Visual Narrative · PHILO 287

Schedule

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Date	Topic	Reading	Recommended
Thu1/9	Session 1Introduction to film narrative Handout by GG Handout by SC Slides by SC SC/GGFilm clips: Mary Jane's Mishap (George Albert Smith, 1903) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCm51fg5hpk The Big Swallow (James Williamson, 1901) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5XJjvlydck Life of an American Fireman [3.44] (Edwin Porter, 1903) https://youtu.be/nyjceskGZIc?t=224 Jump cuts in Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fcRj0SXYh8 The Irishman: 1:40:00, 1.42:20, 1.59:35	Bordwell, Thompson, J. Smith Film Art (2017, 11th edition) Ch. 1: pp. 9-12 (Mechanics of the movies) Ch. 1: pp. 17-26 (Film production) Ch. 4: pp. 143-148 (Screen space, scene space) Ch. 5: pp. 168-178, 181-185, 187-194 (Perspective, framing, camera position) Ch. 6: pp. 216-237 (Editing) Tim Smith (2012) “The Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity” pp. 4-16 (Editing, change blindness, and continuity)	—
Thu1/16	Session 2Discourse coherence Handout SCFilm clips: The Last of the Mohicans (1992) [Fight scene 0:23] https://youtu.be/Dhrg6SH9yvE?t=23 Number, Please (1920) [2:49] https://youtu.be/pbYPUxNT-qM?t=169 Salvation Army Lass (1909) [9:41] https://vimeo.com/173678596	Hobbs, Literature and Cognition, Ch. 5 McCloud, Understanding Comics, Ch. 3	Optional Fun: Leff, “How do we understand stories?” (short film) Metz, Film Language, Ch. 5, pp. 124-133 Smith, “The Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity,” Projections Knott and Dale, “Using linguistic phenomena to motivate a set of coherence relations,” Discourse Processes Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen
Thu1/23	Session 3Film space Handout No class Thu 1/30 GG	Greenberg “The Structure of Visual Content” (MS), Section 1-4 Klatsky “Allocentric and Egocentric Spatial Representation” (1998), Lecture Notes in Computer Science Waller and Nadel “Frameworks for Understanding Spatial Thought” (2013) from Handbook of Spatial Cognition	Optional Burgess “Spatial memory: how egocentric and allocentric combine” (2006), TRENDS in Cognitive Science Levin and Wang “Spatial Representation in Cognitive Science and Film” (2009), Projections Warren “Wormholes in virtual space: From cognitive maps to cognitive graphs” (2017) Warren “Non-Euclidean navigation” (2019)
Thu2/6	Session 4Viewpoint constraints Handout GG	Cumming, Greenberg, and Kelly, “Conventions of Viewpoint Coherence in Film” watch: Leff, “Spatial Coherence in Film” (short film)	—
Thu2/13	Session 5Conventions, focal points, and pragmatics Handout SC	Bordwell, “Convention, construction, and cinematic vision” Lepore and Stone, Imagination and Convention, Chs. 2.1; 14.1-14.3	Optional Fun: Bordwell, “Who Blinked First?”
Thu2/20	Session 6Point of view Handout Slides SC	Cumming et al., “Showing Seeing in Film”	Optional Abusch and Rooth, “The formal semantics of free perception in pictorial narratives” Schlenker, “What is super semantics?”, pp. 406-413
Thu2/27	Session 7Time Handout SC	Abusch, “Temporal Succession and Aspectual Type in Visual Narrative”	Optional Lepore and Stone, Imagination and Convention, Ch. 7 Webber, “Tense as Discourse Anaphor”
Thu3/5	Session 8Dynamic update Handout GG	Lepore and Stone, Imagination and Convention, 14.4 Maier and Bimpikou, “Shifting Perspectives in Pictorial Narratives”	Optional Wildfleur (2014), Film Discourse Interpretation
Thu3/12	Session 9Non-Western visual narrative Handout GG	Munn Walbiri Iconography (1973), Ch. 3: “The Sand Story” Wilkins “Alternative representations of space: Arrernte narratives in sand” (1997)	—
	Session 10Student presentations Week of March 16	—	—