Tightly structured and argumentative essay to proceed via the
support, discussion and interrogation of a close reading of the primary theoretical text
relevant to topic.
This is not a research essay, so no sources other than our textbook are required. (Textbook: Critical Visions in film theory, edited by timothy corrigan) However, your selections from our text plus the films that you examine must be included
in your bibliography. Your essay and its apparatus—including its bibliography,
references and endnotes—must be formatted according to the MLA Handbook.
The following topics are intentionally broad in order to allow you to accommodate your
particular interests; therefore you must narrow them down in order to provide your
essay with a specific and argumentative thesis statement that can be convincingly
pursued in the space available to you.
Topics:
1. Describe the role of the artist in Kracauer’s theory of cinema—how do film and
photography change that role compared to other media and aesthetic forms?
2. Walter Benjamin argues that films change the way we perceive and think, as well
as changing what counts as art. His context is primarily silent and Soviet cinema.
Test his ideas in relation to a contemporary film.
Please do not plagiarism.
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