Topics vary by semester
Professor(s)
Notes
This First Year Exploratory course explores music by combining approaches from Film Studies and Comparative Literature and investigates the role of place in the production and reception of musical, cinematic and literary works. How do the specifics of place shape the reciprocal relations between music, literature and film? In what ways do writing and film critique, record and convey musicality? What are the political and cultural dimensions of music production, when viewed from the lens of journalistic and critical writing or documentary and narrative filmmaking? Students will be encouraged to reflect on music they enjoy already, as well as making new musical discoveries. Indeed, students will engage with a diverse array of musical genres—from jazz to contemporary rap, from pop and rock to electronic and experimental music—and investigate the ways in which different forms of music inspired writers and filmmakers of fiction and non-fiction.
The first semester of the course will overview theoretical questions, supplemented with frequent field trips to music venues, museums and cinemas and include exercises in creative, journalistic and scholarly writing. One aim will be to transform preconceived notions of Paris as a place of music and unveil a rich array of Francophone musical and experimental culture. We will engage in listening and viewing exercises and apply experiential analytical techniques in order to enhance our critical understanding and appreciation of the arts of writing, film and music, anchored as they are in distinct “scenes” and places of Paris. The second semester will feature a project-based study trip to a European city of music (Manchester, UK), with a concomitant charting of its literary and cinematic legacies, which will in turn expand the students’ engagement with important “scenes” of musical culture. The course will also include collaborative activities, a program of guest speakers and workshops from figures from the worlds of music, writing a
Learning Outcomes
- Information Literacy: Students will comprehend how information is produced and valued in order to discover, evaluate, use, and create information and knowledge effectively and ethically. In FirstBridge, students will demonstrate the conversational nature of scholarship, and recognize their potential role and responsibilities as contributors to that conversation. For each discipline taught in FirstBridge, students will identify reference works, journals, databases and/or major works in history, in order to start effective research in the field (FB LO1)
- Life at University: Students will acquire the study skills, time management, and interpersonal skills needed to meet the demands of university-level academic work at a Liberal Arts College individually or as a team. Students will value the multiple meanings of place through experiential learning at AUP and beyond in the Parisian or global context (FB LO2)
Syllabus
Book List
Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN Number |
---|---|---|---|
White Tears | Hari Kunzru | Penguin Books | 9780241977873 |
Schedule
Day | Start Time | End Time | Room |
---|---|---|---|
Tuesday | 13:45 | 15:05 | G-207 |
Friday | 13:45 | 15:05 | G-207 |
Wednesday | 13:45 | 16:40 | G-207 |