LFU:online

The objective is to gain knowledge about the most important developments in American film history and cinema’s manifold intermedial relations to literature.

This lecture offers a historical survey of American cinema from the late 19th century to the 21st century and its relationship to popular American literature. It focuses on different functions literature assumed during important cinematic movements and transitional periods in film history, such as the cinema of attraction, the transition to Hollywood cinema, pre-code independent cinema, film noir, the decline of the studio system and the rise of comic-book franchise films.

Lecture, reading assignments, discussions

Oral or written exam

A list of filmic and literary works to be read will be distributed in the first session of class.

Prerequisite for the Master's Programme: none

The lecture "VO American Cinema, Media and Culture" can be attended as the lecture "VO American Literature and Culture II” with an additional reading list. If you wish to obtain credits for both lectures, the lectures’ contents must differ substantially.