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FUBiS Term II: Transnational Cinema in Germany
(course # 2.03)
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Type: |
A-Track |
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Instructor(s): |
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Language: |
English |
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Contact hours: |
72 (6 per day) |
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Credit Points: |
6 |
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Capacity: |
18 |
Resources
Course description
This seminar studies the impact of globalization on contemporary cinema, examining how filmmakers imagine their local worlds as interconnected with, mutually dependent on, or put under pressure by the global world system.
Given the increased mobility across national boundaries of goods, services, labor and bodies, do filmmakers retrench to their national identities or respond with their own forms of transnationalism? Since Hollywood too needs to reach global audiences, the transnational is a feature of both mainstream cinema and its counter-tendencies, as they manifest themselves in post-colonial societies, developing nations and among indigenous communities.
We shall be examining the similarities and differences of both these types of cinematic transnationalism, selecting a representative sample of films and applying new methodologies of analysis. Key concepts are “global Hollywood”, “world cinema”, “accented” and “exilic” cinema. We shall study the work of “diasporic” and “hyphenated’ directors, as well as the economic and aesthetics effects of digital technologies on filmmaking in Europe and Germany. Berlin will be our special focus, examining its strategic position and dynamic interface of contact, transfer and exchange along the historical timeline and between East and West, Hollywood and Europe, Eastern and Western Germany.
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will develop historical and analytical skills in the study of the cinema as a major cultural factor in constructing a more connected, but also locally sustainable world.
- Students will deepen their understanding of Berlin as a unique site of the world’s cinematic imagination, a privileged transnational space for the last 100 years, thanks to its history and geography.
- In the class excursions students will deepen their understanding of the topic by connecting filmic representation with actual historical topographies, archival resources as well as film and festival locations.
Student profile
Students interested in the cinema and the city, the relationship between Europe and America, and the interconnection of cultures and societies in our contemporary world as performed in the cinema
Prerequisites
None.
Course Requirements
- Attendance, class participation, reading the assigned material before the class meets, in-class active viewing of the required films, class presentations, excursions, activities.
- Final oral exam.
Grading
- Attendance and class participation: 25%
- Two class presentations: 25% each
- Final oral exam: 25%
Reading
Course Reader with the required material will be provided at the orientation meeting.
Articles from electronic resources. (New School University Library).
Recommended course combination:
- Deutsche Exilliteratur
- Borders & Crossings: German Literature and Culture from Romanticism to the Present
