin” 312

TCV: Newcomb, “Television and the Present Climate of Criticism” 1

“Part 1: History” 11

“Part 2: The Production Context” 129

Levine, “Toward a Paradigm for Media Production Research: Behind the Scenes at

General Hospital.” 133

Bodroghkozy, “Negotiating Civil Rights in Prime Time: A Production and Reception

History of CBS’s East Side/West Side.” 37

Lotz, “Textual (Im)Possibilites in the U.S. Post-Network Era: Negotiating Production and

Promotion Processes on Lifetime’s Any Day Now.” 273

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Weapon of Choice (music video)

Clips from Waking Life (2002 - Richard Linklater)

3. Sep 6

NO CLASS – IN LINE WITH ON-CAMPUS

READINGS: Just read ahead – get caught up or get ahead

______________________________________________________________________________

4. Sep13

Realist Film & Television

READINGS

FTC: Bazin, “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema” 41

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” 159

“The Myth of Total Cinema” 163

“Theatre and Cinema” 345

Kracaur, “The Establishment of Physical Existence” 262

Perez, [On Keaton and Chaplin] 474

TCV: Rivero, “Erasing Blackness: The Media Construction of ‘Race’ in Mi Familia, the First

Puerto Rican Situation Comedy with a Black Family” 207

Corner, “Sounds Real: Music and Documentary” 397

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SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Sherlock, Jr. (1924 by Buster Keaton)

5. Sep 20

The Rise of the Film Auteur; The Television Auteur

Presentation: _________________________

READINGS

FTAI: 83-92

FTC: Wood, “Ideology, Genre, Auteur” 592

Sarris, “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962” 451

Wollen, “The Auteur Theory” 455

TCV: “Part 3: The Programming Context”

Newcomb, “’This is Not Al Dente’: The Sopranos and the New Meaning of Television”

561

Jaramillo, “The Family Racket: AOL, Time Warner, HBO, The Sopranos, and the

Construction of a Quality Brand” 579

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

An episode of The Sopranos

6. Sep 27

Narrative Studies in Film; Narrative Studies in Television

Presentation: _________________________

READINGS

FTAI: 92-153

FTC: Braudy, “Acting: Stage vs. Screen 356

Andrew, “Adaptation” 372

McFarlane, “Backgrounds” 381

Gunning, “Narrative Discourse and the Narrator System” 390

Bordwell, “Cognition and Comprehension: Viewing and Forgetting in Mildred Pierce.”

427

TCV: Alvey, “’Too Many Kids and Old Ladies’: Quality Demographics and 1960s U.S.

Television” 15

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Parry-Giles & Parry-Giles, “The West Wing’s Presidency: Mimesis and Catharsis in a

Postmodern Romance” 292

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

House, M.D. “Three Stories”

7. Oct 4

Genre Theory vs. the concept of Auteur; Genre Theory in Film; Narrative and Genre;

Genre Theory in Television

Presentation: _________________________

FTC: Film Genres

Braudy, “Genre: The Conventions of Connection” 535

Schatz, “Film Genre and the Genre Film” 564

Altman, “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre” 552

Bordwell, “The Art of Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice” 649

Carroll, “The Specificity Thesis” 292

Warshow, “the Gangster as Tragic Hero” 576

Schrader, “Notes on Film Noir,” 581

FTAI: 47- 55

TCV: Mittell, “Cartoon Realism: Genre Mixing and the Cultural Life of The Simpsons” 272

Waisbord, “McTV: Understanding the Global Popularity of Television Formats” 375

Thorburn, “Television Melodrama” 438

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

An episode of The Simpsons

8. Oct 11

EXAM #1

______________________________________________________________________________

9. Oct 18

Modular Week

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_____________________________________________________________________________

10. Oct 25

The Saussurian Impulse: Semiotics in Film; Signs and Meaning in Film and Television;

Semiotics in Ideology

Presentation: _________________________

FTAI: 185-229

FTC: Metz, “Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema” 65

“Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film” 71

Harman, “Semiotics and the Cinema: Metz and Wollen” 78

Dayan, “The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema” 106

Rothman, “Against “The System of the Suture.” 118

Barthes, “The Face of Garbo” 471

Dyer, from Stars. 480

Browne, “The Spectator-In-The-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach” 125

TCV: Spigel, “Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11” 625

Silverstone, “Regulation, Media Literacy, and Media Civics” 654

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Stagecoach (1939, John Ford, director)

11. Nov 1

Reception Studies

Presentation: _________________________

FTAI: 229-262

FTC: L. Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess” 602

Gunning, “An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous

Spectator” 736

Deleuze, “Preface to the English Edition,” 216

“The Origin of the Crisis: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave,” 218

“Beyond the Movement-Image,” 227

TVC: “Part 4: Audiences, Viewers, Users” 451

Caron, “Translating Trek: Rewriting an American Icon in a Francophone Context” 150

Siegel, “Double Vision: Large Screen Video Display and Live Sports Spectacle” 185

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Lembo, "Components of a Viewing Culture" 455

Hill, "Big Brother: The Real Audience" 471

La Pastina, "Telanovela Reception in Rural Brazil: Gendered Readings and Sexual

Mores" 486

Bjarkman, "To Have and to Hold: A Video Collector's Relationship with and Etherial

Medium" 530

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”

12. Nov 8

Marxist Film & Television Theories

Presentation: _________________________

ABSTRACTS DUE TODAY

FTAI: 55-83

FTC: Henderson, “Towards a Non-Bourgeois Camera Style” 54

Comolli & Narboni, “Cinema/Ideology/ Criticism” 686

Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” 665

TVC: Godfried, “Identity, Power, and Local Television: African Americans, Organized Labor,

and UHF-TV in Chicago” 106

Jones, "From Insiders to Outsiders: The Advent of New Political Television" 408

Jacka, " 'Democracy as Defeat': The Importance of Arguments for Public Service

Broadcasting" 605

Garnham, "A Response to Elizabeth Jacka's 'Democracy as Defeat' " 618

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Street of Crocodiles

13. Nov 15

Psychoanalytic Film & Television Theory

Presentation: _________________________

FTAI: 153-169

FTC: Baudry, “The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in

Cinema” 171

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Carroll, “Jean-Louis Baudry and ‘The Apparatus’” 189

Metz, “Identification, Mirror” 694

“The Passion for Perceiving” 701

“Disavowel, Fetishism” 705

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Spellbound (1945, Alfred Hitchcock, director)

14. Nov 22

Open Discussion – No Readings – Just catch-up on what you haven’t finished. Also, schedule

time with your instructor to discuss your final paper.

15. Nov 29

Feminist Theories of Film & Television

Presentation: _________________________

FTAI: 169-185

FTC: Haskell, “Female Stars of the 1940s”

Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 711

Diawara, “Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance” 767

Doane, “The Voice in Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space” 318

Modleski, “The Master’s Dollhouse: Rear Window” 723

Freeland, “Feminist Frameworks for Horror Films” 627

TCV: Cassidy & White, “Innovating Women’s Television in Local and National Networks: Ruth

Lyons and Arlene Francis” 60

Murray, “Ethnic, Masculinity and Early Television’s Vaudeo Star” 85

Arthurs, "Sex and the City and Consumer Culture: Remediating Postfeminist Drama" 315

Banet-Weiser, "Girls Rule! Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon" 332

Lu, "Soap Opera in China: The Transnational Politics of Visuality, Sexuality, and

Masculinity" 353

Cullity & Younger, "Sex Appeal and Cultural Liberty: A Feminist Inquiry into MTV

India" 507

Handout: Studlar, “Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema”

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

The Women (1939, George Cukor, dir.)

and

I Dream of Jeanie (pilot)

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16. Dec 6

The Postmodern theories; The cultural approach and a discussion of Christian film and television

theory

Presentation: ____________________________

FTAI: 262-330

FTC: Modleski, “The Terror of Pleasure: The Contemporary Horror Film and Postmodern

Theory,” 617

Stam & Spence, “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction,” 751

Allen, “The Impact of Digital Technologies on Film Aesthetics,” 824

Yoshimoto, “The Difficulty of Being Radical: The Discipline of Film Studies and the

Postcolonial World Order,” 865

TCV: Castiglia & Reed, “’Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well’: Memory and Queer Culture in Will

and Grace ” 249

Newcomb, “Part 5: Considering Television” 557

Hartley, "Television as Transmodern Teaching" 595

SCREEN [COURSE VIDEOS]

Episode of Will & Grace

17. Dec 13

EXAM #2

Dec 19 (Sunday)

FINAL PAPERS DUE BY 12 midnight - Eastern Time Zone

UNIVERSITY POLICIES AND RESOURCES

Please review the following links for important information on University policies:

Academic Calendar/Registrar Information

Bookstore

Honor/Plagiarism Policy

Regent Library

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Student Services (includes links to student handbook, disability services,

University calendar, University Writing Center, etc.)

Technical Support – University Helpdesk

Grading Policies (incompletes, extensions, IPs, etc.)

Extensions

Unless stated by the instructor in class, all assignments are due on the date stated in the

syllabus at the beginning of that class period. Late assignments will be graded down one

letter grade for each day they are late without an approved extension. Except in cases of

emergency, requests for extensions must be made to the instructor, at least twenty-four hours

before the assignment is due. Be prepared to defend your reason why you need the extension.

Remember, deadlines in the film business are taken very seriously. This class, in preparing

students to work professionally will take the same attitude.

Incomplete Grades

Students desiring an incomplete must submit their request to the course instructor and

academic dean prior to the end of the term. An incomplete grade will be given in a regular

course only for legitimate deficiencies due to illness, emergencies or extraordinary reasons

acceptable to the professor, including equipment breakdown and shortages, and not because of

neglect on the student’s part. Incompletes require the final approval of the school dean or his/her

authorized representative. A regular grade will be given by the instructor if all requirements for

the course are submitted by the end of the following academic term. The instructor will submit

the new grade to the Registrar’s Office no later than two weeks after the beginning of the

subsequent term. If all work is not submitted by the end of the term following the granting of the

incomplete, a grade of FX (NP on pass/fail courses) will be posted automatically unless a

Request for Extension of Incomplete has been approved and submitted to the Registrar’s Office.

The FX shall be counted as an F in the computation of the GPA. Any student desiring

reinstatement to the course after an FX or NP has been posted must register for the course in a

subsequent term and pay the full current tuition for the course. In progress grades can only be

given for independent studies, internships, practica, portfolios, theses and dissertations.

Student Course Evaluations

Also, at the end of the course, you will have to fill out a Course Evaluation. You will get an email

to tell you when the module is open. Please complete it before the module closes. That date will

be included in the email.

After you have read the syllabus, please go to the Discussion Board, follow the thread titled I

Have Read and Understand the Syllabus, and tell me, yes, you’ve read and understand the

syllabus.

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Last Updated: 10/31/2011

At times, due to unforeseen circumstances, course content may be subject to change. Please

check with your professor to insure you have the most recently updated Syllabus for this course.

Regent University 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA, 23464

Phone (888) 718-1222 © 2010 Regent University, All Rights Reserved.