without attempting to offer a "final" answer to this question let me offer a couple of observations . . . first, in at least some respects teaching film today is akin to [and an outgrowth of] the teaching of novels a generation or two ago . . . there were, at the time, arguments that only those who read a novel in the original language can ever really "know" it; nevertheless, the tradition of teaching novels in translation has a long and respectable history . . . second, the reason for this repsectable history has to do with the way cultural wealth crosses boundaries . . . most of us would, i suspect, imagine that the bible is part of our own cultural heritage, though few of us read hebrew or greek . . . similarly sophocles, cervantes, dante, flaubert, dostoevsky, and kafka in some way belong to all of us . . . would a department that lacked speakers of all of these varied languages be prohibited from teaching works in those languages?? . . . i would hope not . . . i hope too that i would not be kept from sharing bertolucci with my film students simply because i most likely am missing elements in his films that would be avialable to a speaker of italian mike frank >===== Original Message From Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> ===== >From: Thomas Morsch <[log in to unmask]> on 08/07/2000 02:00 PM CET > >Please respond to Film and TV Studies Discussion List > <[log in to unmask]> > >To: [log in to unmask] >cc: >Subject: Teaching Foreign National Cinemas > > >Dear all, > >this is a question to all of you who teach film at universities: > >Do you consider it legitimate to teach a course on national cinemas of >countries whose language you don't speak so that you will not be able to >give any attention to the dialogues in their original language? Or do you >consider this a violation of academic standards? So, as an example, would >you teach a course on New German Cinema only if you speak german or would >you dare to just rely on english subtitles in your own understanding of >the films? >I am asking because I think about teaching a course on asian cinemas but >I am very unsure about this project as I do not speak nor understand any >asian language. > >Thomas Morsch >Film Dept. >Freie Universitaet Berlin > >---- >Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite >http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite