-
Film and Media Seminar “The Frankfurt School and Critical Media Theory”
240 002 | CCN: 33578
Anton J Kaes
Location: Internet/Online
Date and Time: M 1:00pm - 3:59pm
4 Units
This research seminar will focus on Frankfurt School theories of film, photography, radio, and television, as well as the culture industry in general. We will engage in close readings of texts by Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Leo Löwenthal, and Theodor W. Adorno, and also bring their works into dialogue with examples from media history, then and now. Some of the questions we’ll ask: What stakes did the classic Frankfurt School have in the analysis of media? How do their writings respond to the changing historical contexts from Weimar culture to German fascism, and from American exile to German postwar society? To what extent do present-day digital and social media challenge some theoretical assumptions of the Frankfurt School? How can we envision a critical media theory today?