TENTATIVE COURSE CALENDAR, ENG 3940H
Week 1: Introductory
Thurs., 1/28: Introductions, Syllabus review
Week 2: Foundations, Exemplars
Tues., 2/2
Read: Entries on fear, anxiety, and paranoia from The International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (handouts and linked here — you will need to log into to the library’s database system to access these electronically); Phillips, Introduction and Chap. 1 (pp 1-33) (*Since this book is not yet available at the bookstore, please read Chap. 1 of Monaco)
See: Dracula (1931) (Netflix streaming); 6pm screening: Fritz Lang’s M (rm. 323, Annex bldg)
Recommended viewing: Freaks (1932)(Netflix DVD); Frankenstein (1933)(Netflix streaming)
Thurs., 2/4
Due: Response paper: significance statement #1 (~2pp). Assignment will be posted on this blog on Monday 2/1.
Read: Monaco, Chap. 1 (pp24-71); Plantinga, “The Rhetoric of Emotion: Disgust and Beyond” (handout)
See: Un Chien Andalou (1929)(Google Video; Veoh); M (1931)(Netflix DVD); Eraserhead (1977)(Netflix streaming; Google Video)
Recommended Viewing: Blue Velvet (1986)(Netflix DVD); Polyester (Amazon VOD)(1981)
Week 3: Film Noir I
Tues., 2/9
Read: Monaco, Chap 1. (con’t). Schrader, “Notes on Film Noir” (handout)
See: D.O.A. (1950)(Netflix streaming); The Lady From Shanghai (1948)(Netflix streaming); 6pm Screening: Double Indemnity (1946)
Recommended viewing: The Big Sleep (1946) (Netflix streaming); The Stranger (1946)(Netflix streaming)
Thurs., 2/11:
Read: Naremore, Chap. 1 of More Than Night (handout); from A Panorama of American Film Noir (handout)
See: Double Indemnity (1946)(Netflix DVD); Detour (1945)(streaming and download from archive.org)
Recommended viewing: The Naked City (1948)(Netflix DVD); Panic In the Streets (1950)(Netflix streaming)
Week 4: Film Noir II (No screening this week)
Tues., 2/16
Read: Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (handout); Julie Grossman, “Film Noir’s ‘Femme Fatales’ Hard-Boiled Women: Moving Beyond Gender Fantasies” (handout)
See: Gilda (1946)(Netflix streaming); Laura (1941)(Netflix Streaming)
Recommended viewing: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Netflix streaming)
Thurs., 2/18:
No class. Monday schedule.
Week 5: Noir con’t.; Neo-Noir
Tues., 2/23:
Read: Naremore, Chap. 4 from More than Night (handout)
See: Touch of Evil(1957)(Netflix streaming); Kiss Me Deadly (1955)(Netflix DVD)
Screening (6pm): Chinatown (1974)
Recommended viewing: The Third Man (1949)(Netflix streaming)
Thurs., 2/25:
Due: Writing assignment #2: ~3pp.
Read: Naremore, Chap. 5 from More than Night (handout)
See: Chinatown (1974)(Netflix DVD)
Recommended viewing:Blade Runner (1981)(Netflix DVD); Taxi Driver (1980)(Netflix streaming)
Week 6; Neo-Noir, con’t; Zombies! (Screening on Thurs.)
Tues., 3/2:
Read: Monaco, pp. 99-113 in Chap 2; start Chapter 3 (pp. 170-205)
See: Memento (2000) (Netflix streaming); Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)(Netflix DVD; streaming on stagevu.com)
Recommended viewing: Bound (1996)(Netflix DVD; streaming from stagevu.com); The Usual Suspects (1995)(Netflix streaming); The Big Lebowski (1994)(Netflix streaming)
Thurs., 3/4:
Read: Phillips, Chap. 4, “Night of the Living Dead (1968)”
See: Night of the Living Dead (1968)(Netflix streaming, streaming and download from archive.org)
Screening (6pm): Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Recommended viewing: The Evil Dead (1983)(Netflix streaming); Zombie (Zombi 2)(1979)(Netflix streaming)
Week 7: Zombies!!; Cold War I
Tues, 3/9;
Read: Dendle, “The Zombie as Barometer of Cultural Anxiety” and Boon, “Ontological Anxiety Made Flesh: The Zombie in Literature, Film and Culture”(handouts)
See: Dawn of the Dead (1978)(Netflix DVD; Shaun of the Dead (2004)(Netflix DVD);
Recommended viewing: Fido (2006)(Netflix Streaming) 28 Days Later (2003)(Netflix DVD); Dawn of the Dead (2004)(Netflix DVD)
Thurs., 3/11:
Read:Melley, Timothy. “Brainwashed!: Conspiracy Theory and Ideology in the Postwar United States”
View: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)(Digital Campus)
Recommended: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)(Digital Campus)
Week 8: Cold War Conspiracy and Paranoia
Tues., 3/16:
Read: Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, Chap. 6
View: The Front(1976)(Netflix streaming); Trumbo (2007)(Netflix streaming); shorts from the Prelinger Archive (will be posted on the blog)
Recommended: On The Waterfront (1954)(Netflix streaming), High Noon (1952)(Netflix DVD; Amazon VOD, iTunes)
Thurs., 3/18:
Read: Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, Chap. 9
View: 7 Days in May (1964)(Digital Campus)
Presentation: Communists and Conspiracy
Week 9: Cold War II: The Nuclear Threat
Tues., 3/23
Read: Chap. 1 of Perinne, Toni, Film and The Nuclear Age
View: Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964)(Digital Campus), Fail Safe (1964)(Digital Campus, Netflix Streaming)
Recommended: Atomic Cafe (1984)(Netflix Streaming)
Thurs., 3/25
Read: Chap. 4 of Perinne, Toni, Film and The Nuclear Age
View: The Day After (1984)(Digital Campus)
Recommended: Miracle Mile (1989)(Netflix DVD)
Week 10: Spring Recess
Tues., 3/28: No class session
Thurs., 4/1 No class session
Recommended: Spring Break (1983)(Netflix streaming)
Week 11: Late 1970s (and early 80s) Horror: Slashers, Ghosts and Demonic Possession
Tues., 4/6
Read: Phillips, Chap. 5
View: The Exorcist (1973)(Netflix streaming); The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)(stagevu)
Thurs., 4/8
Read: Phillips, Chap. 6
View: Halloween (1978)(stagevu, Netflix DVD, iTunes, Amazon VOD)
Recommended: Poltergeist (1981)(Digital Campus); Firday The 13th (1980) (stagevu)
Week 12: 1970s Paranoia Films
Tues., 4/13
Read: Patzig, Johannes. “Crisis of Americanism in Hollywood’s Paranoia Films of the 1970s: The Conversation, Chinatown and Three Days of the Condor”
View: Marathon Man (1976)(Digital Campus); Three Days of the Condor (1978)(Digital Campus)
Recommended: All the President’s Men(1976)
Thurs., 4/15
Read: Turner, Dennis. “The Subject of ‘The Conversation'” (handout)
View: The Conversation (1974)(Netflix streaming)
Recommended: The Parallax View (1974)(Digital Campus)
Week 13: Urban Dread and Decay
Tues., 4/20
Read: Macek, Steve. Urban Nightmares Chap. 2 (handout)
View: After Hours (1985)(Digital Campus); The Warriors (1978) (Digital Campus)
Recommended: Death Wish (1974)(Digital Campus)
Thurs., 4/22
Due: Project proposal
Read: Macek, Steve. Urban Nightmares Chap. 5 (handout)
View: Se7en (1995)(Digital Campus)
Week 14: Contemporary Horror Cinema
Tues., 4/27
Read: Tryon, Chuck. “Video from the Void: Video Spectatorship, Domestic Film Cultures, and Contemporary Horror Film” (handout)
View: Blair Witch Project (1999) (Digital Campus); Paranormal Activity (2007)(Digital Campus)
Recommended: Saw (2004)(Digital Campus)
Thurs., 4/29
Read: Phillips, Chap. 9
View: The Sixth Sense (1999) (Netflix Streaming)
Week 15: The Terrorist Threat
Tues., 5/4
Read: Wood, Robin. Chapters on Rear Window and Vertigo in Hitchcock’s Films Revistited (handout)
View: Rear Window (1954); Vertigo (1958)(both Digital Campus)
Recommended: High Anxiety (1977)(Amazon VOD; iTunes)
Thurs., 5/6
Read: Wood, Robin. Chapters on Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) in Hitchcock’s Films Revistited (handout)
View: Psycho (1961); The Birds (1962) (both Netflix Streaming)
Week 16: Semester in Review; Video Projects Screenings
Tues., 5/11
Read: Reading TBA
Thurs., 5/13
Due: FInal Project Videos (Should be ready and posted to video hosting service (TBD) by 10pm, Wed., 5/12)
DOWNLOAD THE VIEWING AND PRESENTATION SCHEDULE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEMESTER
SYLLABUS IS TENTATIVE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE. VIEWING ASSIGNMENTS MAY CHANGE BASED ON THE AVAILABILITY OF FILMS.