Department of English

Taking its title from a recent special issue in the journal Framework, this seminar will engage the where of film and media theory. At a moment when this discourse, often presumed to have roots in Anglo and Western European traditions, is purportedly undergoing a “global turn,” we will consider how some of film and media theory’s key terms and preoccupations—including realism, documentary, genre, identity, sound, spectatorship, nation, auteur, and screens—are being inflected by expanded geographic, linguistic, aesthetic and cultural frames. We will grapple with some of the logistical challenges, motivations, resistances, and questions that scholars encounter as they attempt to shift film and media theory’s borders; compare contemporary efforts to broaden the discourse’s geographic horizon with earlier efforts to do the same; and consider what happens to the viewer's sense of space and place in different media environments.

Course requirements: full participation in readings, screenings, discussion, and class presentations; 20-25 page research paper + annotated bibliography. Permission of instructor required for advanced undergraduates.