Literature, Film, Ethics

Course content

The relation of narration and ethics has been subject to a wide-ranging and complex research by many disciplines of the Humanities. We will therefore begin with a general survey of ethics and ethical questions, with a special focus on the ethics of representation in narratives. The narrative medium of film calls for a special set of questions and problems that emerge from the specific semiotics, modalities, and socio-medial contexts of film. Here, we will address specific subsets within the larger field of media ethics.
After the theoretical overviews of general ethics, media ethics, narrative ethics, and film ethics, we will zoom in on case studies. While we will investigate the ethics of representation and also address specifically films that focus on moral dilemmas (from Sophie’s Choice (1982) and No Country for Old Men (2007) to Oppenheimer (2023)), we will also address generic questions (war movies, superhero movies, melodrama, crime, bio-pic) and prioritized fields of ethical discussion (violence, colonialism, environmental issues, artificial intelligence, etc.). The films discussed will be determined by the group at the beginning of term.
WARNING: There will be a set of mandatory viewing sessions. If you are not prepared to stay on campus for a number of film viewings, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!