FILM 47.30 Black Looks: A Survey of Race and Representation in Cinema and Visual Media
This course surveys the evolution of race and representation in visual media. Special attention will be given to black subjects and the socio-economic, historical and political factors that feed into depictions of black life, dominant tropes within these historic depictions, and the aesthetics of emergent voices that help to shape a new black subjectivity on screen. Students are encouraged to draw connections between discourse about black subjectivity with that of identities through doing “close readings” of screen representations and images. In their final projects, students write about and create work relating to black subjects or the broader theme of race and representation in visual media.