551.335 (19S) Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: American Film Noir

Sommersemester 2019

Registration deadline has expired.

First course session
06.03.2019 16:00 - 19:30 N.0.27 On Campus
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Overview

Lecturer
Course title german Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: American Film Noir
Type Seminar (continuous assessment course )
Hours per Week 2.0
ECTS credits 8.0
Registrations 9 (20 max.)
Organisational unit
Language of instruction English
Course begins on 06.03.2019
eLearning Go to Moodle course
Remarks (english)

This is a block seminar. Attendance of the first double-session on March 6 is MANDATORY! 

Time and place

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Course Information

Intended learning outcomes

Students will deepen their understanding and usage of critical concepts in film studies and acquire a solid knowledge of the defining features and history of American film noir. They will learn to establish connections between the cultural, political, and social forces that produced and shaped this genre during the 1940s and gain a better understanding of how later filmmakers made use of its defining features in order to give tribute, pay homage, poke fun or do all of this in combination.

Teaching methodology including the use of eLearning tools

Short lecture inputs; detailed analysis and in-class discussion of assigned films and texts. 

Course content

Film noir is one of the most famous and influential genres of Hollywood film. Coined by the French critic Nino Frank in 1946, the term denotes a range of stylish American crime dramas during the 1940s and 50s known for their low-key lighting and moral darkness. Film noir’s broken anti-heroes, corrupt villains, and alluring femme fatales have remained popular over the decades, and so among the films we will consider are not only classics of the genre such as John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941), Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944),, Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946), and Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past(1947), but also neo-noirs such as Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), Carl Reiner’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982). We will discuss the defining features of the genre, the historical conditions that produced it, and how it has changed and adapted over time.

Examination information

Im Fall von online durchgeführten Prüfungen sind die Standards zu beachten, die die technischen Geräte der Studierenden erfüllen müssen, um an diesen Prüfungen teilnehmen zu können.

Grading scheme

Grade / Grade grading scheme

Position in the curriculum

  • Master's degree programme English and American Studies (SKZ: 812, Version: 18W.1)
    • Subject: Literature and Culture Studies (Compulsory elective)
      • 3.4 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies I ( 0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
        • 551.335 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: American Film Noir (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 2. Semester empfohlen
  • Master's degree programme English and American Studies (SKZ: 812, Version: 11W.1)
    • Subject: Film, Literature and Culture Studies (Compulsory elective)
      • Advanced Topics in „Film, Literature and Culture Studies” ( 0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
        • 551.335 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: American Film Noir (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
  • Master's degree programme Game Studies and Engineering (SKZ: 992, Version: 17W.2)
    • Subject: Gebundenes Wahlfach (Compulsory elective)
      • Module: Game Studies
        • Advanced Topics in Film, Literature and Culture Studies ( 0.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
          • 551.335 Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture Studies: American Film Noir (2.0h SE / 8.0 ECTS)
            Absolvierung im 1., 2., 3. Semester empfohlen

Equivalent courses for counting the examination attempts

This course is not assigned to a sequence of equivalent courses