Instructor
Dr. Susan Hegeman
Turlington 4112
office hours: Thursdays
1-3 p.m.
office phone and
voice mail: 392-6650 x289
e-mail: shegeman@english.ufl.edu
Course meetings
Tuesdays, periods
8 and 9 (3:00-4:55) and Thursdays, period 9 (4:05-4:55) in Turlington 2346.
Course Description
This course is for advanced English majors interested in American literature and its relationship to film, cultural studies, and theory. In the class, we will explore the challenge that the emergence and eventual global influence of American popular movies presented to practitioners of an older art form, the novel. For some novelists, the popular influence of movies and the success of the film industry represented a frightening degradation of culture. For others, movies offered an exciting new vocabulary and subject matter, and new possibilities for experimenting with the novelís form. We will address both social and aesthetic questions related to the emergence of the film industry.
Required Texts
The following books
have been ordered for this class at Goering's
Textbook Store, "Books and Bagels" (1717 NW 1st Avenue; Tel. 352-377-3703).
If you purchase your books elsewhere, please try to get the editions ordered
for the class.
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (Vintage)
Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Donít They? (Serpent's Tale)
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (Vintage)
Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman (vintage)
Salman Rushdie, Wizard of Oz (BFI Film Classics)
Geoff Ryman, Was (Viking Penguin)
Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust (New Directions)
In addition to the
books listed, you will be required to view a number of films, listed below.
Screenings of these films will be held on the Friday afternoons listed
below, periods 6-8 (12:50-3:50) in Turlington 2334. You are not required
to attend the screenings, but you are required to view the films (That
means you must view them AGAIN if you have seen them before!). If you cannot
attend the screenings, the films are on 3-day loan in the Humanities and
Social Science Reference Desk, first floor of Smathers Library (East).
Also, you may be able to find some of these titles in a local video store.
The Big Sleep (1946), d. Howard Hawks, (Reference video 749) Screening Jan. 21
They Shoot Horses, Donít They? (1969) d. Sidney Pollack, Screening Jan. 28
Sunset Boulevard (1950), d. Billy Wilder, (2-hr. loan, Marsden Sci Lib. Video 656) Screening Feb. 18
Adaptation (2002), d. Spike Jonze, Screening Mar. 11
White Zombie (1932) d. Victor Halperin, Screening April 1
The following
films may also be of use to you. They are all on 3-day loan in Smathers.
Cat People (1942); video 332
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1986); video 520
Wizard of Oz (1939) VHS 2303; DVD 653
Course
Requirements
1. You are REQUIRED
to attend class and participate in discussions. You are also REQUIRED
to view the films and keep up with the readings. The quality of course
discussions depends in a large part on your presence, energy, and preparedness.
I reserve the right to hold unannounced quizzes if it becomes apparent
that the class isnít keeping up with the reading.
25% OF YOUR FINAL
GRADE WILL BE BASED ON YOUR ATTENDANCE, PARTICIPATION IN DISCUSSION, AND
POSSIBLE QUIZ GRADES
2. You will write two papers, of 6 to 8 pages each, on topics generated from the readings in the course. It is strongly recommended that you clear topics with the instructor before you begin writing. I am happy to review paper outlines and thesis statements before the due date.
Please make a note of the due dates. They are Tuesday, February 22 and Tuesday, April 19.
EACH PAPER WILL COUNT FOR 25% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE
3. You will keep a journal for the course, in which you will respond to all the required readings and films in the course. This journal will represent your reading and viewing notes. Your first job in your journals will be to keep track of plot and characters in the narratives and films. Your second task will be to note and briefly comment upon the workís particular themes and representations, especially in terms of the issues central to the course. In addition to demonstrating that you have kept up with the reading and viewing, your goal for your journal should be to develop a log of ideas, topics, and even textual specifics to discuss in class, and from which to develop your papers.
You will be submitting your new journal entries to me every other Thursday in the body of an e-mail. Include ìAML 4242î in the subject line.
THE JOURNAL WILL
COUNT FOR 25% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE
Academic Honesty Policy
You are required to review the universityís Academic Honesty Code and the Academic Honesty Guidelines, especially the discussion of plagiarism, found in the Undergraduate Catalogue. Plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in an automatic failure of the assignment and the filing of a report in your academic file.
Types of plagiarism
include (but are not limited to):
*presenting as your
own work papers written in whole or in part by someone else (for example
a paper written by a friend; a purchased or retyped paper; or one taken
from a file)
*directly quoting,
paraphrasing, or summarizing from external sources without proper citations
Please take a moment
to consider the second category of plagiarism. Many students fail
to fully understand that even such possibly innocent mistakes as paraphrasing
the work of others or failure to give proper citation is a serious form
of plagiarism. Because such mistakes can potentially get you in a
lot of trouble, you should talk to me if you have any questions about
plagiarism, academic honesty, or proper research and citation methods.
Schedule of Readings, Screenings, and Discussions
Hollywood and the Novel
1/4 Tues. course overview
1/6 Thurs. discuss Rushdie, Wizard of Oz1/11 Tues. discuss Rushdie, Wizard of Oz
Novels into Films: The Formal Problem of Adaptation
1/13 Thurs. discuss Chandler, The Big Sleep1/18 Tues. discuss Chandler, The Big Sleep
1/20 Thurs. discuss Chandler, The Big Sleep
1/21 Friday film screening: The Big Sleep
1/25 Tues. discuss The Big Sleep (the film)
1/27 Thurs discuss McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Donít They?
1/28 Friday film screening: They Shoot Horses, Donít They?
2/1 Tues. discuss They Shoot Horses, Donít They? (the novel)2/3 Thurs. discuss They Shoot Horses, Donít They? (the film)
2/8 Tues. discuss They Shoot Horses, Donít They? (film and novel)
Hollywood, History, and the Grotesque
2/10 Thurs. discuss West, The Day of the Locust2/15 Tues. discuss West, The Day of the Locust
2/17 Thurs. discuss West, The Day of the Locust
2/18 Friday film screening: Sunset Boulevard
2/22 Tues. discuss Sunset Boulevard First paper due!
2/24 Thurs. discuss Sunset Boulevard
3/1 and 3/3 no class; spring break
Film and Alienation
3/8 Tues. discuss Percy, The Moviegoer3/10 Thurs. discuss Percy, The Moviegoer
3/11 Friday film screening: Adaptation
3/15 Tues. discuss Percy, The Moviegoer
3/17 Thurs. discuss Adaptation
3/22 Tues. discuss Adaptation
Film, Fantasy, and Politics
3/24 Thurs. discuss Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman3/29 Tues. discuss Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman
3/31 Thurs. discuss Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman
4/1 Friday film screening: White Zombie
4/5 Tues. discuss White Zombie
4/7 Thurs. discuss Ryman, Was
4/12 Tues. discuss Ryman, Was
4/14 Thurs. discuss Ryman, Was
4/19 Tues. discuss Ryman, Was Second paper due!