Disclaimer- Current Undergraduates or prospective students should always contact the RTF office or the undergrad advisor to determine current requirements and status. This document may not always be up to date. WU.

Radio- Television- Film (-and Information), College of Communications, University of Texas at Austin (tel. 512-471-4071)

CRITICAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES - Undergraduate

These courses offer another perspective on the production process, and prepare students for continued study in graduate school, opportunities to work in the film and television industries, museums, review writing and education, and serve as preparation for professional training in entertainment law and business. Courses from other areas may also be useful for this track.

All Critical and Cultural Studies courses have the same prerequisites:

All courses may be repeated for credit when the individual topics vary.


MAIN HEADINGS

RTF 331K - Film and Video Theory
Survey of basic theories that seek to explain the structure & process of film & video communications.
RTF 335 - Television Analysis and Criticism
Analysis of critical methods, selected television programs, and selected critics. Practice in written criticism required of all students.
RTF 345 - Studies in Film History
Critical assessment of major genres, periods, movements, and personalities in United States and international film history.
RTF 359 - Studies in Media and Culture
Special topics related to the critical analysis of media in cultural contexts
RTF 365K - Studies in Broadcast History
Exploration of significant persons and events contributing to the technological, artistic, economic and social development of the broadcasting arts.
RTF 370 - Film Analysis and Criticism
Analysis of critical methods, selected films, and selected critics.
Sample Topics from Previous Semesters

RTF 331K - Film and Video Theory
An exploration of post-structuralism and post-modernism through readings, films, videos, and television programs. Special attention to how these theories think about spectators and their constructed identities of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class.
RTF 331K - Cult Movies and Gender Issues
This course will consider the following questions, with particular emphasis on gender and sexuality issues: What specific characteristics define cult movies? How do subcultures or minority groups use, interpret, and evaluate cult movies? What explains the development of the cult movie trend over the past two decades?
RTF 331K - TV and Theories of Gender
Representative network and local television programming from the late 1940s to the present will be screened and discussed in terms of American televisionıs changing contribution to the construction of femininity and masculinity. Feminist and ³post-feminist²/post-modern constructions and positionings of gender will be among the most important critical perspectives that the class will examine. At least 2-3 papers and a final exam will be required.
RTF 335 - Television Analysis and Criticism
This is a highly analytical course that examines television from the perspective of popular cultural studies and the popular arts. Television is taken seriously here, giving a close look at what we take for granted.
RTF 336 - Special Projects in Radio-Television-Film
Prerequisite: consent of department Chair.
Comprehensive research or creative projects in areas of special interest developed and executed by the student under faculty supervision. Conference course.
RTF 345 - Studies in Film History.
The films of Alfred Hitchcock will be examined.
RTF 345 - Third World Cinema: Asia/Middle East
The course will critically examine visual images of and discourses about the "Third World," primarily drawn from the cinemas of Asian and Middle Eastern nations, but with certain contrasting films made in the West. Writing requirements will consist of a weekly one-page paper plus a final longer paper.
RTF 370 - American Dream
This course works on 3 levels: 1) it is a history of the Hollywood cinema from 1932-1992; 2) it is a survey of the major critical approaches to film, from formalist to auteurist to genre to ideological to feminist; 3) it is a workshop on writing film criticism. Students watch a lot of films, read a lot about films, and write a lot about films. One screening per week (films include 42nd St., Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Fordıs The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Godfather I and II, Gus Van Zant's Drugstore Cowboy, Scorsese's Raging Bull and King of Comedy, and others.
RTF 370 - Styles of Acting in Film.
This class will survey not only the historical development of acting styles in film, but also the theories that inform these styles. Emphasis will be on development of acting styles in American film (including a look at the relationship of the Hollywood ³star system² to acting styles and the impact of Method Acting), but will also focus on alternatives to classical styles's.g., Brechtian that inform the performances in such movements as the French New Wave, New German Cinema, etc. as well as on spectator-text-performer relations, e.g., perception of camp.
RTF 370 - Stars and Fan Culture
This class will explore the historical, economic, textual, and psychological aspects of star and fan culture phenomena. Probably will require two short papers and one final. Attendance at class screenings of TV and films required.
RTF 370 - Women and Film
An examination of the images of women in film and how to analyze those images as well as how filmic representations of women have been affected by the intervention of women filmmakers.