Gangster movies explore fantasies and anxieties shared by audiences increasingly required to imagine themselves in a world of unceasing competition between individuals. In this course, we look closely at Hollywood gangster movies from the 20th century in order to describe transformations in the shared terms and mechanisms through which individuals make practical decisions about their lives. We pay particular attention to the gangster movies of the 1970s and 1980s as studies in self-deception and rationalization. We approach the movies as philosophical texts and make sense of them in connection with written texts by Michel Foucault, Wendy Brown, Elizabeth Anscombe, and others.
- Teacher: Daniel Wack