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Organization, Regulations, and Courses 2023-24


FILM 41.02 Shades of Noir: Film, Fiction, Politics

“Film Noir” evokes memories of stylish, cynical, black-and-white movies from the 1940s and 1950s—melodramas about private eyes, femmes fatales, criminal gangs, and lovers on the run. In this course, we will examine noir in relation to its many contexts: the hard-boiled fiction of Chandler and Hammett; the experience of dislocation and alienation that reflect the exile status of many central-European professionals who worked in the US film industry in the 1940s; and Hollywood blacklisting and censorship during the anti-Communist witch hunt. The course will also trace the pervasive presence of noir and its continuing appeal for artists and audiences throughout the world. Because of its artistic and political complexity, noir is a key term for the study of US postwar cultural history: noir narratives revolve around questions of racial and national identity, around the postwar crisis of masculinity, and the convergence of modernism and mass culture.

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 62.02

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:INT or ART; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.