Fall 2022
The Art and Politics of Propaganda: Lessons from the Nazis
Eric Rentschler PhD, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
As thinking beings we often consider the limits of human potential and wonder what the worst might be. The Nazis obsess us because they were masters of extremity who brought to the world unprecedented violence and destruction. They were also masters of propaganda who engineered sophisticated techniques of mass manipulation. Throughout their endeavors cinema and modern media assumed a seminal role. Why, this course asks, were films so essential to the Hitler regime and so captivating to German audiences of the Third Reich? And what explains the continuing allure, to this very day, of what Susan Sontag once spoke of as "fascinating fascism"?
Spring 2023
American Dreams Made in Hollywood and Beyond
Eric Rentschler PhD, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
The American dream once essentialized the grand promise of a better, fuller, and richer life. At the present moment, however, it seems in many minds to have lost its evocative power as a collective myth. One wonders: does it still represent a principle of hope or has it become a form of cruel optimism? In a time of prolonged political crisis, this course has a pressing mission. It aims to further a dynamic understanding of American dreams (for there are many and not just one), to apprehend their complexities and contradictions, to appreciate their diverse manifestations and historical shapes, and above all to take measure of their presence and meaning in the world we now inhabit. To this end, we study the variety of ways in which feature filmmakers, both in and outside of Hollywood studios, have created designs for living, indeed the most influential and resonant incarnations of American dreams. We analyze popular narratives produced during crucial junctures in the modern history of the United States, from the Great Depression and World War II through the cold war and the McCarthy era, up to the late 1960s. We consider the wide range of functions that these productions have assumed, how they have by turns sustained and questioned the status quo. In some instances they have interrogated, revealed, and even indicted social inequity; at other times they have legitimated injustice and fostered exclusion. The course offers a representative sampling of classical Hollywood features as well as some exemplary independent American releases from 1932 to 1969, including Scarface, King Kong, It Happened One Night, Birthright, The Wizard of Oz, Imitation of Life, Casablanca, Cabin in the Sky, Mildred Pierce, The Best Years of Our Lives, Salt of the Earth, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Raisin in the Sun, The Manchurian Candidate, The Exiles, and Easy Rider.
Fall 2022
Blockbuster, Mythbuster: American Superhero Cinema and Television
Charlotte Szilagyi PhD
This course examines the complex ways in which Hollywood has responded to, and reflected on, the social, cultural, and political need for superheroes. The concept of the superhero functions as a structuring idea in American self-understanding and cultural iconography. Originally the stuff of comic books, the superhero has now become associated with the Hollywood blockbuster, a genre in its own right. And yet, much-deserved scholarly and academic interest has only recently caught up with this popular phenomenon in American cinema and television. How might we make sense of blockbuster superheroes? Are they agents of change, or upholders of the status quo? Are they virtuous or flawed? Are they patriots of the nation, or rather vigilantes distrusting government authority? Are they promoters of the common good, or rather prime exemplars of American individualism? Do they save us from our enemies, or from ourselves? Are they motivated by utopian dreams of a better world, or by collective fears and anxieties? Is the supervillain a foreign entity, an Other antithetical to US values, or a repressed, undesired trait in the American self? And to what extent are race, gender, religion, and ethnicity factors in the development of superhero cinema? What is the relationship between superheroes and real-life heroes? And, above all, what is the place of heroes in American history? At a time when superhero cinema has established itself as a staple of Hollywood blockbuster productions, reaching ever-broader audiences and becoming part of the popular cultural lexicon, the mission of this course is threefold. First, we examine the iconography of the superhero as a timeless mainstay of American mythology. Second, we investigate specific ways in which superhero cinema has mirrored, and intervened in, American political, social, and cultural history, especially when certain ideals, dreams and liberties have become tenuous whether it is fascism, the Holocaust, the cold war, totalitarian governments, 9/11 terrorism, warrantless wiretapping, conspiracy, international espionage, police brutality, suspicious data collection, or fake news. Third, we probe to what extent the Hollywood superhero a barometer of domestic social history and a fundamental part of Americana is actually a product of foreign influence, in surprising, and sometimes even problematic, ways. We examine films and television shows ranging from Superman: The Movie (1978), X-Men (2000), Unbreakable (2000), Spider-Man (2002), V For Vendetta (2005), Iron Man (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), Watchmen (2009) Captain America (2011), X-Men: First Class (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Wonder Woman (2017), Black Panther (2018), The Umbrella Academy (2020), The Boys (2910), and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).