Collins Living-Learning Center

Few things strike us as powerfully as the image of the victim. This course introduces students to twentieth and twenty-first century German cinema while also examining representations of victims and perpetrators. We will look at historical patterns in film from the Weimar Republic to the present (including films like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run). Film viewings and interdisciplinary readings will guide us in exploring representations of good, evil, and the in-between spaces in visual narratives. Course questions include: How do we analyze film? What historical background helps frame cinematic stories? What stylistic and visual elements make us view certain characters as “bad” or “good”? What, then, can German film teach us about what victims and perpetrators look like in terms of identity at large? What role do moral dyads play in contemporary American society, such as in Black Lives Matter or #MeToo?


Instructor: Claire Woodward

Collins Seminars: Selected by Board of Educational Programming (BOEP)

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