Reading Film Theory - Detailseite

As Kevin McDonald concedes in a recent introductory book, film theory “is often considered inordinately difficult, a foreign language of sorts, full of impractical and esoteric abstractions” (2022: 2). Indeed, there often seems to be a gap between a medium mostly intended for popular consumption and the discourse of theory that attempts to make sense of it. Over the course of the twentieth century, film theory came into its own as a field intersecting with the development of contemporary philosophy and later cultural studies. Film theory has borrowed from and in turn influenced psychoanalytic theory, semiotics, feminist and queer theory, to name but a few. In the twenty-first century, however, it increasingly seems that both the medium of film and its theory have entered a critical phase: can there be such a thing as a film theory for the post-cinematic age?

In this seminar, we will read a selection of texts representative of the history of film theory, from early reflections on the beginning of the medium such as Béla Balázs and key theorists like Gilles Deleuze and Laura Mulvey to more recent contributions to theorising film in the work of Patricia MacCormack and Eugenie Brinkema, among others. We will discuss key concepts in film theory and will analyse the ways in which film theory develops a (literary) language to come to terms with an audiovisual medium. Our readings be accompanied by model analyses of film examples that will allow us to reflect on the interaction of different media and discourses.

In the Lektürekurs, we will focus on reading theoretical and philosophical texts that shed light on a wide variety of contexts through which to understand the primary texts. In addition, we will discuss methodological aspects and research questions.

Reading:

Most material will be available on Moodle. Films will have to be acquired individually. The list of texts and films will be provided during the first session.

Introductory Reading:

Thomas Elsaesser & Malte Hagener. Film Theory: An Introduction to the Senses. Routledge, 2015.

Kevin McDonald. Film Theory: The Basics. Routledge, 2022.