124264 KO Critical Media Analysis (2017S)

On January 24, 2017, journalist and film critic Richard Brody opened an article in The New Yorker entitled “The 2017 Oscar Nominations Don’t Matter” with the following words: “The only good thing about this year’s political events is that, as far as the Oscars go, nobody with a brain, a heart, or some courage actually gives a shit—and even this is a bitter paradox. As health care for millions is threatened, along with the right to abortion, justice for immigrants, the right of black Americans to vote, the right of assembly, public education, park lands, the environment, venerable alliances, nuclear security, the nation’s dignity, and other matters ranging from the crucial to the existential, a golden statuette for sound mixing as opposed to sound editing can be forgiven for passing almost unnoticed. This isn’t to minimize the essential importance of art in times of outrage and injustice—on the contrary. It isn’t the movies that don’t matter—it’s the Oscars. The movies matter as much as ever.”

Brody’s observations can be applied to both the big and the small screen: film and TV shows as some of the most popular and populated forms of art take on especially significant roles in times of cultural and political upheaval for the ways in which they (re)present, discuss, criticize, subvert, and put into critical focus the issues at stake in the societies of which they are an extension.

Screening America/America on Screen references both the ways in which the United States are negotiated on screen and the ways in which these representations can and should be subjected to a differentiated discussion through the lens of various critical perspectives and theories taken from film studies and cultural studies.

Course Objectives
As the title indicates, the aim of this class is a critical examination of a number of movies and TV shows that both emerged as and in turn produce responses to the cultural and political phenomena of the United States as a (post)colonial empire and a global superpower, but also as a space of empowerment and resistance.

By focusing the essential tools of film analysis, we will discern the aesthetic, creative, educational, and persuasive strategies of cinema and seriality through discussions of narration, production and reception, and the significance of the depiction of issues of multiculturalism and diversity, of changing attitudes and responses to the roles of women, minorities, and the values of family, important LGBTQ+ debates, and the development of modes of programming and the influence of technology.

Methods
In this course, we will engage in group work and individual assignments, short presentations, research projects, multimedia, and interactive as well as online discussion. We will welcome a guest lecturer who will speak on post-millennial crime TV and post-factual meaning-making.

A Note on Texts and their Availability
Exemplary movies/episodes will be screened in evening screening sessions outside the regular class time. Attendance for these is voluntary; you are expected to get a hold of and watch all of the texts though, even if you do not attend.
Most texts will be available on Netflix or Amazon Prime; subscriptions can be useful for the purposes of this class. We’ll talk more about availability in the first session.