Lights… Camera… Aristotle!

Modern Poetics is a Study Option examining how a story is told through the medium of film. As did Aristotle, Modern Poetics takes the structure of events as the most important aspect of film narrative. However, although Modern Poetics takes as its starting point Aristotle’s Poetics, the main purpose of the course is not to apply Aristotle’s theories to modern cinema but instead to try and create a specific and new modern Poetics exploring how and why cinema tells its story. The course therefore examines not only the dramatic theory of Aristotle but also the work of various modern story theorists and the theory of mythical structure in film story telling. Modern Poetics asks how these approaches can offer ways of looking at the purpose of story telling in film. The other main element of the course is an analysis of film technique, such as sound, editing, and a film’s image system.

The course begins by looking at Aristotle’s central point that an imitation has a beginning, middle and an end. For this proposition a concept of causality can be established as one the main tenets of Aristotle’s dramatic theory. The course then moves on to try and understand several of Aristotle’s other main dramatic ideas, including peripeteia, muthos, harmatia, and anagnorsis.

Modern Poetics examines contemporary story form in terms of the Five Act structure, using A Christmas Carol as the perfect model — Act 1: Problem set up, Act  2: Christmas Past, Act  3: Christmas Present, Act  4: Christmas Future and Act  5: Outcome. The course also looks at ‘The Mission’ model of Act  1: Problem set up: Act  2: Training, Act 3: First attempt (failure); Act  4: Second attempt (success) and Act  5: Outcome as it is manifested in such films as Mulan, The Magnificent Seven, Independence Day, The Dirty Dozen and Armageddon. The course also looks at so-called ‘structureless’ films such as Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes.

In examining mythical structure in film story-telling the course looks at the different psychological and mythological approaches of people like Carl Jung, Vladimir Propp, Bruno Bettelheim, Joseph Campbell and, more recently, Christopher Vogler. The course specifically follows ‘Redemption’ (as manifest in Groundhog Day, Angels With Dirty Faces, and Star Wars) and ‘Resurrection’ myths (Cool Hand Luke, E.T. and Fistful of Dollars).

In looking at film technique the course examines areas such as cinematography (camera movement, the lens and other photographic elements), sound (speech, music and sound effects — FX), editing (choice of shots, shot transition, continuity editing and so) and the film’s image system (also called mise-en-scene, i.e. lighting, design, setting and acting). All filmmaking aspects of the course are related back to the driving force of the option and that is to understand how cinema tells its story. The option also examines the cinematic experience and audience response.

Modern Poetics is not a course on Aristotle, nor is it a "Film Studies" option with the intention of tackling such areas as ideology, film history, feminist film, world cinema or whatever, nor is the option a creative screenwriting course. Modern Poetics is primarily concerned with how and why story is told in the medium of film.

Modern Poetics requires a broad base of film viewing from contemporary movies such Fight Club, Eyes Wide Shut and Swingers to older "classic" pictures such as The Maltese Falcon, A Matter of Life and Death and Casablanca.