Christine Harold Workspace

Featuring Capitalism: A Rhetorical History of American Capitalism in Film

This seminar explores the ways in which capitalism, a dominant rhetorical discourse in the U.S., has been both perpetuated and challenged capitalism throughout the history of Hollywood film. Each week, students will screen a film and read critical theories of capitalism from its era. We will position both film and theory as rhetorical artifacts, cultural symptoms that can tell us something about a particular moment in the evolution of American capitalism and the often uneasy relationships between rhetoric, representation, democracy, community, consumerism, and labor.  The seminar will culminate in a student-led film and discussion series and a curriculum website freely available for educators.