Cinema & Comparative Literature

Rick Altman

Office: 257 BCSB
Phone: (319) 353-2262
rick-altman@uiowa.edu

Rick Altman teaches courses on film sound, film genres, and narrative theory.  In recent years he has taught courses on silent film sound and exhibition, Hollywood's conversion to sound, genre theory, the musical, the films of Rouben Mamoulian, and narrative theory. Having recently completed a longterm project entitled A THEORY OF NARRATIVE, published by Columbia UP in 2008, Altman is currently working on a book that will trace the development of standardized sound practices during Hollywood's studio years.

film sound; Hollywood genres; the musical; film theory; narrative theory

Silent Film Sound (New York:  Columbia University Press, 2004). Kraszna-Krausz Prize runner-up for best 2004-2006 book on photography, film, or media; Society of Theatre Librarians Prize for best book published in 2004 on recorded performance; Limina Prize for best film book published in 2004.

"From Lecturer's Prop to Industrial Product:  The Early History of Travel Films," in The Time Machine:  Cinema and travel, ed. Jeffrey Ruoff (Durham:  Duke University Press, 2006), 61-76.

"Early Film Themes:  Roxy, Adorno, and the Problem of Cultural Capital," in Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema,  ed. Daniel Goldmark, Larry Kramer, and Richard Leppert (Berkeley:  Univ. of California Press, 2007), 205-224.

A Theory of Narrative (New York:  Columbia University Press, 2008).

Fall 2007:  on leave (Guggenheim Fellowship) -- no courses

Spring 2008:  48:277 Studies in Sound and Image:  Silent Film Exhibition
Fall 2008:  on leave (Guggenheim Fellowship) -- no courses

Fall 2009: 48:273 Advanced Film Theory:  Genre Theory

Spring 2009: 48:275 Advanced Film History:  Sound Between the Wars