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Spring 2013 Film BC3990 section 001
SENIOR SEMINAR FILM STUDIES
SE SEM:MULTIPROTAGONIST FILM

Call Number 07110
Day & Time
Location
R 2:10pm-6:00pm
LL105 Diana Center
Points 4
Approvals Required Instructor
Instructor Christina Kalogeropoulou
Type SEMINAR
Course Description Prerequisites: Enrollment restricted to seniors majoring or concentrating in Film Studies. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center (Course is pending approval by COI.)  The contemporary tendency to abandon the single-protagonist structure on which most film narratives have traditionally relied and replace it by a wider assortment of characters with more or less independent narrative lines, has lead to a storytelling pattern, which we refer to as multi-protagonist, which is anything but new in the history of cinema. Yet, it is not until the last two decades that it started to make a significant impact. Under a variety of shapes and names - ensemble and mosaic films (Troehler 2000, 2007), sequential and tandem narratives (Aronson 2001), polyphonic, parallel, and daisy-chain plots (Ramirez Berg 2006), or network narratives (Bordwell 2006) - multi-protagonist movies have emerged as one of the most visible and recurrent trends in contemporary cinema. This seminar is designed to help graduating film majors prepare their senior essays. The first part of the course is rooted in close analysis of the concept of the multi-protagonist film and its potential to overcome the hierarchical organization reflected in our classic storytelling's privileging of one character and her point of view over the rest. Three multi-protagonist films, PULP FICTION, HAPPINESS and MAGNOLIA will be analyzed from a variety of perspectives, focusing on the construction of a frame of reference: How do multi-protagonist films work as far as causal agency, point of view, and, especially, spectator identification are concerned? In the second half of the course, students make presentations based on their proposed senior essays. These oral reports can include screenings of selected sequences from the films being analyzed. The students may also suggest brief readings for other class members in preparation for their individual reports.
Web Site CourseWorks
Department Film @Barnard
Enrollment 4 students as of 6:50PM Saturday, May 18, 2013
Subject Film
Number BC3990
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Open To Columbia College, General Studies, Barnard
Campus Barnard College
Note SIGNUP 4TH FL BARNARD HALL STARTING 11/8, 8:30AM
Section key 20131FILM3990X001

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SIS update 05/18/13 18:50    web update 05/19/13 15:00