ENGL 740: Introduction to Film Theory
Professor Carolyn Sigler

Required Texts
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (McGraw-Hill, 5th ed.)
Manthia Diawara, Black American Cinema (AFI)
Lester D. Friedman, Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema (U Illinois P)
bell hooks, Reel to Real: Sex and Class at the Movies (Routledge)

Recommended Texts
Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (Columbia)

Course Purposes
Introduction to Film Theory is designed to introduce graduate students and advanced undergraduate students to key issues in film theory and criticism about race and gender, as well as an overview of the history of depictions of race and gender in American cinema. Through weekly readings, film viewings, and discussions the class will explore the history of minority contributions to filmmaking, changing images of race and gender on the screen, and major debates about minority representation and reception. A previous film class is not necessary.
 

Course Requirements

• Faithful class and film attendance, completion of reading and writing assignments, and active participation in class discussions (20%).
• A reading and viewing journal (30%). Due each week is a 2 page (typed) entry on that week's reading assignment and film. Due by the end of the semester are five additional entries on any topics of your choosing that are related to the subject-matter of this class.
• A 12-15 page (undergraduates) or 20-25-page (graduates) essay (50%).
• Reading assignments must be completed for each Wednesday's class. Journal entries are due every Monday at the beginning of class. Film showings are each Wednesday night from 6-8 p.m..

Political Correctness
You are under NO obligation to agree with the authors or the professor. Rather, your obligation is to demonstrate comprehension and thoughtful consideration. As a class member, I do not always agree with the authors included in the course. I hope that at the end of the course you will be able to articulate and effectively argue for your own position. Although we will not agree about our interpretations of the various materials, we can agree that the only "political correctness" appropriate in this course is the commitment to encounter and engage course readings, course goals, and each other with openness, careful listening, honesty, and mutual respect.

SYLLABUS
Week 1
Films: Frank Powell, A Fool There Was (1915); Lois Weber, How Men Propose (1913)
Readings: Lester Friedman, "Celuloid Palimpsests: Ethnicity and the American Film" (Friedman, 11)
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, Chapter One

 Week 2
Film: Cecil B. DeMille, The Cheat (1915)
Reading: Donald Kirihara, "The Accepted Idea Displaced: Stereotype and Sessue Hayakawa" (Bernardi, 81)
Sumiko Higashi, "Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Film: DeMille's The Cheat" (Friedman, 112)

 Week 3
Film: D.W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Readings: Daniel Bernardi, "The Voice of Whiteness: D.W. Griffith's Biograph Films" (Bernardi, 103)
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, Chapter Two

Week 4
Film: John W. Noble, Birth of a Race (1918)
Reading: Thomas Cripps, "The Emerging Politics of Identity in Silent Movies" (Bernardi, 38)
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, Chapter Three

 Week 5
Film: Oscar Micheaux, Within Our Gates (1919)
Reading: Jane Gaines, "Fire and Desire: Race, Melodrama, and Oscar Micheaux" (Diawara, 49)
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, Chapter Three

 Week 6
Film: John Flaherty, Nanook of the North (1922)
Reading: Fatimah Tobing Rony, "Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North: The Politics of Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography" (Bernardi, 300)

 Week 7
Film: Alan Crosland, The Jazz Singer (1927)
Reading: Ella Shohat, "Ethnicities-in-Relation: Toward a Multicultural Reading of American Cinema" (Friedman, 215)

 Week 8
Film: Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life (1959)
Reading: Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, "Imitation(s) of Life: The Black Woman's Double Determination as Troubling 'Other'" (photocopy)
Jacquie Jones, "The Construction of Black Sexuality: towards Normalizing the Black Cinematic Experience" (Diawara, 247)

Week 9
Film: Woody Allen, Zelig (1983)
Readings: Vivian Sobchack, "Postmodern Modes of Ethnicity" (Friedman, 329)
Charles Musser, "Ethnicity, Role-Playing, and American Film Comedy" (Friedman, 39)

 Week 10
Spring Break: No Classes

Week 11
Film: Wayne Wang, Chan is Missing (1983)
Readings:
bell hooks, "An Interview With Wayne Wang"
Gina Marchetti, "Ethnicity, The Cinema, and Cultural Studies" (Friedman, 277) 

 Week 12
Film: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing (1989)
Readings: Amiri Baraka, "Spike Lee at the Movies" (Diawara, 145)
Houston Baker, "Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture' (Diawara, 154)

 Week 13
Film: Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust (1991)
Readings: Toni Cade Bambara, "Reading the Signs, Empowering the Eye: Daughters of the Dust and the Black Independent Cinema Movement" (Diawara, 118)
bell hooks, "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators" (Diawara, 288)

 Week 14
Film: Jenny Livingston, Paris is Burning (1991)
Readings: bell hooks, "is paris burning?"

 Week 15
Film: Gurinder Chadha, Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
Readings: Robert Stam, "Bakhtin, Polyphony, and Ethnic/Racial Representation" (Friedman, 251)
Essay Due by Friday

 Week 16
Film: Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals (1998)
Readings: Annette Kuhn, "Textual Politics"
Journal Due