| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Elective | SOL2EN334 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: Monsoon semester 2019
Course Coordinator and Team: Diamond Oberoi Vahali
Email of course coordinator: diamond@aud.ac.in
Pre-requisites: Interest in psychoanalysis and cinema
Course Objectives/Description: This course will deal with films from the early twentieth century till the nineteen eighties. The course looks at how European cinema has deep connections with the human psyche and how it has engaged with the invisible undercurrents that govern and shape our existence in very subtle modes, beyond the realm of the comprehensible.
The course will undertake an in-depth analysis of the selected films. Besides screening the films, the course will analyze special selected shots and will undertake detailed discussions regarding the use of camera, sound, point of view and other related techniques and will discuss as to how the Director through specific techniques reveals the inner working of the human mind. A few articles related to cinema will be analysed. Besides this, a few psychoanalytical concepts will be introduced to the students as key concepts to understand the basic themes and characters in the films.
Objective: The objective of the course is to help inculcate the basics of film appreciation in the students as well as to help them develop deep psychoanalytical insights into literature and cinema and to understand the connection between literature, cinema and the human mind.
Course Outcomes:
On the successful completion of the course:
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
Module I: Reading films.This module will introduce the basic tools related to analyse film technique.
Module II: The second module will focus on Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) which stresses on the dark arena of human dread, terror and anxiety and explores themes related to the unknown areas of the human psyche, especially those parts of oneself that are hidden from one’s own self. This module will also undertake an in-depth analysis of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali Un Chien Andalou (1929) which explores themes related to the omnipotence of desire.
Module III: The third module will focus on Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957) a film that intermingles the past with the present, until we realize in Maria Wine’s words, as Bergman himself says that one sleeps in one’s childhood’s shoe. It will focus on themes related to memory, forgetting and old age.
Module IV: Will focus on Alain Resnais Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), which deals with the integration of the past and the present, of memory and oblivion, of Nevers and Hiroshima, of personal and universal tragedy as perceived through the minds of its central characters. It will focus on trauma and its relationship with history.
Module V: This module will focus on Federico Fellini’s Eight And A Half (1962), a film that interweaves the past, present and future and through this, creates a thinking process within the mind of the artist himself. It will deal with themes related to human psyche and the manner with which it grapples with art and the creative process.
Module VI: Passolini’s Oedipus Rex (1967) marvellously manifests the trauma of the protagonist mainly through the technique of sound and the visuals of the barren landscapes. The module will deal with themes related to psychic determinants which pull us in directions contrary to ourselves.
Module VII: Will focus on Rainer Werner Fassbinder, In a Year with Thirteen Moons (1978). This module will focus on themes related to gender and the human psyche. It will focus on the trauma of a transgender person.
Assessment Details with weights:
Tentative Assessment schedule with details of weightage:
S.No | Assessment | Date/period in which Assessment will take place | Weightage |
1 | Class participation | Throughout the semester | 20% |
2 | Response paper on a psychoanalytical reading | Mid semester | 20% |
3 | Term paper | Beginning of the last month of the Semester | 20% |
4 | Portfolio/Journal | End semester | 40% |
Reading List:
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:
