COMM 488
L.A., Bombay, Hong Kong: Cultural Industries in Transition
Winter 2009
Prof. Aswin Punathambekar
Room #244, University Towers
Email:
Overview*
During the last three decades, cultural industries have undergone important changes, transforming the production, promotion, and circulation of films, television programs, and music. Under the impact of new technological advances and transnational flows of people, culture, and capital, media artifacts routinely move across national borders with audiences playing an increasingly participatory role. This course focuses attention on the operations, discourses, and logics that drive contemporary media industries in three major media capitals: L.A., Hong Kong, and Mumbai (Bombay). Taking a historical approach, we will examine the economic, political, and socio-cultural factors that shape developments in cultural industries, relationships between powerful centers of cultural production, and the ways in which industry professionals respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. In doing so, we will also reflect on the methods and frameworks that scholars have developed in their studies of cultural industries.
Texts
Tejaswini Ganti, Bollywood: A guidebook to popular Hindi cinema (2004)
Michael Curtin, Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience (2007)
All other readings – marked (X) – will be posted on the CTools site for the course.
Course Expectations
Attendance and Participation
Attendance at class meetings and screenings is expected. If you have religious holidays or other such obligations, inform me at least a week in advance. Absences for travel are not excused.
This course will be structured as a seminar, and your participation is critical to the success of the course.
Policy Regarding Academic Misconduct
I will not tolerate plagiarism. For more information, including the policy on plagiarism, please review the LS&A statement on academic integrity:
Grade breakdown
20%Attendance and Participation
20%Critical essay
60%Industry case-study
Assignments
- Leading class discussion (10 points)
- Critical essay (1000-1200 words, 20 points)
- Group project: Industry case study (15-page case study of a media corporation)
- 2-page outline + preliminary bibliography (20 points)
- 15-page final paper (40 points)
Deadlines:
- Critical Essay: Feb 11
- Outline of case study: March 2
- Final paper: April22
Further details about the assignments and the project presentation will be provided in class.
Any paper with plagiarized material will be given a failing grade. All instances of plagiarism or other cheating will be reported to the Dean of Students in addition to failing the assignment.
Access and Accommodation:
If you have a documented learning disability or otherwise need accommodations in order to learn effectively in this course and complete the required assignments, please speak with me at the end of the first class session. For information regarding services that may be available to you, contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. See
This syllabus is subject to change.
Class Schedule and Readings
Jan 7WedCourse Overview
Jan 12MonIntroduction to media capitals
Reading: Media Capital in Chinese Film and TV (in Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience)
Screening (in class): Coding Culture (2005, dir. Gautam Sonti)
Hollywood
Jan 14WedClassical Hollywood cinema
Screening: The Public Enemy (1931, dir. William Wellman)
Jan 19MonNo class – MLK, Jr. day
Watch Jaws (1975, dir. Steven Spielberg)
Jan 21WedClassical Hollywood cinema
Readings: The Hollywood mode of production to 1930 (Janet Staiger) (X)
The Hollywood mode of production 1930-60 (Janet Staiger) (X)
Jan 26MonBlockbuster Hollywood
Readings: Hollywood corporate business practice and periodizing contemporary film history
(Douglas Gomery) (X)
New Hollywood (Thomas Schatz) (X)
Jan 28WedMarketing and Managing Audiences
Readings: Marketing the Image (Justin Wyatt) (X)
Audiences (Toby Miller, et al.) (X)
Feb 2MonUnderstanding Independent cinema
Screening: Sex, lies, and videotape (1989, dir. Steven Soderbergh)
Feb 4WedUnderstanding Independent cinema
Readings: The formation of the ‘major independent’: Miramax, New Line and the new Hollywood
(Justin Wyatt) (X)
To the rear of the back end: the economics of independent cinema (James Schamus) (X)
Feb 9MonHollywood in the world
Screening: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, dir. James Cameron)
Feb 11WedHollywood in the world
Readings: The globalization of Hollywood in the 1990s (Tino Balio) (X)
Hollywood History, Cultural Imperialism and Globalization (Toby Miller, et al) (X)
DUE: Critical Essay
Hong Kong
Feb 16MonPan-Chinese studio system
Screening: The 36th chamber of Shaolin (1978, dir. Liu Chia-liang)
Feb 18WedGolden age of Hong Kong cinema
Screening: The Big Boss (1971, dir. Lo Wei)
[Feb 21-Mar 1: Spring Break]
Mar 2MonMapping Chinese commercial cinema
Readings: Pan-chinese studio system
Independent Studios and Hong Kong Cinema (in Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience)
All too extravagant, too gratuitously wild (David Bordwell) (X)
Two dragons: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (David Bordwell) (X)
DUE: 2-page case study outline
Mar 4WedHong Kong in the world
Readings: Hyperproduction erodes overseas circulation
Hollywood takes charge in Taiwan (in Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience)
Mar 9MonReinventing Hong Kong cinema
Screening: Hard Boiled (1992, dir. John Woo)
Mar 11WedHong Kong in the world
Readings: The Chinese Connections (David Bordwell) (X)
Once Upon a Time in the West (David Bordwell) (X)
From Bombay to Bollywood
Mar 16MonBombay cinema, 1896-1947
Screening: (in-class): Bollywood and Beyond (BFI)
Readings: Introduction to Bollywood (Tejaswini Ganti)
From Assistant to Director (Rachel Dwyer) (X)
Mar 18WedCinema, nation, state
Screening: Naya Daur (1957, dir. B. R. Chopra)
Mar 23MonCinema, nation, state
Readings: Bollywood cinema: a critical genealogy (Vijay Mishra) (X)
Mar 25WedMaking movies in Bombay
Screening: Shot in Bombay (2008, dir. Liz Mermin);Omkara (2006, dir. Vishal Bharadwaj)
Mar 30MonMaking movies in Bombay
Readings: The production and distribution of popular Hindi cinema (Ganti)
Excerpts from “Fantasies of a Bollywood thief” (Stephen Alter) (X)
April 1WedFamily stories
Screening: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995, dir. Aditya Chopra)
April 6MonFamily stories
Readings: Production (Rachel Dwyer) (X)
Globalizing Bombay cinema (Monika Mehta) (X)
April 8WedCinema and the Disapora
Screening: The Namesake (2008, dir. Mira Nair)
April 13MonCinema and the Diaspora
Readings: Between Hollywood and Bollywood (Jigna Desai) (X)
Bollywood in the Indian-American Diaspora (Punathambekar) (X)
April 15WedIn-class peer editing of case studies
April 20Mon No Class [work on research project]
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all films will be available for viewing at the Donald Hall Collection
Hours:
Sunday 12 noon-8:00
Monday 9:00-6:00
Tuesday 9:00-9:00
Wednesday 9:00-9:00
Thursday 9:00-6:00
Friday 9:00-5:00
Saturday closed
The address is 330 E. Liberty Street, Michigan Square Building, 4th floor. You need to enter under the entrance that says office entrance and take elevator to the 4th floor rather than the entrance under the blue canopy that says Center for the Education of Women (CEW).
Rooms are available on a first come, first serve basis. Groups of three-four can be accommodated. They do not take reservations.