Course Description

Requirements

Readings

Examinations

Grades

Films and Readings

Paper Topics

Preliminary Midterm Examination Questions

Preliminary Final Examination Questions

Course Description for Politics and Film

This course will have a dual focus. Our first aim is to see what some mainstream American films can teach us about politics and what the popularity of these films can teach us about what we Americans think about ourselves. Our second aim is to think about how film makers use the resources of film to tell stories about our lives that can teach us, persuade us, or perhaps mislead us, to look at our political and social life in a certain way. Some themes considered in the course are the following: the tension between personal life and the necessities of politics; the difficulties of establishing justice in the new world; the American dilemma of race; visions of class and classlessness in America; how the media and the culture of celebrity has changed politics; and the impact of the national security state on our politics and society.