Description
[Sound minor] This course explores American cultural history in the early 20th century through the history of the moving image. We will trace the development of moving image technologies, the changing content and form of motion pictures, and the far-reaching socio-cultural effects of movie-going in America from 1900-1930. From precursors to film in the 1800s (such as the camera obscura and magic lantern), through the heyday of the silent film era to the transition to sound with “talking pictures” in the late 1920s, this course will examine American culture of this era through the interrelationship between film technologies, movie content, and cinema audience reception. How did a variety of storytelling forms in the silent era give way to the standard classic Hollywood style? What was the experience of audiences viewing these moving images, from cheap nickelodeons to lavish movie palaces? And how did these spaces of cinema spectatorship help to both unite and divide Americans, along li