Comparative Literature 596 – Special Studies in Comparative Literature

How is our sensorial experience at the movies predicated on historically determined factors? How does the expression of that experience to others change with time? To answer these questions we must investigate the transformation of production and screening technology, the various venues available for opinion sharing and film criticism, and the changing meaning of the public sphere itself. The course focuses on cinephilia as a specific form of experience and criticism and on its different facets through history. The assigned readings emphasize recent scholarship.