Listening to Movies

This course shifts our critical attention from watching movies to listening to them. Amid a strong emphasis on cinema--ranging from musical accompaniment during the silent era to sound in experimental films, or from classical Hollywood underscoring to Bollywood musical numbers--we will consider the soundtrack of moving pictures within a growing variety of audiovisual media, including television, music videos, and computer games. Interactive lectures (Mondays and Wednesdays) and discussion sections (Fridays) combine a historical overview with transhistorical perspectives. Supplemented by screenings and readings, the course will address a variety issues and topics: aesthetic and psychological (such as representation, narration, affect); cultural and political (such as race, ethnicity, propaganda); social and economic (such as technology, production, dissemination).