POL 3303 World Politics Through Film

This political science elective is intended to be accessible both to political science majors and to students with little or no background in political science. The course examines selected topics in world politics through the evolving medium of film, with “world politics” encompassing subjects traditionally analyzed in the political science subfields of comparative politics and international relations—and with additional interest in how culture, society, and economy all intersect with politics. The film schedule gives special attention to particular countries and regions that have produced interesting 21st Century films about politics: the United Kingdom, the United States, Iran, Germany, China, and India. Class discussions and individual writing will center on two key questions for each film: What constitutes ‘the political’ in this film?; and What are this film’s politics?

Credits

4 sh

Course Types

Society; Advanced Studies

Offered

• Winter

1. Develop a shared aesthetic and technical vocabulary for “reading” a film’s direction and production craft.
2. Put films “in conversation” with each other, and with scholarship and journalism about political events.
3. Consider perspectives of “national cinemas” (e.g. selected Iranian films) to understand why and how filmmakers engage critically, but sometimes elliptically, with political and social issues.
4. Understand and use distinct modes of writing about films (e.g. reviews, scholarly commentary and criticism) to communicate for specific purposes with different audiences.