291H Course Calendar

How To Use The Course Calendar
Using all of this information requires a bit of organization, so follow these general instructions. For each week, begin by reading assigned work from the hard text. There will be rhetoric and source material on englit.org. The works themselves, listed by title and author, are primarily to be rented, borrowed, stolen or purchased and will be shown in class. You are then to view the Web pages for the authors and topics for that week, listed as a link on the English Internet Resource List section of the Web site (not all are covered). That means all you have to do is click on the colored (usually blue) label of the name or address of the site. Following that, read the online presentation of the format strategy for the week (Org & Outline, Quoting Your Sources, How To Take A Test, etc.). You are also required to read the thematic presentation for that week in Online Presentations (Character, Theme, Irony, etc.). Finally, read Questions for Reading and Writing. This will allow you to follow the schedule and be topical in the classroom. Read the directions. Assignments and due dates for papers and tests are announced in class. Most of this syllabus is self-explanatory. The following is a plan for the semester.

Tentative Schedule
WEEK 1. Introduction to Film and the Film Making Process

Photography
Realism vs Formalism in Cinema
Formalist Criticism
Wong. "How The Karate Kid Ruined the Modern World"
Screening: Steven Spielberg’s Duel
WEEK 2. Film Theory and Criticism/Point of View

Critique
Standard Motifs
Historical Criticism
Screening: Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest
WEEK 3. Character

Acting
Gender Criticism
Screening: Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs
WEEK 4. Setting

Movement
Cultural Criticism
WEEK 5. Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene
Screening: George Lucas' American Graffiti
WEEK 6. Montage

Editing
Psychoanalytical Criticism
READ : Stephen King's Misery
King. "Why We Crave Horror Movies"
WEEK 7. Adaptation

Writing
Marxist Criticism
Screening: Rob Reiner’s Misery
WEEK 8. Subjective Rendering: Animation

Drama
Screening: Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky
WEEK 9. Genre ideal

Plot
Story
Screening: Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause
WEEK 10. Motifs and Symbols

Screening: Niki Caro’s Whale Rider
WEEK 11. Artistic Rendering

New Historical Criticism
Screening: Henry Selick's Coraline
WEEK 12. Sound Design

Sound
Marxist Criticism
Screening: Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train
WEEK 13. The Concept of Genre

Ideology
Myth Criticism
Screening: Rob Reiner's This is Spinal Tap
WEEK 14.Synthesis

Presentations
WEEK 15. Synthesis

Presentations
Term Paper due
WEEK 16. Finals Week

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Questions for Reading and Writing

Something to keep in mind in your essays for this class:
Be able to answer these four questions somewhere in the context of your essay. Please don't merely list the answers... make them part of your general discussion of the work.

What is the message? Clearly state it and support your response from the text itself. There can be more than one answer.
What is the prespective of the message? Be as specific as you can. Authors will create characters or "voices" to tell a story or give a viewpoint. In drama, that is all you get... all characters, no narrator.
Who is the audience of the message? There can be more than one, often linked to the message...or a single message may have different audiences with different expected results. Again, be specific and use text for support.
What methods does author use? Be specific, using terms from ENGL 101 -- irony, symbolism, theme, conflict -- and new terms from this course.

In poetry, the use of meter and rhyme and condensation of ideas into brief images is common.
In drama, the use of character, dialogue and setting are often important.
In literature, all of these aspects may be factors.

Once you've gotten this information into your paper, then we apply the critical approaches to discuss HOW EFFECTIVELY the message was delivered by author.

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