In Games, Representation and the Cinematic [FILM 194C] students will explore the relationship between cinema and video games, with a focus on representation. In-depth analyses and close readings of mainstream and alternative games from a media studies and cultural studies perspective invite students to consider how games borrow from the visual literacy of cinema, from filmic notions of genre, and even from its pre-existing modes of representation.
Thinking about gender, race, nation, sexuality, class, and other markers of identity, students will see how game representations emulate—and sometimes break with—pre-existing image-making practices. We will also contemplate how distinct forms of video games may warrant new critical approaches to the study of “playable” representation. Through the study of innovative scholarship on video games and representation, students are invited to explore games situated within their larger critical cultural contexts, and even how they may have in turn influenced cinematic and televisual language today.
Students are billed a course materials fee. Prerequisite(s): courses 20C and 120. Enrollment restricted to senior film and digital media majors. Enrollment limited to 20.