Title of the Project
FILMIC AND LITERATURE IMAGERY.
A CYBER-CULTURAL APPROACH
Proposers
Assoc. Prof. Ruxandra Cesereanu, Ph. D. (Cluj) & Assoc. Prof. Ion Manolescu, Ph. D. (Bucharest)
Host University
Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Faculty of Letters
Department of Comparative Literature
Phantasma, The Center for Imagination Studies
Master Degree Course
Title – Filmic and Literature Imagery
Host – Assoc. Prof. Ruxandra Cesereanu, Ph.D. (Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Journalism; Faculty of Letters, Department of Comparative Literature)
Guest – Assoc. Prof. Ion Manolescu, Ph.D. (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters)
Syllabus
1. Image Theory and Practice in the Cinema. General Presentation. The Sacred Cinema – Sayat Nova by Serghei Paradjanov (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 7, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
2. Andrei Tarkovski – Nostalghia – Images of the East and the West (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 14, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
3. Federico Fellini – E la nave va – The Image of Europe before the First World War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 21, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
4. Ingmar Bergman – The Seventh Seal – Images of the Middle Ages (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 28, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
5. Lars von Trier – Europa – The Image of Europe after the Second World War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, 4 November, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
6. Wim Wenders – Der Himmel Uber Berlin – The Image of Europe during the Cold War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, November 11, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
7. An Introduction to Techno-Culture and Cyber-Culture (Ion Manolescu, November 18, 2005, 16:00-20:00)
8. Derek Jarman – Caravaggio – The Chiaroscuro Technique (Ruxandra Cesereanu, November 25, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
9. Alain Resnais – L’annee dernier a Marienbad – Pre-Postmodern Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, December 2, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
10. Cognitive Theory of the Mind Imaginary (Ion Manolescu, December 9, 2005, 16:00-20:00)
11. Alexandr Jodorowski – The Holy Mountain – Baroque Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, December 16, 2005, 16.00-19.00)
12. Peter Greenaway – The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover – Postmodern Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, January 6, 2006, 16:00-19:00)
13. The Status of Filmic Imagery in Cyber-Culture (Ion Manolescu, January 12, 2006, 16:00-20:00)
14. David Lynch – Mulholland Drive – Anarchetypical Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, January 19, 2006, 16:00-19:00)
15. Conclusions of the Mind-Brain Debate in the Study of Imagery (Ion Manolescu, February 3, 2006, 16:00-18:00)
Description of the course
This course, entitled Filmic and Literature Imagery. A Cyber-Cultural Approach, is, starting with the 2005-2006 academic year, curricularly integrated in the “History of Ideas – History of Images” Master’s Degree program, which is jointly hosted by the Comparative Literature Department of the Faculty of Letters in Cluj, and by Phantasma, The Center for Imaginary Studies. This unique, experimental course represents a major breakthrough in the Romanian scholarly milieu on several accounts. First of all, it is an interdisciplinary course. Ruxandra Cesereanu brings a theoretical and practical perspective on image and visual culture, while Ion Manolescu introduces a cyber perspective on filmic and literary imagery, combining insights from recent theoretical developments in the areas of cognitive philosophy and psychology, with a primary focus on the mechanisms of mental image production. Furthermore, we have to emphasize that the cyber-cultural analysis of the iconic discourse is not as yet actively undertaken in any of the graduate programs of the Romanian Universities. It is for this reason that the course entitled “History of Filmic Imagery” represents a premiere. Last, but not least, the course successfully associates two outstanding Romanian academic institutions, the Universities of Bucharest and Cluj, as well as two different disciplinary perspectives in the field of visual culture, namely those of researchers Ruxandra Cesereanu and Ion Manolescu.
Objectives of the course
1. to present the theoretical paradigms of filmic imagery
2. to analyze, through case studies, some of the most important films (and directors) who have developed their own visual ars poetica
3. to analyze the image of Europe through special films dedicated to this issue
4. to describe the techno-cultural processes which contributed to the refinement of cyber culture
5. to present and debate on cognitive theoretical insights into the origins of mental images
6. to discuss the status of filmic and literary imagery in cyber culture
Course Bibliography for Ruxandra Cesereanu
Baxter, John, Fellini, London, Fourth Estate, 1993
Bergman, Ingmar, Images: My Life in Film, translated by Marianne Ruuth, London, Bloomsbury, 1994
Bergman, Ingmar, The Magic Lantern, translated by Joan Tate, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1988
Bondanella, Peter E., The films of Federico Fellini, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002
Burke, Frank, Fellini’s Films. From Postwar to Postmodern, London, Twayne Publishers, 1996
Cook, Roger, F., Gemunden, Gerd, Cinema of Wim Wenders – image, narrative and the postmodern condition, Wayne State University Press, 1997
De Baecque, Antoine, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ed. de l’Etoile, Paris 1989
Graf, Alexander, Cinema of Wim Wenders – the celluloid highway, Wallflower Press, 2002
Greenaway, Peter, Steinmetz, Leon, The World of Peter Greenaway, Journey Editions, Boston and Tokyo, 1995
Jarman, Derek, Caravaggio, London, Thames and Hudson, 1986
Lawrence, Amy, The Films of Peter Greenaway, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
Le Fanu, Mark, The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, BFI, London 1987
Lippard, Chris, ed., By Angels Driven. The Films of Derek Jarman, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1996
Stevenson, Jack, Lars von Trier, University of California Press, 2002
Tarkovsky, Andrei, Sculpting in Time, Faber, London 1989
Tarkovsky, Andrei, Time within Time: the Diaries 1970-86, Faber, London, 1994
Turovskaya, Maya, Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry, Faber, London 1989
Wenders, Wim, The Act of Seeing, Faber and Faber, London, 1992
Wiloquet-Maricondi, Paula and Mary Alemany-Galway, Peter Greenaway’s
Postmodern/Postructuralist Cinema, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2001
Course Bibliography for Ion Manolescu
Dennet, Daniel C., Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness, Bradford Books, 2005
Dery, Mark, Escape Velocity. Cyberculture at the End of the Century, Hodder & Stoughton, 1996
Gray, Chris Hables, Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age, Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2001
Gray, Chris Hables (ed.) with Figueroa-Sarriera, Heidi J. & Mentor, Steven, The Cyborg Handbook, Routledge, 1995
Halberstam, Judith; Livingstone, Ira (eds.), Posthuman Bodies, Indiana UP, 1995
Ihde, Don, Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology, Indiana UP, 1991
Johnson, Mark, The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason, University of Chicago Press, 1987
Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Squire, Larry R. (eds.), Findings and Current Opinion in Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT Press, 1998
Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Smith, Edward E., Cognition Psychology: Mind and Brain, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, January 2006
Kurzweil, Ray, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Viking Adult, 2005
Kurzweil, Ray; Grossman, Terry, Fantastic Voyage: The Science behind Radical Life Extension, Rodale Press, Incorporated, 2004
Minsky, Marvin, The Society of Mind, Simon and Schuster, 1985
Penley, Constance; Ross, Andrew, Technoculture, University of Minnesota Press, 1991
Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind, Oxford UP, 1994
Ross, Andrew, Strange Weather: Culture, Science, and Technology in the Age of Limits, Verso Books, 1991
Sardar, Ziauddin; Ravetz, Jerome R., Cyberfutures. Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway, Pluto Press, 1996
Scientific Events
1. November 24-27, 2005
Prof. Philippe Walter, Ph. D., Grenoble University, France, Director of the Center for Imagination Studies in Grenoble
Conference on “Le sang du dragon. Siegfried, Finn et Tiresias”, presented at Phantasma, The Center for Imagination Studies in Cluj
2. December 9, 2005
Ion Manolescu, Ioan Stanomir, Paul Cernat, Angelo Mitchievici
Conference on “Literary Communist Imagery”, presented at Phantasma, Center for Imagination Studies
3. January 19, 2006
Prof. Basarab Nicolescu, Ph. D., Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Conference on “Transdisciplinarity”, presented at Phantasma, Center for Imagination Studies
4. under reserve – February 2006
Mircea Cartarescu
Conference on “Oneiric Images”