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The Cinema of David Cronenberg
Tuesday/Thursday 12:30 to 2:20 PM
GWN 301
Instructor: Prof. Sudhir Mahadevan (he/him/his) (sudhirm)
Department: Cinema and Media Studies
Office Hours: Padelford Hall, B-205, Wednesdays 12:30 to 2:30 pm, and by appointment
Teaching Assistants:
Shuprima Guha (shuprima)
Office Hours: Wednesdays 12 to 1 pm, Padelford Hall, 2nd Floor, C-201
Yandong Li (yandong)
Office Hours: Thursdays 11:20 to 12:20 pm and by appointment
Mengcha Moua (mengcha)
Office Hours: Tuesdays 3 to 4 pm or by appointment, Padelford Hall, 2nd Floor, C-201/
Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/93074416614
Jude Velez (jkvelez) (they/them)
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11 am to 12 pm, Padelford Hall, 5th Floor, B 522, or by Appointment
This introductory course is meant for students with no prior experience with film analysis or who have not taken a film class before. The course has two aims.
The first is to teach students the basic skills and vocabulary of film analysis. By the end of the quarter, students should be able to describe a movie (or portions of it) using the vocabulary they learn in this class, and be able to construct an argument about the meaning of the movie.
The second aim is to give students a basic introduction to an important contemporary director, David Cronenberg. Cronenberg's films engage with diverse film genres: venereal horror, zombie flicks, sci-fi, adaptations of literary classics and theatrical works. This course will trace this filmmaker's truly unnerving body of films, with their focus on bodily mutation, damage and degradation (The Brood, The Fly, Shivers, Rabid), in the way bodies interact with media and other technologies (Videodrome, eXistenZ, Crash), and in fluid gender identities and body doubles (M. Butterfly, Dead Ringers).
Graded course work will include a combination of short essays, quizzes, participation and exams.