Investigates film genres that privilege excess, sensation, bodily spectacle, and intensities of audience response – the “body genres” of horror, comedy, and melodrama. Considers how these genres and their overlaps have been historically produced, categorized, sustained, and received, with particular attention to close analysis of key films, critical and industrial discourse, and a wide range of spectator reactions, emotions, and affects. Focusing on bodies, this class is also concerned with how these films tap into issues of identity, race, gender, and sexuality. May be repeated for credit by permission of instructor.
