MS 161 PO: Radical Japanese Cinema: The Politics of Mid-Century Japanese Cinema
The Japanese New Wave used sex, violence, and the body to launch a critique of domestic and international policies, high-growth economics, and the conventions of Japanese cinema. We explore the utopic visions of radical Japanese filmmaking and its powerful demonstration against social norms. Prerequisite: MS 50 or equivalent or by permission of instructor. Instructor: J. […]
MS 149T PO: Junior Seminar: Critical Studies – Core Theories in Media Studies
An overview of core traditions in Critical Media Studies through in-depth engagement with key texts. This course serves as preparation for the Senior Seminar by consolidating a foundation in critical theory. Areas of focus include the following: The Frankfurt School, The Chicago School, Pragmatism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Semiotics, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Psychoanalytical Theory, Postcolonial […]
MS 149S PO: Street Theory and Precarity
Focuses on ways in which desires and sexualities fail to conform to theories thereof and on those media expressions which engender new theories of desire that are of, about, and from the street. Key conceptual modules include precarity, community media, public fantasy & intimacy, social (in)difference, sex and its legislation, queer street community, and social […]
MS 149Q PO: Topics in Media Theory: Freud, Film, Fantasy
An in-depth exploration of key texts from psychoanalysis reveals a scandalous relation between desire and representation, namely fantasy. We probe the political life of fantasy and the usefulness of sexuality and the unconscious for conceiving alternative to the hegemony of the normal. Instructor: J. Hall [Media Theory, G/U]
MS 149I PO: Topics in Media Theory: Reality TV & Participatory Culture: Apparatuses of Intimacy?
For many theorists, the digital era ushered in the second “industrial revolution” and like the first it dramatically transformed human relationships. Taking up the question of the course title, we will begin by exploring Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben’s definitions of an apparatus. Drawing insight from these theorists we will explore how media—Reality TV, various […]
MS 149H PO: Topics in Media Theory: Games, Theory, and Narrative Structures
This course provides an introduction to the scholarship that has developed around video games. Our primary focus will be on the various narrative structures games employ, both within the programmed structures of the game and at the level of interface with players. Readings will include contemporary videogame theory and history. Instructor: M. Shurkus [Media Theory]