2015-16
ART/SCIENCE AND POLITICS
Course code: 23648
Professor:
Camil Ungureanu
http://www.upf.edu/dcpis/pdi/professoratf/cu.html
Email: [email protected]
Room: 20.104 (C.U.)
Tutorials - by email.
This course aims at developing critical thinking and writing by analysing fundamental political phenomena through film art, political philosophy and ethics. We will reflect on issues such as transitional justice and historical memory, war and morality, economic crisis and equality, radical evil, immigration and justice by analysing systematically works of art by Ford, Coppola, Haneke, Dardenne, or von Trotta.
For each session there is a compulsory background reading that should be done before the class. Students should also see the film under discussion before the class, and prepare their own answers for each session.
The basic book for learning how to interpret film rigorously is Bordwell & Thompson (2012). On this basis, we will combine formal and substantive analysis in order to tackle questions of philosophical and ethical-political relevance. It is advisable that students purchase this book and consult it constantly so as to develop a richer perception and understanding of film art.
Course requirements
- class participation and presentation (30%).
- 1 essay (2000 words) (30%). The essays should start from a focused research question/a set of research questions, and should be based on existing scholarly literature
- exam (40%).[1]
I. Introduction (Battleship Potemkin, 1925; dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
Why study politics through art? What is the relation between film art, politics and philosophy? What are the main elements of film production and representation?
Reading:
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin Film Art: An Introduction, 2012 (ch. 1)
II. Method and terminology in interpreting cinema (Do the right thing, 1989; dir. Spike Lee)
What are the adequate methods of studying cinema? What are the key terms in analysing cinema rigorously? Analyse Bordwell´s and Thompson´s interpretation of Lee´s movie.
Readings:
Bordwell and Thompson Film Art (ch. 2 and 3)
Mulhall, Stephen, On Film, Routledge, 2010 (excerpt)
III. Foundation of political community, law and violence (The man who shot Liberty Valance 1962, dir. John Ford)
What´s the role of myth in founding political communities? Is there a difference between a myth and a lie? What´s relation between law and violence? Why does Doniphon choose to remain anonymous? How accurate is Cercas´ analogy between Suarez and Doniphon?
Readings:
Pippin, Robert Hollywood Westerns and American Myth: The Importance of Howard Hawks and John Ford for Political Philosophy, Yale University Press, 2010 (excerpt).
Cercas, Javier "El hombre que mató a Francisco Franco", El Pais, 2 April, 2014 (http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/01/opinion/1396356540_972626.html)
IV. Community-building, exclusion, and collective responsibility (Caché, 2005, dir. Michael Haneke)
Why does Haneke convert a real fact and a documentary into an enigmatic parable? What is the identity of the "ghost director" in the movie? What´s the significance of Majid´s surprising suicide? What´s the significance the last scene in the movie? Do Haneke and Ford build a similar image about the relation between community and violence?
Reading:
Ungureanu, Camil "Difficult Community, Violence and Collective Responsibility in Haneke´s Caché", Angelaki. Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 4, 2014
V. Transition to democracy and the dilemmas of justice (Disgrace, 2008, dir. Steve Jacobs)
What´s the relationship between law and forgiveness? What´s the connection between the film and the South African transition? Is Disgrace an anti-feminist film? How can Lucy´s decision be understood and justified?
Reading:
J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace, Vintage, 1999 (fragments).
VI. War, morality and emergency situations (Apocalypse Now, 1979; dir. Francis Coppola)
What is the relation between war and morality in Apocalypse now? How many moral conceptions clash in the movie? How does emergency situations affect the moral problematic?
Readings:
Conrad, Joseph, The Heart of Darkness (excerpt).
Walzer, Michael, "Emergency ethics"
VII. Radical evil and totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 2012; dir. M. von Trotta).
What is radical evil? What´s the significance of Arendt´s thesis of the banality of evil, and why did it generate a bitter polemic? If convincing at all, is Arendt´s thesis generalizable?
Reading:
Arendt, Hannah, "Epilogue" (excerpt from Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil, Penguin Classics, 2006)
VIII. Genetic revolution and the future of politics (Gattaca, 2003, dir. A. Niccol).
What are the ethical dilemmas posed by the genetic revolution? How does genetics shape politics in Gattaca? Is this a plausible view? Would Buchanan agree to the bleak image depicted in Gattaca?
Reading:
Buchanan, Allen 2011, Better Than Human, Oxford University Press, 2011 (excerpt).
IX. Mass media, power and privacy (Citizenfour, 2014, dir. L. Poitras)
How does technology impact politics and political power? Does Snowden´s acts generate any ethical or political dilemmas? Is full transparency a desideratum? What are the main traits of an ethics of whistleblowing?
Scheuerman, William "Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing", Boston Review, May, 21, 2014 (http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/scheuerman-snowden-greenwald-harding-sagar).
Zizek, Slavoj "Freedom in the cloud", 2014 (http://inthesetimes.com/article/15451/freedom_in_the_cloud)
X. Economic crisis, work and (mis)recognition (Two days, one night, 2014, dir. Dardenne Brothers),
What´s the role of ethics in dealing with an economic crisis situation? What´s brothers Dardenne´s tack on the current crisis - that is, what´s the morale of the film (if any)? How would you assess it on account of your own experience of the crisis?
Other Relevant films & documentaries
(useful for essays, and used as illustration during classes)
Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dali, Un chien andalou (1929); Buñuel, Viridiana (1961; El Angel Exterminador (1962)
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mamma Roma (1962); Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
(1975)
Jean-Luc Godard, La Chinoise (1967); Socialism (2010)
Stanley Kubrick, Clockwork Orange (1971)
Lars von Trier, The Idiots (1998)
Harum Farocki & Andrei Ujica, Videograms of a Revolution (1992)
Spike Lee, Malcolm X (1992), Do the right thing (1989)
Michael Haneke, Benny´s Video, 1992; Funny Games (1997).
Dardenne Brothers, The promise (1996)
Quentin Tarantino Django Unchained (2012)
Sophie Fiennes, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, 2006 (writer: Slavoj Zizek).
Jasmila Zbanic, Grbavica (2006)
Ken Loach, It´s a free world (2007)
Pedro Costa Cavalo Dinheiro (2014)
Competences & Skills
This course is part of the optional courses itinerary "democracy in diverse societies" that, together, develops the following competencies/skills:
CB2. That students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competences typically demonstrated through devising and sustaining arguments and solving problems within their field of study.
CB3. That students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) to inform judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical.
CB4. That students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
CB5. That students have developed those skills needed to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
GENERAL SKILLS:
CG1. Capacity for analysis and synthesis.
CG3. Knowledge of a second language.
CG6. Interpersonal skills.
TRANSVERSAL SKILLS:
CT1. Identify and critically analyze gender inequality and its intersection with other axes of inequality.
SPECIFIC SKILLS:
CE8. Interpret contemporary political theories and arguments.
CE9. Interpret the historical dimension of political and social processes.
CE17. Apply the methods and techniques of political and social research.
CE19. Examine the techniques of political communication.
Bibliography
1. Journals:
Film & Philosophy http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p
Screen http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/
Comparative Cinema http://www.ocec.eu/cinemacomparative/
For more academic Journals on cinema, check JSTOR
2. Books & Articles
Allen, Richard, and Murray Smith (eds.), 1997. Film Theory and Philosophy, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Badiou, Alain, 2013. Film Fables, Cambridge: Polity
Balló, J., Pérez, X., 1997, La semilla inmortal. Los argumentos universales en el cine Barcelona: Anagrama.
Carroll, Nöel, 1988. Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
---, 1996. Theorizing the Moving Image, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
---, 2008. The Philosophy of Motion Pictures, Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Eisenstein, Sergei, 1969. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, New York: Harcourt.
Falzon, Christopher, 2014. Philosophy Goes to the Movies: An Introduction to Philosophy, 3rd Edition, Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
---,"Philosophy through Film", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, available at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/phi-film/
Ranciere, Jacques, 2006. Film Fables (Talking Images), London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Rothman, William (ed), 2005. Cavell On Film, Suny Series, State University of New York Press.
Ungureanu, C. (ed) 2014. Religion in European Cinema. The Postnational Constellation, Routledge (with Costica Bradatan)
Ungureanu, C. "Aesthetization of violence and moral ambiguity in Charlie Brooker´s National Anthem, in Journal of European Studies, 2015.
Wartenberg, Thomas E., 1999. Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism, Boulder: Westview Press.
---, 2007. Thinking On Screen: Film as Philosophy, London: Routledge.
Wartenberg, Thomas E. and Angela Curran, 2005. The Philosphy of Film: Introductory Text and Readings, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Wartenberg Thomas, 2014. "Philosophy of Film" 2014, available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/film/
[1] N.B. The right to come to revision depends on three conditions: 1. Having participated in more than half of the classes; 2. Having submitted the written assignments; 3. Having taken part in the first examination.