Langara College Fall archived

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1 ENGLISH 1130 Karen Budra 2009/3 This course is designed to help you begin to develop a critical understanding of poetry, narrative film & the novel and will build on the writing and analytical skills you gained in an English composition course. CONTACT Office: A2201b Phone: karbudra@langara.bc.ca I will post my office hours in week 2. If they are not convenient for you, please see me after class to arrange another time. READING LIST Required Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies, Cdn. ed. Moore, Alan, Watchmen Suri, Manil. The Death of Vishnu Touberg, Sarah. The Hudson Book of Poetry: 150 Poems Worth Reading Recommended Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film Oxford Concise Dictionary **No cell phones, laptops, Blackberries, Ipods, or food during class. Surrender to the material at hand** FEATURE FILMS You are responsible for attending the showing of each of the 4 films in our film series. The materials fee you paid for English 1130 covers the cost of admission. Each film will be shown 3 times a week (twice on Wednesdays, at 12:30 and 3:30, and once on Thursdays at 6:30) between weeks 6 & 9 in A130 (Newbery Hall). Although they are available on videocassette & DVD, I strongly recommend that you try to see them at Langara IN ADDITION to renting them for closer analysis. Remember that it is impossible to carefully analyze a film you have seen only once. Be prepared to STUDY films.

2 FEATURE FILM SCHEDULE You will receive a study guide providing basic information about each of the films & reminding you of show times. Please read through the material for each film BEFORE viewing the films. Safety Last October 14 & 15 Double Indemnity October 21 & 22 Celebration October 28 & 29 In Bruges November 4 & 5 ATTENDANCE Because of the large quantity of material we will be covering, absences totaling more than 3 classes in a row may result in my asking you to withdraw. DEADLINES Barring natural disasters & health problems, no extensions will be granted on any assignment, including seminars, essays, and quizzes. If you miss a quiz or seminar, YOU MAY NOT MAKE IT UP. Similarly, late essays will lose 5% for each day they are overdue and will be returned, without commentary, at my convenience. Essays are due IN CLASS, not under my office door, over the internet, or in my mailbox. PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is the undocumented use of another person s words and/or ideas and is a serious academic crime. This undocumented use includes both borrowing from printed sources AND having someone write your assignments for you. Plagiarized work will receive a mark of F and may be cause for me to ask you to withdraw. MARKS ALLOCATION Participation 15% Film Review 15% (5% oral; 5% written) Poetry Essay 15% Film Essay/Screenplay Option 25% Final Examination 30%* *in order to pass the course, you must pass the final exam

3 FILM REVIEW I will post sign-up sheets for these. They consist of the delivery of a prepared set of notes, NOT an essay, delivered in front of a small group of classmates in a 5-10 minute presentation. Four students per weekly session (held on Thursdays in our regular classroom) will deliver reviews covering films released within the last two years. Other than providing an attentive audience for the other students, you need not coordinate your film choices. In other words, it s up to you to choose the film you want to review. Basic information such as director, producer, major cast & awards should be followed by a VERY BRIEF plot synopsis. The focus of the review is not whether the film is good or bad, but whether it is worth watching. Thus, your thesis will be something like the following: This film is/is not worth watching because... Focus your argument on specific information found in one/two chapters of the Giannetti or Corrigan texts. While visual aids are not required, they often help to focus the discussion. Even the DVD/VHS box helps, if only to give your nervous hands something to do. The written version of this review should not exceed 250 words & is due the Thursday after its presentation to allow you to fine-tune your work. Early seminars will be expected to cover only the material we have studied in class up until that point. POETRY ESSAY: 1,000 words. Due October 8 Choose ONE of the following pairs of poems: Love Poem, Nims and The Traveling Onion, Nye Bilingual Sestina, Alvarez and Sestina, Bishop Poetry, Moore and Ars Poetica, MacLeish The essay will focus on YOUR supported interpretations of the relationships between the poems and as such, will require mainly primary research.

4 FILM ESSAY: 1,000 words. Due November 19 Remember to BE SPECIFIC: you are not simply noticing things, you are explaining how they work and why they exist in the film. You may write EITHER a 1,000 word essay based on one of the following topics: 1. Analyze one scene in either Double Indemnity or In Bruges, explaining how it reflects film noir aesthetics & thematic concerns. 2. Analyze cinematography in either Celebration or Safety Last. Explain the relationship between theme and filmic style. 3. Analyze character relationships in Celebration or In Bruges. What is the film saying about the nature of friendship/love? 4. Analyze the role deception plays in Celebration, Double Indemnity, or In Bruges. OR, if you receive an A on your poetry essay, you may choose to take the screenplay option. SCREENPLAY OPTION Adapt one poem in the anthology WE HAVE NOT COVERED IN CLASS into a screenplay package as follows: (A) (B) (C) Treatment: 1-2 sentence synopsis of the plot of your screenplay Shooting script: 3-4 page script. CF any on-line screenplay for format. Dialogue is not necessary, but RECOMMENDED. Objective evaluation: Some creative projects are more successful than others. Did this one do what you wanted/expected it to do? Be truthful; bragging won t get you an A and, by the same token, acknowledgment of weakness won t fail you. **ALL WORK HANDED IN MUST BE TYPED, DOUBLE-SPACED, AND FOLLOW MLA (COLLEGE STYLE SHEET) PROTOCOL** PARTICIPATION MARKS Participation marks will be determined based on (a) quizzes (b) active participation in class discussions (c) composition of a sonnet (d) group mise-en-scene analyses & (e) group study question presentations.

5 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Student Profile How to Read a Poem: Pattern Language Handouts: Introduction to Poetry Collins Out, Out - Frost At North Farm Ashbery Down Wanton Down Graves I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died Dickinson Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Stevenson Imagery & Sound Patterns Handout: The Chill I Feel Buson Preludes Eliot Heat H.D. This is Just to Say Williams Pied Beauty Hopkins Reapers Toomer We Real Cool Brooks Closed Form Poetry: Meter & Prosody; Sonnets Handouts: Petrarchan sonnet Leda and the Swan Yeats Sonnets 18, 73, & 130, Shakespeare Death Be Not Proud Donne When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be Keats How do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways Browning Open Form Poetry: Vernacular Repetitions I Shall Paint my Nails Red Satyamurti A Supermarket in California Ginsberg Daddy Plath Homage to My Hips Clifton The Colonel Forche **ASSIGNMENT: SONNETS DUE** Week 5 Myth & Influence Handout: Bavarian Gentians Lawrence This Be the Verse Larkin The Second Coming Yeats Cinderella Sexton Barbie Doll Piercy

6 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 The Film Industry: A Background Handouts: Important Film Terms From Idea to Feature Film: Screenplay excerpts Writing Critically about Film: Film Reviews Guide to Feature Films Reading: Giannetti, Medium and Story Zea Film: The Dynamic Illusion Film: The Twentieth Century Legacy GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM Feature Film: Safety Last **FILM REVIEWS BEGIN & CONTINUE TO END OF TERM* **QUIZ: Safetey Last** In-class film: Visions of Light Reading: Giannetti: Photography and Mise en Scene **POETRY ESSAYS DUE** Feature Film: Double Indemnity **QUIZ: Double Indemnity** Reading: Giannetti: Movement, Editing and Sound In-class film: Birth of the Soviet Cinema **ASSIGNMENT: MISE EN SCENE ANALYSIS** Feature Film: Celebration **QUIZ: Celebration** Reading: Giannetti: Canadian Film In-class film: Edge Codes Feature Film: In Br **QUIZ: Fido** Watchmen Boundaries of Literature: Can a picturebook be a novel? Patterns of understanding: Text, intertext & marginalia Week 11 Discussions & Group Presentations, Watchmen

7 Week 12 Week 13 The Death of Vishnu Background: Twin mythologies: Bollywood & Religion Film: excerpt Devdas Postmodern desire for simulacra Hindu trimurthi Reincarnation Novel as allegory of postmodern India Discussions & Group Presentations, The Death of Vishnu Course wrap-up