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Content: How Moving Images Work II is structured around two central questions: (1) How can moving images enrich our understanding of the fundamental questions explored by the humanities: the nature of personal and collective identity; the nature of existence, knowledge, and memory; explicit and implicit cultural, social and philosophical values and beliefs; the natural world and our relationship with it; the various sources of our pleasure and pain. (2) On the other hand, how can the humanities enrich our understanding of moving images? Every week we will explore the intersection between moving images and a particular form of humanistic inquiry. Some of the questions we will explore include (but are not limited to): How do we make sense of the past (film and history)? How do we know the world—through reason or intuition—and what does it mean to live authentically (film and philosophy)? How do words and images signify (film and literature)? What do we consider sacred and profane? Can films represent the transcendental (film and religion/spirituality)? How do particular cultural practices relate to wider systems of power, including class structures, race relations, national formations, gender and sexual orientation? How is race produced, represented and performed on the screen (film and race studies)? How does postfeminist cinema reflect broader cultural anxieties about women’s changing social and political status (film and gender studies)? How do films reflect the changing nature of class struggle in the age of neoliberalism, or contribute to ongoing debates about national identity and nationalism (film and politics)? How do films imagine the creative process (film and art)? How do films dramatize the radical transformation in personal and social relations brought about by new technologies, from cell phones and social media to VR (film and digital culture)?

Teaching delivery: 10 x 1-hour weekly lecture and 10 x 1-hour weekly seminar.

Indicative topics

• How do we make sense of the past (film and history)?ÌýÌý
• How do we know the world (film and philosophy)?ÌýÌý
• How do words and images signify (film and literature)?ÌýÌý
• How do particular cultural practices relate to wider systems of power, including class structures, race relations, national formations, gender and sexual orientation?Ìý

Module aims: Students will learn to analyse moving images as a form of humanistic inquiry. They will be introduced to scholarly research on the subject and acquire the academic skills required to write perceptively and convincingly on the relationship between moving images and philosophy, history, politics, literature, technology and the broader visual culture in which moving images participate.Ìý

Recommended reading

1. Philosophy through Film (Mary Litch and Amy Karofsky (2020)Ìý
2. Film and Literature: An Introduction and Reader (Timothy Corrigan, 2011)Ìý
3. History on Film/Film on History (Robert Rosenstone, 2017)Ìý

Additional costs: A trip to the BFI London Film Festival

This module is taught on the ÐÂÏã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹ûEast campus in Stratford.Ìý