Sp. Topics 2: Black & White

Uitgebreide vaknaam	Special Topics 2: Black and White on the Silver Screen
Leerdoelen	Upon successful completion of the course unit, students are able to: 1.demonstrate knowledge about the history American cinema’s dealings with the topic of race, with a special focus on its fraught negotiations of Black/white relations; 2.situate films within the context of their social, cultural, and political histories and analyze them by deploying the scholarly practices, methods, and theories discussed in class; 3.demonstrate their close reading abilities, technical acumen, and organizational capacities by working as part of a team to produce a short, semi-professional video essay in which they analyze a single scene of a film in great depth; 4.write an essay in which they contribute to an ongoing scholarly debate through the historically contextualized and original analysis of an individual film.
Omschrijving	This course examines the treatment of race, racism, and race relations in U.S.-American cinema. Cinema has long been an influential medium through which racialized (and racializing) anxieties as well as emancipatory aspirations have been negotiated. It often perpetuates fantasies of racial reconciliation which sit uncomfortably alongside the persistent realities of race and racism in American culture. It has just as often muddied race relations and provoked reactionary backlash as it has articulated anti-racist social and/or moral critique. This class will focus on films which pair Black and white characters in often uneasy ways. We will approach influential and iconic case studies as representatives of larger movements, moments, and trends within the history of American cinema, and discuss them through the analysis of genre, mode, discourse, ideology, representation, myth, plot, form, style, character development, symbolism, celebrity, reception, and (multi-)authorship. Films will be paired with secondary readings so that students get a good sense of the various investments, theories, and practices scholars and critics have deployed in order to study the intimate and often fraught relationships between filmic representations and racial politics in the culture and history of the United States.
Uren per week	2
Onderwijsvorm	(2 uur werkcollege)
Vaksoort	bachelor jr 2
Coördinator	M.L. Thompson
Docent(en)	L.A. Flamand, PhD.
Entreevoorwaarden	Toegang tot het tweede jaar, d.w.z. minimaal 45 ECTS behaald uit de propedeuse van de BA American Studies. NB: Voor het collegejaar 2021-2022 geldt een norm van minimaal 35 ECTS.
Opmerkingen
Opgenomen in	Opleiding Jaar Periode Type Ba American Studies 2 semester II a keuzegroep