SS-437 Dreams, Cinema, Psychoanalysis
3 Credits
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SS-437-01
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
2:00 pm â 4:50 pm
Online, ONLINE
Cinema has often been compared to dreaming, but this course goes further by exploring how films can actually function like dreams. Through image, sound, rhythm, and editing, cinema engages viewers emotionally and psychologically in ways that resemble processes such as memory, fantasy, fear, and desire. In this course, we examine films as sites where identity, perception, and emotion are shaped and sometimes unsettled. Drawing on psychoanalytic approaches, we will analyze how films create atmosphere, tension, and meaning; how they stage experiences of longing, anxiety, trauma, or pleasure; and why some narratives provide a sense of resolution for the viewer while others leave us disturbed or questioning. Rather than focusing on symbolism, the course emphasizes how films organize experience and spectatorship. We will interpret cinematic form and narrative structure as affective impact and develop critical stances for thinking about the relationship between cinema, the unconscious, and contemporary culture.