230644 (Hollywood) Action Movies: Dissecting a Genre (1980-2020) (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

"Welcome to the party, pal." - Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)

In this seminar, we will take a look at one of the most popular movie genres of the 20th and 21st century: Action movies.
We will analyse a corpus of selected movies that are considered seminal for the development of the genre and will discuss tropes and their ideological implications for discourses surrounding race, gender, age, etc.
Additionally, we will engage with and discuss relevant secondary literature dealing with different critical approaches to the genre.

This seminar will deal with topics like physical and psychological violence and contains the analysis of graphic (fictional) material. Viewer discretion is advised.

Literaturangaben

A list of movies will be made available during the first session of the seminar.
Secondary literature will be made available on Moodle.