FAVMKa050 Historical Poetics of Cinema

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Radomír D. Kokeš, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The objective is to deepen the knowledge of methodological procedures and theoretical concepts that students have acquired in the course of the bachelor study and acquainting with new concepts which will enable them to solve different research problems.
The course will focus on concepts, programs and specific research projects related to the tradition of the so-called historical poetics of cinema.
Contact lectures will be devoted to the introduction to the topic and selected topics that are not supported by the obligatory and recommended literature.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will have been able to: critically evaluate and use a range of theoretical concepts to formulate a good research hypothesis, be oriented in the theoretical and methodological literature related to the presented research areas, prepare and realize a relevant research project from the area of historical poetics of cinema.
Syllabus
  • Areas to be introduced, explained and analysed in the wider context of both contemporary debates and the epistemic possibilities of the historical poetics of film, with students regularly turning in 'reading cards' (see below):
  • E1: Research traditions of poetics (of cinema)
  • E2: Theory and history of thinking about  film style
  • E3: The nature, tools and functions of systems analysis
  • E4: The Poetics of Popular Narrative
  • E5: The Poetics of Modernist Narrative
  • E6: The Poetics of Film Reflection: Authorship and Criticism
  • E7: The Poetics of Genre
  • The teaching is conducted in such a way that students read a pair of texts each week, for which they prepare and hand in three days before the seminar so-called reading cards, a model of which is available in the teaching materials and which allows them to reflect on each text in several sections and perspectives. As part of these reading cards, I also add passages concerning ambiguities in the text and other issues, which allows the following lesson to focus the discussion of the texts on these issues and to explain the text in their light. In doing so, the materials for the reading and the reading cards follow the structure of the Master's circuits on the topic.
Literature
  • BURNETT, Colin. The Invention of Robert Bresson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.
  • MITTELL, Jason. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
  • BUTLER, Jeremy G. Television Style. New York: Routledge, 2009.
  • BORDWELL, David. Poetics of cinema. New York: Routledge, 2008, xii, 499. ISBN 9780415977784. info
  • O'BRIEN, Charles. Cinema's conversion to sound : technology and film style in France and the U.S. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, xi, 200. ISBN 0253217202. info
  • Early cinema : space, frame, narrative. Edited by Thomas Elsaesser - Adam Barker. Repr. London: BFI Publishing, 1997, 424 s. ISBN 0851702457. info
  • BORDWELL, David. On the history of film style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997, x, 322. ISBN 0674634292. info
  • SALT, Barry. Film style and technology : history and analysis. 2nd. expand. ed. London: Starword, 1992, 351 s. ISBN 095090662X. info
  • BURCH, Noël. Life to those shadows. Edited by Ben Brewster. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990, 317 s. ISBN 0520071441. info
  • THOMPSON, Kristin. Breaking the glass armor : neoformalist film analysis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988, x, 361. ISBN 0691067244. info
  • BORDWELL, David. Narration in the fiction film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, xiv, 370. ISBN 0299101746. info
  • BORDWELL, David, Janet STAIGER and Kristin THOMPSON. The classical Hollywood cinema : film style & mode of production to 1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, xv, 506. ISBN 0231060556. info
  • BAZIN, André. Co je to film? Praha: Československý filmový ústav, 1979. info
Teaching methods
Required continuous reading, development of reading cards, recommended class participation.
Assessment methods
Regular submission of reading cards, which will become the basis for evaluation.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Kurs je určen k absolvování v 1. semestru studia.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2021, Spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
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