{"id":810,"date":"2011-05-16T14:12:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T21:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/?p=810"},"modified":"2011-07-04T10:35:40","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T17:35:40","slug":"yales-film-studies-canon-the-readings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/yales-film-studies-canon-the-readings\/","title":{"rendered":"Yale’s film studies “canon”: the readings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My<\/a>
This is what my desk looked like in the wake of my oral exams, back in 2006<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long, long ago, I posted<\/a> the the filmography from the “canon” exam that Yale’s Film Studies Ph.D. program administers to all of its graduating students. I promised to post the readings, too, and then promptly forgot. Anyway, here they are, in case you’re interested in some light reading. Apologies for the formatting errors; I didn’t have the wherewithal to clean this list up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I. Non-fiction Modes of Film<\/h3>\n

a. Documentary and Ethnographic<\/em><\/h4>\n

<\/em>Phil Rosen, \u201cDocument and Documentary: on the Persistence of Historical Concepts\u201d in Rosen, Change Mummified<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/span><\/span>Trinh Minh-ha, \u201cThe Totalizing Quest of Meaning:\u201d in Renov<\/span><\/h4>\n

Brian Winston, \u201cThe Documentary film as Scientific Inscription\u201d in Renov<\/p>\n

Dziga Vertov, Kino-Eye<\/span> (\u201cWe: Variant of a Manifesto\u201d; \u201cKinoks: A Revolution\u201d; \u201cOn the Significance of Non-Acted Cinema\u201d; \u201cArtistic Drama and Kino-Eye\u201d)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

b. animation<\/em> (to be decided)<\/h4>\n

c. Experimental<\/em><\/h4>\n

Stan Brakhage, \u201cMetaphors On Vision\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitney, P.A \u201cMajor Mythopoeia\u201d from Visionary Cinema<\/span><\/p>\n

Maya Deren An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film<\/span><\/p>\n

Annette Michelson. \u201cAbout Snow.\u201d October<\/span>, No. 8 (Spring 1979): 111\u201324.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

II. Institutions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

a. Hollywood and beyond<\/em><\/h4>\n

Bordwell, Thompson, Staiger,\u00a0 The Classical Hollywood Cinema<\/span><\/p>\n

Bacher, Lutz.\u00a0 \u201cLetter from an Unknown Woman\u201d in Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios<\/span><\/p>\n

James Lastra, chapter 4 from Sound Technology and the American Cinema<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Schatz, from The Genius of the System<\/span>, Parts I and II.<\/p>\n

Miriam Hansen, \u201cThe Mass Production of the Senses: Classical Cinema as Vernacular Modernism,\u201d in Reinventing film studies<\/span><\/p>\n

Vance Kepley, \u201cWhose Apparatus: Problems of Film Exhibition and History\u201d in Post Theory<\/span><\/p>\n

N. Durovicova, \u201cLocal Ghosts: Dubbing Bodies In Early Sound Cinema,\u201d In Film and its Multiples<\/span> (Udine: Forum, 2003), 83-98<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

III. Cultural Studies\/Film History<\/strong><\/h3>\n

a. Early Cinema<\/em><\/h4>\n

Miriam Hansen, \u201cIntroduction\u201d from Babel and Babylon<\/span><\/p>\n

Yuri Tsivian, part I (pp. 1-121) of Early Cinema in Russia<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Gunning, \u201cThe Cinema of Attractions\u201d; \u201c\u2019Animated Pictures\u2019: Tales from Cinema\u2019s Forgotten Future,\u201d in Reinventing Film Studies<\/span>,<\/p>\n

A. Gerow,\u201cThe Benshi\u2019s New Face: Defining Cinema in Taisho Japan,\u201d Iconics<\/span><\/p>\n

Charles Musser, \u201cPre-Classical American Cinema: Its Changing Modes of Film Production,” in Abel, Silent Film<\/span> (Rutgers University Press, 1996), 85-108.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

b. Race and ethnicity<\/em><\/h4>\n

Manthia Diawara, M. \u201cBlack Resistant Spectators\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Gaines. \u201cOn Looking Relations\u201d<\/p>\n

Clyde Taylor, from Oscar Micheaux and his Circle<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Dyer, \u201cWhite\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IV. Film Theory Topics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Except where noted via brackets ([ ]), selections taken from<\/p>\n

Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings<\/span>, ed. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, Leo Braudy (New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ Press)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary of Debates<\/em><\/h4>\n

Francesco Casetti Theories of Film 1945-95<\/span><\/p>\n

Bordwell, \u201cConvention, Construction and Cinematic Vision,\u201d Post Theory<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Film and Reality<\/em><\/h4>\n

Andre Bazin, What is Cinema? v. 1<\/span><\/p>\n

Deleuze, Cinema 1: the Movement Image<\/span> ch 1-4; Cinema 2: the Time Image,<\/span> ch 1.<\/p>\n

Siegfried Kracauer, \u201cBasic Concepts\u201d; \u201cThe Establishment of Physical Existence\u201d<\/p>\n

Rudolf Arnheim, \u201cFilm and Reality\u201d; \u201cThe Complete Film\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian Metz, \u201cProblems of Denotation in the Fiction Film\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Film Language and Style<\/em><\/h4>\n

Pier Paolo Pasolini, \u201cCinema of Poetry\u201d<\/p>\n

David Bordwell, Narration and the Fiction Film<\/span> , part III<\/p>\n

Jean Mitry, \u201cRhythm and Montage\u201d [Aesthetics and Psychology of Cinema]<\/span><\/p>\n

Sergei Eisenstein,\u00a0 \u201cBeyond the Shot\u201d and \u201cThe Dramaturgy of Film Form\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Dayan, \u201cThe Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Browne, \u201cThe Spectator-in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Raymond, Bellour, \u201cThe Obvious and the Code\u201d [Rosen, Narrative Apparatus Ideol<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Noel Burch, Chapter One of Theory of Film Practice<\/span><\/p>\n

Dudley Andrew, \u201cAndr\u00e9 Bazin\u2019s \u2018Evolution\u2019\u201d [in Defining Cinema<\/span>].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Sound and Image<\/em><\/h4>\n

Pascal Bonitzer, \u201cSilence of the Voice\u201d [in Rosen]<\/p>\n

Jean Epstein, \u201cPhotogenie\u201d [Abel, French Film Theory and Criticism I]<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacques Aumont, \u201cThe Face in Close Up\u201d [Dalle Vacche, The Visual Turn]<\/span><\/p>\n

Roland Barthes, \u201cThe Third Meaning\u201d [Image Music Text<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Michel Chion, \u201cProjections of Sound on Image\u201d [Audio-Vision]<\/span><\/p>\n

Erwin Panofsky, \u201cStyle and Medium in the Motion Pictures\u201d<\/p>\n

Bela Balazs, \u201cThe Close-up\u201d and \u201cThe Face of Man\u201d<\/p>\n

Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Alexandrov, \u201cStatement on Sound\u201d<\/p>\n

Eisenstein, \u201cSound and Image (Montage 1938)\u201d [in The Film Sense<\/span>]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Media and Adaptation<\/em><\/h4>\n

Bazin, \u201cCinema as Digest\u201d [Naremore: On Adaptation<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Eisenstein, \u201cDickens, Griffith and the Film Today\u201d [in The Film Sense<\/span>]<\/p>\n

D. Andrew, \u201cAdaptation\u201d; \u201cEchoes of Art in Orson Welles\u201d [Film in the Aura of Art<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Noel Carroll, \u201cThe Specificity Thesis\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanley Cavell, \u201cPhotograph and Screen\u201d from The World Viewed<\/span><\/p>\n

Garrett Stewart\u00a0 \u201cFrame of Reference\u201d [from Between Film and Screen]<\/span><\/p>\n

Vivian Sobchack,\u201cThe Scene of the Screen:Envisioning Presence\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Genre<\/em><\/h4>\n

Jean-Loup Bourget, \u201cSocial Implications in the Hollywood Genres\u201d<\/p>\n

Robin Wood, \u201cIdeology, Genre, Auteur\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Feuer, \u201cThe Self-Reflexive Musical and the Myth of Entertainment\u201d<\/p>\n

Solanas and Gettino, \u201cTowards a Third Cinema\u201d [in Robert Stam, ed., Film Theory<\/span>]<\/p>\n

Julio Garcia Espinosa, \u201cFor an Imperfect Cinema\u201d [in Stam]<\/p>\n

Lyotard, \u201cAcinema\u201d [in Rosen]<\/p>\n

Rick Altman, \u201cA Semantic\/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre\u201d [in Film\/Genre]<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. Auteurs and Stars<\/em><\/h4>\n

Andrew Sarris, \u201cNotes on the Auteur Theory in 1962\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Wollen, \u201cThe Auteur Theory\u201d<\/p>\n

John Ellis, \u201cStars as a Cinematic Phenomenon\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Dyer, from Stars<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. Ideological Analysis<\/em><\/h4>\n

Barthes, \u201cDiderot, Brecht, Eisenstein\u201d [in Rosen]<\/p>\n

Heath, \u201cNarrative Space\u201d [in Rosen]<\/p>\n

Editors of Cahiers du Cin\u00e9ma,<\/span> \u201cYoung Mr. Lincoln\u201d [in Rosen]<\/p>\n

Walter Benjamin, \u201cThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction\u201d<\/p>\n

J-L Baudry, \u201cIdeological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus\u201d<\/p>\n

Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni, \u201cCinema\/Ideology\/Criticism\u201d<\/p>\n

F Jameson, \u201cReification and Utopia in Mass Culture\u201d [from Signatures of the Visible]<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8.Subjectivity, Gender<\/em><\/h4>\n

Christian Metz, \u201cIdentification,\u201d \u201cMirror\u201d \u201cThe Passion for Perceiving\u201d from Imaginary Signifier<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura Mulvey, \u201cVisual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Ann Doane, \u201cFilm and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaylyn Studlar, \u201cMasochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long, long ago, I posted the the filmography from the “canon” exam that Yale’s Film Studies Ph.D. program administers to all of its graduating students. I promised to post the readings, too, and then promptly forgot. Anyway, here they are, in case you’re interested in some light reading. Apologies for the formatting errors; I didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,17],"tags":[154,155,142,98,117,162,161,152,153,156,115,160,158,159,157,16],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-life","category-research","tag-andre-bazin","tag-auteur-theory","tag-bibliography","tag-canon","tag-cinema","tag-classical-cinema","tag-classical-hollywood-cinema","tag-critical-theory","tag-david-bordwell","tag-entertainmentculture","tag-film","tag-film-theory","tag-mass-media","tag-richard-dyer","tag-sergei-eisenstein","tag-yale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miriamposner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}