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The Craft of Writing – Seeing Double: Reality and Representation
R1B - 005 | CCN: 24284
Renée Pastel & Lida Zeitlin Wu
Though the origins of the doppelgänger figure can be traced to early movements such as Romantic and Gothic literature well predating cinema, double and doubled images have been portrayed on screen since film’s inception. In this course, we will study the phenomena of twins, doubles, clones, and mirror images across media forms ranging from “classical” Hollywood cinema to science fiction television. Why have directors and publics been so interested in duplications on screen, and what kinds of larger questions do such depictions raise about the filmic medium, representation, and self-knowledge? This course will consider the status of film itself as a medium of duplication, both in its exposition and in its relationship to that which is filmed. Pairing our film and television screenings with readings drawn from film theory, psychology, and philosophy, this course will encourage students to reconsider their own relationship to visual media through questions of representation and self-representation.
This course fulfills the second part of the Reading and Composition requirement, with an emphasis on research. Students will learn to generate research topics, locate and evaluate sources, and write analytical, original paper with arguments supported by those sources. Students will base their writings on close readings of filmic texts.