FMST 083. Crime Drama

(Cross-listed as GMST 083, LITR 083)
This course looks at the history and format of the crime drama in film and on television. More than other genres, crime dramas have reflected on societies’ historical blind spots, taboos, and peripheries along with its reigning hierarchies of power, and they have debated foundational ethical parameters amidst ongoing struggles to deal with change, particularly in relation to childhood, gender, race, class, and sexuality. At the same time, shows like CSI have altered television aesthetics and spectatorship in dialogue with new forensic and media-specific technologies: What has made the crime drama such a success in different mediascapes (silent and sound cinema, network TV, cable era, and Netflix)? How have its familiar stock characters, plotlines, settings, and recognizable styles adapted? What accounts for its ability to speak to audiences across different cultural backgrounds while emanating from and representing cultural, national, and regional specificities (Scandinavian crime, American film noir)? How has the genre responded to social activism and debates over the prison-industrial complex? How can we explain serial killer fandom in the convergence era (e.g., Twitter followers responding with likes to a mugshot of a suspected murderer)?
HU.
1 credit.
Fall 2022. Simon.
Catalog chapter: Film and Media Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/film-media-studies

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