The cognitivist approach to film and television studies emerged amid the growing influence of semiological, psychoanalytical, and post-structuralist theories in the field. The prominent film scholars David Bordwell and Noël Carroll sharply criticized prevailing practices in film studies and rejected most of them. Based on the developing research in cognitive psychology, they have suggested an alternative agenda, which seeks to focus on the unique ways in which specific cinematic devices utilize certain psychological mechanisms.

The seminar will introduce this theoretical shift and discuss its relevance to film studies in the context of central questions such as suspension of the spectator’s disbelief in cinematic reality and the analogy between cinema and language. We will become acquainted with the main research topics within contemporary cognitive research of film and television. The student’s seminar essays will address contemporary issues in the study of cognition and cinema.