24.264 | Fall 2005 | Undergraduate

Film as Visual and Literary Mythmaking

Readings

Required Texts

Buy at MIT Press Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 0262692481.

Buy at MIT Press ———. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. ISBN: 0262195011.

Where available, links to more information about each film viewed in the course have been made to the Internet Movie Database.

Readings and Films by Session

LEC # TOPICS/READINGS/FILMS
1

Introduction: Myth in Visual and Literary Arts

Film: Sturges, Preston. The Lady Eve, 1941.

2

Buy at MIT Press Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, pp. xi-50 and 131-52. ISBN: 0262692481.

Film: Jeunet, Jean-Pierre. Amélie, 2001.

3

Bédier, Joseph. Tristan & Iseult. Rei ed. London, UK: Vintage, 1994. ISBN: 0679750169.

Film: Cocteau, Jean, and Jean Delannoy. The Eternal Return, 1943.

4

Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN: 0141439505. (Including the prose epilogue.)

Film: Asquith, Anthony, and Leslie Howard. Pygmalion, 1938.

5

James, Henry. Washington Square. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002. ISBN: 0375761225. (Including introduction.) (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.)

Film: Holland, Agnieszka. Washington Square, 1997.

6

Buy at MIT Press Singer, Irving. Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, pp. 191-200. ISBN: 0262692481.

Film: Wyler, William. The Heiress, 1949.

7

Buy at MIT Press Singer, Irving. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, pp. ix-79. ISBN: 0262195011.

Film: Hitchcock, Alfred. The 39 Steps, 1935.

8

Buy at MIT Press Singer, Irving. Three Philosophical Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004, pp. 221-257. ISBN: 0262195011.

Discussion of Readings and Screenings to date -

9

Cocteau, Jean. Cocteau on the Film. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1972, pp. v-76. ISBN: 0486227774.

Film: Cocteau, Jean. Orphée, 1950.

10

Cocteau, Jean. Cocteau on the Film. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1972, pp. 99-131. ISBN: 0486227774.

Film: Cocteau, Jean. The Testament of Orpheus, 1960.

11

Singer, Irving.“The Meaning of Death.” In The Creation of Value: Meaning in Life Series. Vol. 1. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN: 0801854512.

Film: Bergman, Ingmar. The Seventh Seal, 1957.

12

Discussion of Student Drafts of Paper 2

Film: Bergman, Ingmar. Through a Glass Darkly, 1961. (Interviews.)

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Fall 2005
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Videos