The study of films from the perspective of directorial style, theme, or filmmaking career.

This course will interrogate the discursive formation of the showrunner-auteur in contemporary British and American television. More specifically, it will focus on the work of women, nonbinary, queer, and BIPOC showrunner-auteurs. Scholarship will address the discursive construction of the showrunner-auteur and model critical analysis of the body of work of women auteurs from the late 20th and early 21st centuries such as Diane English (Murphy Brown), Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women), and Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Inventing Anna). From here, we will examine a series of contemporary auteurs including Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum, I May Destroy You), Abbi Jacobson (Broad City and A League of Their Own), Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever, The Sex Lives of College Girls), Joey Soloway (Transparent, I Love Dick), and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Crashing, Fleabag). Student research projects will engage work by these and other auteurs representing a wide range of televisual practice across genres.

Repeat Rules