Edyta Frelik – 2023/24 MA Seminar Description:

The American Modern: representations of society, culture, art and popular media in American films about the United States in the first half of the 20th century

The seminar will focus on how the ideas of modernity and modernism have been represented in American films. Specifically, we will discuss Hollywood and alternative movies which show the United States’ transformation at the turn of the century from early-stage capitalism to full-scale modernity. Various aspects of the modernization of American culture and society will be considered, such as urban growth, industrialization, the advent of mass society and mass media, and the appearance of the entertainment industry, the intensification of class divisions and conflict, etc. These serious issues have been made socially relevant and attractive to the general public largely through the work of film makers, who both in blockbuster Hollywood productions and in “auteur” cinema offer a wide array of approaches and treatments. Discussions and presentations during the seminar will be aimed at establishing a framework within which various themes and vantage points – from historical to contemporary – will be used to select representative examples of films dealing with the discussed topics. Each student will have to write an M.A. paper based on 2-3 films, discussed in a context chosen as the paper’s main topic. All films made in the last 100 years, from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) to The Great Gatsby (1974, 2013) and Babylon (2022) can be used as analytical material.