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The Minor in Cinema Studies

Course Requirements for the Minor: 18 units

The following courses, or their approved transfer equivalents, are required of all candidates for this minor.

Approaches to Film: 6 units

2 courses selected from:

SUBJ NUM Title Sustainable Units Semester Offered Course Flags
FLNG 380 Language and Culture in Film   3.0 FA  GE
Students examine films which, as cultural products of specific geo-linguistic areas, offer a key to understanding a society's language, history, and unique interests, concerns, practices, and perspectives. This course focuses each semester on a specific geo-linguistic area of film production. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. (021181)
HUMN 280 International Films   3.0 INQ  
This course is also offered as INST 280.
An examination of film as art through investigation of selected cinematographic works from various periods of international and American film history, with emphasis on the analysis of major critical, social, and theoretical concepts. 2 hours discussion, 2 hours activity. (021035)
HUMN 281I Food and Film - WI   3.0 FS  GE  WI
This course explores themes about food in international cinema, with special attention to the social, cultural and historical context for food as depicted in film, the cultural issues regarding national, ethnic and gender identity, and how the art and history of cinema have presented the many roles that food plays in our lives. 2 hours discussion, 3 hours laboratory.This is an approved Writing Intensive course. This is an approved General Education course. (021204)
PHIL 383 Philosophy and Film   3.0 FS  
Critical examination of selected cinematographic works, with special emphasis on the clarification and analysis of the philosophical ideas they entail. 2 hours discussion, 3 hours laboratory. (007248)
RELS 365 Religion and Film   3.0 SP  
An examination of the representation of religious concerns and meaning in modern film. Utilizing resources developed in religious traditions and in the field of religious studies, the course examines themes central to the human condition such as selfhood, religious conviction, despair, redemption, and race and ethnicity. 2 hours discussion, 3 hours laboratory. (008149)

Cinema and Anglophone Cultures: 3 units

1 course selected from:

SUBJ NUM Title Sustainable Units Semester Offered Course Flags
CDES 342 Documentary Film   3.0 FS  
The origins and major movements in the area of the documentary film. The various uses relating to propaganda, social problems, and personal insight. Production motivations in seeking the mass audience through documentary. Open to non-majors. 3 hours discussion. (001683)
CDES 344 American Cinema   3.0 FS  
Motion picture beginnings. How production, distribution, and use developed to make motion pictures a powerful medium for mass communication. The significance of the motion picture as an entertainment, education, information, and propaganda device meeting unique social needs and purposes. Open to non-majors. 3 hours lecture. (001677)
ENGL 203 Shakespeare in Film   3.0 FS  GE
Through examining the texts and film interpretations of Shakespeare plays, students in this course develop a deeper understanding of both Shakespearean drama and the language of film. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. (015856)
ENGL 303 Survey of American Film   3.0 SP  
Study and criticism of selected American films, with emphasis on their literary sources, their illustration of various literary conventions, and their use of language. 2 hours lecture, 3 hours laboratory. (003463)

Foreign Language Cinema: 3 units

1 course selected from:

SUBJ NUM Title Sustainable Units Semester Offered Course Flags
FREN 480 French Cinema   3.0 INQ  
An introduction to French cinema as a narrative form, with emphasis on key films and directors from various periods of French film history. The class is taught in English. All films have English subtitles. 3 hours discussion. (003813)
GERM 482 Weimar Cinema: From Caligari to Hitler   3.0 INQ  
Class taught in English. All films have English subtitles. Historical survey of film classics from the Expressionist cinema, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich, with an introduction to the main currents in film aesthetics and theory from Kracauer to contemporary feminist film theories. Readings of major authors on films, including Brecht, Eisner, and Kracauer. Screening of films by Murnau, Lang, and von Sternberg. 3 hours discussion. (004223)
GERM 484 The New German Cinema   3.0 INQ  
Class taught in English. All films have English subtitles. Historical survey of representative films from the post-war era, the New German, and feminist cinema, including study of their cultural and social significance, with a component of significant film aesthetics and theories from Kluge to contemporary feminist film theories. 3 hours discussion. (004224)
GERM 486 Contemporary German Cinema   3.0 INQ  
Class is taught in English; films in German with English subtitles. A historical survey of representative films and cinema cultures of Austria and Switzerland, and of the former two German states, East and West Germany from the 1980's to the present; including study of their cultural and social significance with a component of aesthetic changes in united Germany's cinematic culture after 1990, and a representation of Germany's multicultural society. 3 hours discussion. (020681)
ITAL 482 Italian Cinema -- General History, Genres, and Trends   3.0 INQ  
The Italian Cinema as a creative art form has had a profound and lasting impact on world cinematography. The course will include Italian film history and the study of major trends and techniques. The relationship of the cinema to socio-political, economic, and literary events in Italy and the world will be studied: Neorealism, The Felliniesque, Spaghetti Western, Commedia all'Italiana, and more recent trends. The class is taught in English and all films have English subtitles. 3 hours discussion. (005111)
ITAL 483 Italian Cinema -- Great Film Directors   3.0 INQ  
Consists of a series of related in-depth monographic studies of such great film directors as De Sica, Visconti, Rossellini, Fellini, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Pasolini, the Tavianis, and Scola. The class is taught in English and all films have English subtitles. 3 hours discussion. (005112)
JAPN 381 Japan in Film   3.0 INQ  
This course is taught in English. It examines a variety of Japanese films involving the following cultural themes: roles of men and women, society, history, politics, education, theater, sports, music, industry, comedy, etc. In the process, the students examine and analyze the myths and realities of Japanese people as portrayed in the films. Discussions are designed to increase students' awareness of intercultural communication, to foster their preparedness for functioning in the complex order of Japanese society. All films have English subtitles. 3 hours lecture. You may take this course more than once for a maximum of 6.0 units. (020182)
SPAN 481 Film and Literature in Spain and Latin America   3.0 INQ  
Prerequisites: SPAN 301; SPAN 341 or SPAN 342; or faculty permission.
Students will consider the elements that constitute literary and cinematic masterpieces by examining films based on a variety of texts: epic poetry, drama, short story, legend, novel, zarzuela, and filmscript. The films will represent the cultural and linguistic diversity in areas of Spain and Latin America. 3 hours discussion. (009183)

Electives: 3 units

3 units selected from:

SUBJ NUM Title Sustainable Units Semester Offered Course Flags
CDES 352 Media Arts and Identity   3.0 FS  
Examines the creation and propagation of representations of identity, such as sexuality, ethnicity, race, nationality and class within film, video and electronic arts. 3 hours discussion. (020661)
CDES 353 World Cinema   3.0 FS  
Investigates the concept of world and national cinema within historical, economic, cultural, and theoretical contexts. 2 hours discussion, 2 hours activity. (020662)

or choose any course offered in one of the three sections above or any film course offered in the University, with the approval of the Humanities advisor.

Comparative Study: 3 units

1 course selected from:

SUBJ NUM Title Sustainable Units Semester Offered Course Flags
ARTH 433 European Art: Twentieth Century   3.0 FS  
Prerequisites: ARTH130.
An investigation of the European Avant-Garde of the first half of the century: Modernism, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Neue Sachlichkeit, the Bauhaus, and Surrealism in painting, sculpture, architecture, and performance art. These movements will be related to music, dance, literature, theater, and to the European social, intellectual, and political ambience of the period up to and including World War II, when key European artist refugees arrived in the United States. Such artists as Marcel Duchamp, Kathe Kodwitz, and Pablo Picasso will be considered. 3 hours lecture. (000777)
ARTH 441 Contemporary Art: 1980-present   3.0 FS  
Prerequisites: ARTH 130.
An investigation of artists and issues that have occupied the global contemporary art world since 1980. 3 hours lecture. (000838)
ARTH 484 History of Photography   3.0 FS  
The development of photography from roots in classical and medieval discoveries to the present, its role in historical documentation, its reciprocal influence upon the arts, its contribution to science, and its importance as an extension of human vision. Non-silver processes and fusion of photography with computer and other media will be examined. Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston are among the photographers to be considered. 3 hours lecture. (000773)
ENGL 451 Modern Poetry   3.0 FS  
Study of twentieth-century British, American, Continental, and Latin American poetry. 3 hours seminar. (003543)
ENGL 453 Modern Drama   3.0 FS  
British, Continental, and American drama from Ibsen to the present. Topics vary from semester to semester. 3 hours seminar. (003549)
ENGL 454 Comparative Literature   3.0 FS  
Comparative study of major genres, themes, and literary figures in literature. Topics vary from semester to semester. 3 hours seminar. You may take this course more than once for a maximum of 6.0 units. (003552)
ENGL 461 The Modern Novel   3.0 FS  
British, American, Continental, and Latin American novels in the twentieth century. 3 hours seminar. (003562)
MUSC 293 History of Jazz   3.0 SP  
The historical and philosophical study of jazz from its African origins to the various forms in which it exists today. 3 hours lecture. (006184)
MUSC 294 History of Rock Music   3.0 FA  
An in-depth study of Rock and Roll music and culture as it relates to the development and changes in American and world social orders. A study of the impact of Rock and Roll on social, economic, cultural and political structures. 3 hours lecture. (006186)
PHIL 217 Existentialism   3.0 FS  GE
An examination of existentialism from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Sartre, and de Beauvoir. An analysis of the basic forces, concepts, and figures which have shaped existentialism. Formerly PHIL 307. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. (021534)
PHIL 303 History of 19th Century Philosophy   3.0 FS  
Western philosophical thought from Kant through the twentieth century, including the phenomenological and analytic traditions in western philosophy. 3 hours lecture. (007183)
PHIL 305 Continental Philosophy   3.0 FA  
The phenomenological movement and its impact on philosophy, literature, and psychology, with attention to Husserl's views on mind, body, and intersubjectivity and Heidegger's ideas of being-in-the-world, authenticity, and death. 3 hours seminar. (007204)
PHIL 384 Aesthetics   3.0 SP  
A philosophical study of the nature and significance of art, with references to relevant works. The course considers such themes as the beautiful, the sublime, comedy, tragedy and the social psychological dimensions of art as well as the periods of Romanticism, Modernism, Postmodernism. 3 hours lecture. (020624)
THEA 251 World Theatre   3.0 FA  GE
This is a survey course examining theatrical performance throughout the world focusing primarily on non-western forms. It examines representative examples of theatrical performance within specific cultures or geographic locations and explores the social and cultural connections between performance and society. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. (021114)
THEA 252 Politics, Performance, and Power   3.0 FS  GE
This course serves as an introduction to the connections between theatre and politics, ranging from traditional theatre to performance art. It examines the nature of political theatre and performance and introduces key figures such as Bertolt Brecht, Augusto Boal, and Guillermo Gomez-Pena. Students see live performance, read theoretical and performance texts, and develop a critical discourse about the nature of politics, power, and performance. Students also engage in performance practice as well as theory, formulating a creative work in response to a contemporary performance issue. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. (021151)
THEA 315 Performance of Identity   3.0 FS  GE  USD
This course is also offered as MCGS 315.
A study of identity as expressed through performance in theatre and other media. The course focuses on issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Students see live performances, read classic and contemporary performance texts, and gain exposure to key figures who engage with identity politics in performance in the contemporary consciousness. 3 hours lecture. This is an approved General Education course. This is an approved US Diversity course. (009520)
Catalog Cycle:15