Arguably cinema has been the most powerful technique of cultural promotion. Since the 1930s, critics have argued over how and why this seems to be the case: what cinema has done to sense of identity and of belonging; to senses of purpose and action; to senses of belief and of future. This course will review the major criticisms of the ideological force and effectivity of cinema, including those which have used psychoanalytic concepts to explain the appeal of cinema and its fictions.
