AUTUMN 2002
Comparative Literature 596 (Special Studies in Comparative Literature)

Cinema, Space, Memory

Cinema studies have often invoked the relation between film and space, or film and collective memory. The seminar is designed not only to acquaint students with the critical literature on the subject but also to challenge existing paradigms. How do critics relate to abtract notions of space on the one hand and to specific places on the other? How do these considerations reflect on cinematic choices? What do the seemingly-separate inquiries into film/space and film/memory owe to the discourse on space/memory? While the course targets the critical literature, presentations and final papers may use specific films to illustrate their point.

Hours: T, Th 1:30 - 3:20 MGH 287 5 credits

Instructor:	Yomi Braester
	office: C-504 Padelford
	office hours: and by appointment
	e-mail: yomi@u.washington.edu
course website:	http://faculty.washington.edu/yomi/cinema-space-memory.html

Assignments

(1) Reading report and responses: Each student will make one oral report on a week's readings. All students will send a 1-2 paragraph email raising questions and issues concerning each week's readings.
(2) Presentation and response: Each student will make one in-class 15-20 minute presentation on the topic of their final paper, followed by a 5-minue response by a fellow student.
(3) Final paper: 18-23 pages long, typed in Times New Roman 12 and double-spaced.

Grading components

Reading report and responses:	15
Presentation:	10
Presentation response:	5
Final paper:	70

Assigned and recommended texts:
( All readings will be available in a packet)

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations
Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity
Mick Broderick, ed., Hibakusha Cinema : Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Nuclear Image in Japanese Film
Giuliana Bruno, Streetwalking on a Ruined Map
Cathy Caruth, Unclaimed Experience : Trauma, Narrative, and History
David Clarke, ed., The Cinematic City
Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster
Gilles Deleuze, Cinema: Time-image; Cinema: Time-movement
James Donald, Imagining the Modern City
Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub, eds., Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History
Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams, eds. Reinventing Film Studies
Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory
David Harvey, The Urban Experience
Fredric Jameson, The Geopolitical Aesthetic
Marcia Landy. ed., The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
Yosefa Loshitzky, ed., Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List
Peter Lunenfeld, ed., The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media
Kevin Lynch, What Time is this Place?
Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner, Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film
Steven Shaviro, The Cinematic Body
Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice, eds., Cinema and the City
Edward Soja, Postmodern Geographies
Maurizio Viano, "Reception, Allegory, and Holocaust Laughter"
V.N. Volosinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language
Yingjin Zhang, ed., Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai

FILMS WILL BE ASSIGNED IN CONNECTION WITH STUDENTS' PRESENTATIONS

CLASS SCHEDULE (subject to change):

week 1
10/ 1, 3	Introduction: establishing a research methodology
	Readings: Vivian Sobchak, "What Is Film History, or, the Riddle of the Sphinxes," in Gledhill and Williams, Reinventing Film Studies Donald, Imagining the Modern City (selection) Clarke, "Previewing the Cinematic City," in The Cinematic City
week 2
10/8, 10	Discussion: filmic space and the body
	Reading: Deleuze, Cinema: Time-image; Cinema: Time-movement (selection) Shaviro, The Cinematic Body (selection)
week 3
10/15, 17	Discussion: social and political space
	Readings: Lefebvre, The Production of Space Soja, Postmodern Geographies (selection) Jameson, The Geopolitical Aesthetic (selection) Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (selection)
	reading report: Gossamer
week 4
10/22, 24	Discussion: space and film, superstructure and base
	readings: Voloshinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (selection) Shiel and Fitzmaurice, Cinema and the City (selection)
	reading report: Yoko
week 5
10/29, 31	Discussion: space and history (Monday: review)
	Readings: Halbwachs, The Collective Memory (selection) Landy, The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (selection)
	reading report: Thomas
week 6
11/5, 7	Discussion: space, time, trauma
	Readings: Caruth, Unclaimed experience (selection) Felman and Laub, Testimony (selection) Loshitzky, Spielberg's Holocaust (selection) Landy, The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (selection) Broderick, ed., Hibakusha Cinema (selection)
	reading report: Yukiko
week 7
11/12, 14	Discussion: early cinema as a paradigm
	Readings: Benjamin, "Some Motifs in Beaudelaire" Penz and Thomas, Cinema and Architecture (selection) Bruno, Streetwalking on a Ruined Map (selection) Zhang, Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai (selection)
	preading report: Fumiyo
week 8
11/19, 21	Discussion: virtual space
	Readings: Lunenfeld, The Digital Dialectic (selection) Penz and Thomas, Cinema and Architecture (selection)
	reading report: Lihong
week 9
11/26	Discussion: modern space
	Readings: Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air (selection) Benjamin, "The artwork in the age of mechanical reproducibility" Penz and Thomas, Cinema and Architecture (selection)
	28 - Thanksgiving
	reading report: Fusae
week 10
12/3, 5	Discussion: disaster space
	Readings: Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real (selection) Ryan and Kellner, Camera Politica (selection) Landy, The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (selection) Davis, Ecology of Fear (selection)
	reading report: Phil
week 11
12/10	PRESENTATIONS