Dr. Derek Stanovsky

Office: LLA 125  Office Phone: 262-2441
Office Hours: TR 1:45-4:15 pm
E-mail: stanovskydj@appstate.edu
Home page: www.appstate.edu/~stanovskyd

 

Course Description:

Ever needed to understand something about postmodernism and contemporary theory? Ever wanted to read works by Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, or Slavoj Zizek but didn't know where to start? Now here’s your chance to see the movie! This course will offer an introduction to contemporary poststructuralist theory through film. The principle texts for the class will be feature-length documentary films on some major theorists. Along the way, we will be reading and writing about the films and discussing the ways in which these theories have been translated into the medium of film. We will also read a little theory too. In addition to writing and talking about these films, you will also be asked to produce and present your own YouTube video about theory on film. There are no prerequisites. S/CD

Course Requirements:

The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, preparation, and participation. You should do the readings and come prepared to talk about the films and theorists each class. Keeping this in mind, the formal grading requirements are:

Class Participation & Presentations: 25%
Two Film Reviews: 25% each
Final Group YouTube Video Project & Presentation: 25%

The class participation and presentation portion of your grade will be based on regular class attendance and participation as well as on your in-class presentation of your critical film reviews. One absence is allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than three absences and/or failure to complete any of the written assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.

You will write two reviews of films from this class. These will be substantive, critical reviews dealing with the form and content of the film and theorist in question.  Late papers will be docked one-third of a letter grade for each day late. More information will be handed out later in the semester.

There will be a final group project and presentation during our regularly scheduled final exam period consisting of a screening and discussion of your group's own original short (5-15 minute) YouTube video on Theory on Film. More information on this assignment will be handed out later in the semester.

Tentative Course Schedule:

1/16 Introductions.

1/23 Zizek!

1/30 Zizek readings and discussion.

Everyone read: The Mirror Sage and The Zizek Effect.
Jimmy, Derek, Elizabeth, Donlee also read: The Marx Brother and  'You May!'
Chris, Brian, David, Ben also read: The Marx Brother and Nobody has to be vile.
Cynthia, Naomi, Leah, James, Mouse also read: Enjoy Your Zizek and Freud Lives!
Steve, Stephanie, Sara, Adrian also read: Enjoy Your Zizek and Resistance is Surrender.

2/6 Lacan readings and discussion.

Everyone should read both The Mirror Stage and The Meaning of the Phallus.
You can also watch Part 2 of The Lacan Hour. The NYU prof interview is good, but some other parts are pretty funny.
For reference, you may also find the online Lacanian encyclopedia No Subject helpful as well as this Very Brief Introduction to Lacan.

2/13 [Sorry, no class. Your professor had the flu.]

2/20 Jacques Lacan Speaks

2/27 NO CLASS TONIGHT DUE TO SNOW. See the assignment for next week below.

3/5 First Film Reviews Due. Presentations and Discussion. The topics for your film reviews are below.

ALSO, from 12:00 noon -1:30 on W 3/5 we will be meeting in the Digital Media Studio in Belk Library Room 355 for a workshop on creating digital videos. Let me know if you can't attend.

Read The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on Lacan and Zizek.

First Film Review Topics: Pick one of the following topics and write a 500-1000 word review to be turned in during class on 3/5. You will also briefly present your review for discussion to the class. 
1. Drawing on both documentaries, discuss whether or not Zizek's claim to be "a card carrying Lacanian" is accurate or not. That is, discuss the ways in which Zizek both is and/or is not faithful to Lacan's ideas, particularly as they are expressed in the documentary on Lacan. Explain and give an argument for your view using specific examples.
2. Zizek writes: "‘The superficial opposition between pleasure and duty is overcome in two different ways. Totalitarian power goes even further than traditional authoritarian power. What it says, in effect, is not, Do your duty, I don’t care whether you like it or not,’ but: ‘You must do your duty, and you must enjoy doing it.’ (This is how totalitarian democracy works: it is not enough for the people to follow their leader, they must love him.) Duty becomes pleasure." How might this insight apply to these two very different documentaries? Do Zizek's writings and public performances correspond to the requirement that we enjoy our theory, while Lacan presents a more traditional approach? Explain and give an argument for your view using specific examples.
3. Creatively apply Zizek's arguments from his review of Children of Men to the documentary Zizek! and discuss the ways the framing and backgrounds may work in either similar or different ways with the central character Zizek!.
4. Read Zizek's review of 300, and creatively discuss ways the arguments Zizek presents might be used to discuss the fairly spartan realism of the subtitled, black and white Lacan documentary. For instance, might there be a similarly twisted way in which Lacan's oracular pronouncements (derided by Zizek himself in his documentary) and the presumed objectivity of the camera lens might work to subvert these apparent limitations and save this film from criticisms like those Zizek himself makes? Or is there another connection you see between the Lacan documentary and the 300 review? Explain.
5. Come up with a topic of your own. You must talk with me about your topic by the end of class on 2/27.

SPRING BREAK

3/19 Judith Butler: Philosophical Encounters of the Third Kind

3/26 Butler readings and discussion.

Interview with Radical Philosophy.
Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?
Derrida obituary in the London Review of Books by Judith Butler.

Groups for final video projets:
1. Adrian, Donlee, Ben, Elizabeth.
2. Leah, James, Naomi.
3. Jimmy, Derek, Brian, Steve.
4. Cynthia, David, Sara, Mouse.

4/2 Derrida

4/9 Derrida readings and discussion.

Derrida, "Différance."
Derrida, encyclopedia article.
Review of Derrida.

4/16 Second Film Reviews Due. Presentations and Discussion.

Second Film Review Topics. Pick one of the following topics and write a 500-1000 word review to be turned in during class on 4/16. You will also briefly present your review for discussion to the class.
1. In both the Butler and Derrida documentaries, there are scenes shot in art galleries with Butler discussing some works by Cindy Sherman and Derrida confronting a portrait of himself. Write about both of these scenes in light of Butler's discussion of performativity and Derrida's discussion of Echo and Narcissus. Then try to reflect on the status of these scenes within the documentaries themselves and the difficulties of representation they pose for the film makers.
2. Does Judith Butler perform herself in the documentary film, and if so, who is doing the performing? Is it the same as her performance in public lectures? In the classroom? Explain with reference to scenes from the film and to the distinction she draws between performance and performativity in the interview from our reading.
3. Is the documentary on Derrida a biographical film? Why or why not? Explain and give an argument for your view with reference to the discussions in the film about biography and autobiography as well as the various biographical moments included in the film.
4. Discuss and compare Derrida and Zizek's remarks on love in their respective documentaries.
5. Discuss the notion of improvisation and its applications to both Butler and Derrida in their documentaries and their theories.
6. Come up with a topic of your own. You must talk with me about your topic by Thursday, 4/10.

4/23 Zizek! (redux). Group project discussion.

4/30 Group Work. We will meet in Library outside of the Digital Media Studio (Belk Library Room 355).