English 293: Film as a Narrative Art
Dr.
Kuzmanovich
Time: 1:00-3:00 TTh Labs: 7:00-9:30 Places: Chambers 316
for class, Perkins, VAC and 316 for screenings
Office: Chambers 310B, Phone: 2237; Hours: TWR
11:30-12:30 and by appointment; e-mail: zokuzmanovich
Required Texts
James Monaco, How to
Read a Film: Movies, Media, Multimedia (0-19-503869)
Gioia and Gwynn, The Longman Anthology of Short Fiction
(0-8013-3159-5)
Charles Fuller, A Soldier's Play
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Flannery O'Connor, Three by Flannery O'Connor
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Joseph Conrad, Heart
of Darkness ((Second Edition) St. Martin's Press, 1996
(0312114915)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: We'll be examining
the relations among the course title's three terms: film (visual
language of mise-en-scene,
camera work, editing, plus sound), narrative (as verbal or visual languages
of story telling), and art (as discourse: process of adaptation,
expression of vision, representation of
space and time, historical object, object of criticism, object of
beauty, etc.). I hope that our examination
of those relations may
suggest some reasons for the curious power of visual and literary images to
console
and chastise us, hurt us and heal us, move us to tears, dreams,
eloquence, action, teach us self-evasion or
self-confrontation.
FORMAT: The actual day-to-day format of the
course will consist of an illustrated lecture on some aspect
of film/narrative,
followed by a screening of a film where that particular aspect is emphasized,
followed in
turn by your discussion of
the functioning of that aspect in the screened films (and other films you
know).
Towards the end of the
semester, there will be room for presentation of projects and research
findings.
I will have more to say on these projects once we have secured the
necessary equipment. In the past,
projects have included adaptations of short stories, short
documentaries, parodies of TV shows, re-shootings
or re-mixings of
particular sequences from well-known movies, while research concentrated on a
literary/film
decade, a genre, a style, a writer, a director, a film star,
comparisons of films/adaptations, techniques/special
effects, etc.
WARNING!!!: Some students may find objectionable
some of the materials and the discussions those materials
may occasion. If you suspect that you may be such a student,
please act accordingly and spare both of us
some grief.
READING: Readings are to be completed by the day
for which they are assigned; otherwise, your discussion
grade may suffer greatly.
LATE PAPERS: All written work is due in my office by
5:00 PM of the day for which it is assigned, and late work
(when accepted) is penalized one full letter grade for every
twenty four hours of lateness.
All work must be (1)
original and (2) pledged. Paper must follow the current MLA
guidelines.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Your final grade
will be based on:
·
(20%) Mid-Term Examination: identification,
short answer, and essay.
·
(20%) Journal--The first part may be
hand-written; the second part should be typed. I will comment
·
on the first part but not grade it until the
end of the semester. The first part will cover roughly the
·
first
eight weeks and may be kept in a notebook (SO LONG AS IT IS NOT THE SAME
NOTEBOOK
·
IN WHICH YOU TAKE CLASS NOTES). In it you will
keep a journal of your immediate responses to
·
each assigned (and unassigned) film and
reading. Spontaneity and humor (even snide comments
·
about acting, my antics while teaching, our
wonderful equipment, the dead ends and high points of
·
discussions, etc.) in your responses are as welcome as detailed
analyses and syntheses. From
·
the second part, I will indeed be expecting
analyses and syntheses, generally about two pages
·
for each text/film combination. So far,
students who say that they learned a lot from keeping a
·
journal
are those who did lots of comparing. Without being aware that they were doing
so, they
·
had traced a theme we were not necessarily
tracing in class simply by noticing the connections among
·
their
responses. So, if you keep in mind your previous responses as you write, you
may not only
·
learn
something about yourself as a reader and viewer, but develop a potential
project or at least
·
a paper topic. For the first part, please write
legibly, and provide me with a table of contents. While
·
there is not set length for this first part, it
would help if you wrote your entries before and
·
after discussions. AT THE MINIMUM, THE JOURNAL
ENTRIES SHOULD BE WRITTEN WEEKLY,
·
NOT DURING THE NIGHTS BEFORE THEY ARE DUE.
OFFER: YOU MAY, HOWEVER, REPLACE
·
THE SECOND PART OF THE JOURNAL WITH A
PROJECT--A FILM OR A VIDEO PRODUCTION.
·
NO
SHOOTING MAY BEGIN WITHOUT MY PRIOR APPROVAL OF SCRIPT, CASTING, SET,
·
PROPS,
etc. IF YOU INTEND TO WRITE YOUR OWN SCRIPT, SEE ME AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE;
·
OTHERWISE LOOK OVER THE STORIES THE GIOIA/GWYNN
BOOK. I HAVE CHOSEN THIS
·
ANTHOLOGY BECAUSE IT CONTAINS VERY FILMABLE
STORIES.
·
(20%) Essay of four to five typed pages on a
scene from one of the films listed on this syllabus
·
or one of the stories from the anthology. You
may write on other films/short stories
but only after
·
discussing your choice with me.
·
(25) Final Examination which is cumulative and
administered through the self-scheduled examination
·
system.
·
(15%) Class Participation includes both leading
your discussion and helping others lead theirs. I
·
want
you to take discussions seriously. In order to participate in the discussions,
voice your
·
opinions, and be helpful to your classmates and
to me, you need to attend. Your grade will
·
be lowered by one full letter grade should you
miss more that FOUR classes (or TWO discussions)
·
without
a valid excuse, and college policy requires that you receive a failing grade if
you miss
·
one fourth or more of your classes. In our
case, one fourth is six (6) classes. Discussion
·
leaders
must consult with me prior to leading discussions. The editing
facilities are in
·
Chambers B29. There you will prepare clips for
discussion as well as edit your project should
·
you choose to do one.
ENGLISH 293 Course
Syllabus (may be amended usually with one week's notice)
Note: Most Screenings
are in Perkins; some in Chambers 316, some in VAC. Most films are
two-hours long, but some will run from 7 to
9:30. Where there are deviations in length and
venue, they will be
marked on the web version of the syllabus and/or announced in class.
T 8/21 Methods and
Purposes; Preliminary Definitions: Film, Narrative, Art; Technological Factors
of Film Production; Quick
Survey of the Constituency
Screening: A Soldier's Story
W 8/22 Screening of A Soldier's Story
Reading: Monaco 22-37 “The Nature of Art”
Th 8/23 Principles of Film Form
Reading: "The
Kuglemass Episode" at the English
Dept. website
Reading: A
Soldier's Play, Monaco 388-391 “The
Critic”
SIGN UP FOR DISCUSSIONS
T 8/28 Mise-en-Scene; Genre I:
Musical
Screening: Meet Me in St. Louis
Reading: Monaco
100-124, “The Filmstock,” Monaco
179-183 and 406-416 “”Mise-en scene”
W 8/29 Mise-en-Scene; Genre I:
Musical
Screening: Meet Me in
St. Louis
Reading: Borges, “The
Library of Babel” -
Th 8/30 Discussion: Mise-en-Scene, Form, and Ideology
in Meet Me in St. Louis led by Dr. Kuzmanovich
T 9/4 Camera Work;
Genre II: Horror/Private Eye
Screening: Psycho
Reading:
Monaco, 78-100, “The Lens” and “The Camera,” 183-212 “Framed Image”
W 9/5 Screening: Psycho
Th 9/6 Discussion: Montage,
Psychopathy, Freud, and Voyeurism
T 9/11 Editing: Hiding the Usual
Suspects
Read Bierce: “An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Screening: The
Conformist
W 9/12 Screening:
The Conformist
Reading: Monaco,
128-152, “Post-production,” 216-228, “Montage” 400-406 “Montage: Pudovkin, etc”
Th 9/13 Discussion
T 9/18 Sound:
"Stick It in Your Ear" or What We Think We Heard Can Hurt Others
Screening: The Conversation
Reading: Monaco,
74-78, “Sound Technology,” 212-216,
“Sound,” 228-261 “Movies-Economics”
W 9/19 Screening: The Conversation
Th 9/20 Discussion: Eavesdropping, Echoes and
Covert Politics
T 9/25 Narrative
Form: The Complete System of Filmic Relations
Screening: Citizen
Kane
W 9/26 Screening: Citizen Kane
Reading: Monaco,
284-301 “Cinema-Esthetics” and 152-179 “Signs” (This is also a good week
to read one of the
bigger books we'll be discussion in the second half of the semester. Or
you could at least read Heart of Darkness,
a text which Orson Welles tried making into a movie but
then moved on to this film.)
Th 9/27 Discussion: Synthesizing the elements of
classical Hollywood cinema
T 10/2 Narrative
Construction in Art-Cinema (If Memento is out on video by this point, we
may do Memento instead)
Screening: Blow-Up
Reading: Cortazar,
“Blow-Up”
W 10/3 Screening: Blow-Up
Th 10/4 Discussion: Avant-Garde Film
Read Monaco, 261-284
“”Film-Politics;” Start Reading A Clockwork Orange
JOURNALS PART ONE DUE
T 10/9 MID-TERM
EXAM (Terms, Identification in context, Discussion of short Clips)
PAPER TOPICS, PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS, OUTLINES, DIVISIONS OF LABOR,
SHOOTING
AND EDITING SCHEDULES DUE NEXT THURSDAY
W 10/10 Screening: A Clockwork Orange
R 10/11 "Viddy Well, Little Brother, Viddy
Well": Space, Time and Point of View in Film/Literature I
W 10/17 Screening: A
Clockwork Orange
Reading: Finish A
Clockwork Orange, Begin Lolita
Th 10/18 Discussion
PAPER TOPICS and
PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS (OUTLINES, DIVISIONS OF LABOR,
SCRIPTS, SHOOTING AND
EDITING SCHEDULES) ARE DUE
T 10/23 Chasing
After God, Sex, and Art: Space, Time and Point of View in Film and Literature
II
Reading: Finish Lolita;
begin Wise Blood
Screening: Lolita (1962)
W 10/24 Screening: Lolita (1998)
Th 10/25
Discussion: Directors I: Kubrick
Reading: Monaco,
143-149 “Video and Projection;” Start reading Heart of Darkness
T 10/30 "Honey,
I Shrunk the Jungle": Space, Time and Point of View in Film and Literature
III
Screening: Apocalypse
Now
W 10/31 Screening: Apocalypse Now
Reading: Finish Heart
of Darkness, Begin One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Th 11/1 Discussion: Directors II: Francis Ford
Coppola
UPDATES ON PAPER
TOPICS or PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS (OUTLINES, DIVISIONS
OF LABOR, SCRIPTS, SHOOTING AND EDITING
SCHEDULES) ARE DUE
T 11/6 First Person
Cinematic (and Unreliable)
Screening:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Reading: Begin Wise
Blood, Finish One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
W 11/7
Th 11/8 Discussion:
Filming First Person Narrators --One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
T 11/13 Theories of
Authorship (If I can my hands on the film Rapture, I will substitute it
for
The Dead; in such a case we would read Andre Dubus, “A Father’s Story”
along with Genesis
21:1-22:19 and the Book of Revelation)
Reading: Finish Wise
Blood; Begin The Dead in Gioia and Gwynn
W 11/14 Screening: The Dead/Rapture, Wise
Blood
Th 11/15 Discussion: Filming Faith and Loss
Thereof; Directors III: Huston
Reading: Finish The
Dead:
Begin The Unbearable Lightness of Being
M 11/19 Screening: sex,
lies, and videotape
T 11/20 Discussion: sex, lies, and videotape
T 11/27 Kundera,
Philosophy, and Film; Intertexuality, Interfilmicality, and Masculinizing
of the Spectator
Position; Videotherapy and Ideologies of Representation
Reading: The Mulvey
Handout; The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Screening: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
W 11/28 The
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Reading: Finish The
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Th 11/29 Discussion: Open
Sat 9:00 AM ALL PROJECTS DUE—No Exceptions
T 12/4 PAPERS DUE; ALL JOURNALS
(PART I INCLUDED) ARE DUE
W 12/5
7:00-? PM Perkins: Oscars Night; Class Evaluation
A Few Words on plagiarism
Plagiary occurs whenever
you present another writer’s work in such a way as to give your reader reason to think
it to be your own.
Plagiarism is a form of academic fraud, and it always leads to a failing grade
for the plagiarized
work, but may, depending
on Honor Council decisions, also result in a loss of credit for the course, for
the semester,
temporary suspension from the College, etc.
The most common types of plagiarism are:
1.
“Let Mikey Do It!” This is the grossest form
of plagiarism since it includes the use of a paper purchased from
2.
a paper
mill, or a work prepared by any person other than the individual claiming to be
the author such as a
3.
paper stolen from another student or acquired
from the fraternity or eating house archives.
(I usually ask for
4.
temporary suspension from the College.)
2. “The Double-Dip.” Self-plagiarism occurs when you submit
work which is the same or substantially the same
as work for which you have
already received academic credit here or elsewhere. (I usually ask for loss of
credit
for the class.)
3. “Gee, I wish I had written that! Wait a minute; I just did!” Incorporating into your own
sentences the
happily phrased words written or said by another but failing to put the quotation marks around
those “happy”
words and thus avoiding having to credit your source. (I usually
fail the paper, but will fail the student for the
class if I receive no cooperation in ascertaining the degree of
infraction. The Honor Council may and
usually
does add its own penalties.)
The College values and rewards original thought, but it also values
and rewards proper research which requires
the correct crediting of authorities from whom you derive your
phrasing, facts, and opinions.
Every discipline within the curriculum requires documentation, but
correct methods of attribution varies from
discipline to discipline. I require the latest MLA style (usually posted on the Web version
of this syllabus).
Sufficient examples of the latest MLA style may be found at the
end of your Gwynn/Gioia book.
If you are ever in any doubt about what to document, please ask
me, but until you do, surprise the devil and
do the right thing:
document absolutely everything.
A FEW WORDS ON
GRADING
Although all grading is to some degree subjective, I want to clue
you in on what my particular criteria are. I
am convinced that written
assignments help you to develop and clarify your understanding of a text, thus
giving you a firmer grasp
of it than reading, lecture, or discussion can provide. What I look for in your
writing
are the following elements. Words like sense and feeling hint at
the subjectivity; remember, however, that I
am a trained reader and that these criteria are constants for
everyone in this class.
·
a sense that you have understood and considered
all aspects of the assignment and have something
·
interesting to say in response to it (rather
than answering the obvious questions or latching on to something
·
already trodden over in lecture and discussion)
·
depth of understanding of the work under
discussion (considering evidence which might be interpreted
·
quite differently from the way you read it,
anticipating those objections and fending them off rather
·
than conveniently forgetting about them;
appropriate details brought forth to convince me of your
·
contention; citations, always with page
numbers, thoroughly interpreted and commented upon)
·
a feeling (very early in your response to the
assignment) of some insightful point being made and
·
of the
method you plan to use in demonstrating that point (the more I have to guess
what it is
·
you are
getting at, the more you'll have to wonder about your grade; mystery has a
better place on
·
late-night television)
·
a sense that you have profited from doing the
assignment itself, a new insight perhaps, usually
·
evident in a conclusion which does not merely
summarize but speculates, conjectures, surmises,
·
theorizes, meditates, ponders, reflects,
ruminates (yes, I use a thesaurus and so should you) or
·
gives other indication of an ongoing engagement
with the text at hand
·
rhetorical awareness: when you write for me,
you write for an interested and sympathetic but also
·
skeptical reader. To convince me that you are
making the best possible case for your reading, assume
·
an authoritative interested tone (achieved
through precise propositions which are qualified where
·
necessary and through a consideration of other points of view);
carefully selected and contextualized
·
citations; coherent exposition and sufficient
development of your insight gained by clear transitions
·
between sentences and paragraphs; fair use of
outside materials in observance of the honor code.
NB: I am distressed and irritated by carelessness in handling of
logic, grammar, and textual evidence, and,
as a result, every time I have to correct something, your grade is
affected accordingly. For me, teaching
provides a type of satisfaction no other activity can provide, so
I care about all aspects of it, including your
writing. I hope you will care about it as much as I do. I applaud
good intentions, encourage aspiration, and
value hard work, but I reward only achievement.
LETTERS AND NUMBERS: Letter grades will
be converted to numerical ones according to the following scale:
A = 95; A- = 92; B+ = 88; B = 85; B- = 82; C+ = 78; C = 75; C- = 72; D+ = 68; D = 65.