COURSE TITLE: Literature and the Visual: American Film, Narrative Theory and Psychoanalysis
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Tatjana Jukić
ECTS CREDITS: 6
LANGUAGE: English
SEMESTER: 2 or 4

Course description: Taking clasical Hollywood cinema as its point of departure, the course will explore how American film engages and defines critical developments that we normally associate with twentieth-century modernity. We will focus on a selection of films directed by Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford.

Course requirements: The grade is based on a written essay at the end of term (30% of the final grade), and two tests (30% of the final grade each), as well as on active participation in the class (10% of the final grade).

Syllabus:

WEEK 1 Introduction. Film as an American art form.

WEEK 2 Classical Hollywood Cinema. The narrative style.

WEEK 3 Film and narrative theory.

WEEK 4 Film and psychoanalysis.

WEEK 5 Screwball comedy. Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges.

WEEK 6 Screwball comedy. Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges.

WEEK 7 Screwball comedy. Ernst Lubitsch.

WEEK 8 Screwball comedy. Ernst Lubitsch. Midterm.

WEEK 9 Melodrama. William Wyler, Douglas Sirk.

WEEK 10 Melodrama. William Wyler, Douglas Sirk.

WEEK 11 Thriller/ Noir. Alfred Hitchcock.

WEEK 12 Thriller/ Noir. Alfred Hitchcock.

WEEK 13 The Western. John Ford.

WEEK 14 The Western. John Ford.

WEEK 15 Final discussion. Evaluation.

REQUIRED READING:

Bronfen, Elisabeth. Home in Hollywood. The Imaginary Geography of Cinema (selection)
Cavell, Stanley. Contesting Tears (selection)
Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness (selection)
Copjec, Joan. „More! From Melodrama to Magnitude“
Harvey, James. Romantic Comedy in Hollywood. From Lubitsch to Sturges (selection)
Heath, Stephen. „Cinema and Psychoanalysis: Parallel Histories“
Jukić, Tatjana. „Film, politika, psihoanaliza: Ernst Lubitsch“
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
Žižek, Slavoj. Looking Awry. An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture. (selection)
Žižek, Slavoj (ed.) Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lacan (But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock) (selection)

OPTIONAL READING:

Bergstrom, Janet (ed.). Endless Night. Cinema and Psychoanalysis: Parallel Histories. (selection)
Crowe, Cameron. Conversations with Billy Wilder. (selection)
De Lauretis, Teresa. Alice Doesn’t. Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. (selection)
De Lauretis, Teresa. Figures of Resistance. Essays in Feminist Theory. (selection)
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1. (selection)
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2. (selection)
Jukić, Tatjana. „The Awful Truth: On Metonymic Rationality in Hawks and Cavell“
Kaplan, E. Ann. Trauma Culture. The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature. (selection)
Kaplan, E. Ann. Women and Film. Both Sides of the Camera (selection)
Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too Much. Hitchcock and Feminist Theory (selection)
Novak, Ivana; Jela Krečič; Mladen Dolar (eds.). Lubitsch Can’t Wait. A Theoretical Examination. (selection)
Silverman, Kaja. The Acoustic Mirror. The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. (selection)