Studies in German Film: Media in Film

According to Marshall McLuhan, the content of a medium is always another medium. This also means that knowledge about how media function can only be articulated in terms of the differences that media themselves establish and embody. Based on this consideration, the seminar will address the question of how different media – technical, symbolic – appear in film, providing information not only about themselves but also about the conditions and structure of cinematic representation. The seminar will therefore examine the active roles played by painting, photography, film, tape recordings, TV, video, etc. in films from the Weimar Republic to today. Discussions in English.