Film & Media Studies 320 - Japan on Screen

(Offered as ASLC 234 and FAMS 320) This course places equal emphasis on the two key terms of its title, “Japan” and “screen.”  Is the concept of national cinema useful in the age of globalization?  What is the place of cinema in a history of screen culture in Japan?  This course aspires to rethink the idea of Japanese cinema while surveying the history of cinema in Japan, from early efforts to disentangle it from fairground spectacles and the theater at the turn of the last century, through the golden age of studio cinema in the 1950s, to the place of film in the contemporary media ecology. This course will investigate the Japanese film as a narrative art, as a formal construct, and as a participant in larger aesthetic, social, and even political contexts.  This course includes the major genres of Japanese film, influential schools and movements, and major directors.  Additionally, students will learn and get extensive practice using the vocabulary of the discipline of film studies.

Fall semester. Professor Van Compernolle.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: readings, discussion participation, written work, film viewing, and visual analysis