From 8d6c492bcdf39612538159d0ad441489906d18b6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Scott Richmond Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2024 21:36:11 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Add Caetlin and Kyle readings --- syllabus.md | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------- 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) diff --git a/syllabus.md b/syllabus.md index 58bd548..35d6565 100644 --- a/syllabus.md +++ b/syllabus.md @@ -51,11 +51,11 @@ My goals for you for this semester are: (1) to get a solid grounding in how to r #### Assignments & marking There are two papers for the course. A midterm paper due on March 1 (5-7pp.), and a final paper on April 26 (18-20pp.). Please note that all written work will be submitted to all participants in the course: we are a community of scholars working and thinking together. -**Midterm paper.** Worth 25% of your final mark. The midterm paper will involve close engagement with any one of the essays from Kyle Stevenss, _The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_ (that we are not otherwise reading together in class). This will involve an analytical summary and theoretical critique of this essay. Students will all work on different essays. +**Midterm paper.** Worth 25% of your final mark. The midterm paper will involve close engagement with any one of the essays from Kyle Stevens, _The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_ (that we are not otherwise reading together in class). This will involve an analytical summary and theoretical critique of this essay. Students will all work on different essays. **Final paper.** Worth 50% of your final mark. The final paper will be an act of theorizing of your own. This will be guided (if not quite scaffolded) over the second half of the course. The midterm paper should be a starting point for this. -**Good citizenship.** Worth 25% 0f your final mark. Good citizenship involves things both countable and uncountable. The countable parts will be assessed using a chit system; the uncountable parts will be assessed holistically. Each is worth a third of the "good citizenship" mark total. Here's the breakdown: +**Good citizenship.** Worth 25% of your final mark. Good citizenship involves things both countable and uncountable. The countable parts will be assessed using a chit system; the uncountable parts will be assessed holistically. Each is worth a third of the "good citizenship" mark total. Here's the breakdown: * _Guiding the conversation._ Once during the semester, students will be required (with a partner) to pose the questions to which will will address ourselves during the seminar portion of the course. You must do this, but there is no evaluative component. You get full marks if you do the thing. * _Showing up to the seminar._ This is fuzzy. Are you on time? Do you contribute to the discussion? Have you done the reading? Are you supportive of your fellow students? Assessed holistically. * _Taking minutes._ Twice during the semester, you will be responsible for taking the minutes of the class. Most weeks, that means there will be two people taking minutes. Those two (or three) people will harmonize their notes into a quasi-official record of our seminar proceedings. There is no evaluative component. You get full marks if you do the thing twice; half marks if you do it once; zero marks if you don't do it at all. @@ -65,17 +65,17 @@ There are two papers for the course. A midterm paper due on March 1 (5-7pp.), an #### Course patterns We have four hours together, in a single block, every week. Here's how you can expect us to spend our time together on days when there isn't a visitor. That's not our first day. That's also not our writing workshop. -* Announcements & program notes. -* Good news. For about 5 minutes, everybody shares good news from their professional and/or personal and/or culinary and/or pet lives. -* Mini-lecture. For 10-15 minutes, Scott will digest the major background information for working through the texts at hand. This will be brief, interactive, and informal. -* Questions. For about 10 minutes, the two guides for the week set up our questions for the seminar discussion. The group will decide which question(s) to address ourselves to. -* Think/Pair/Share. 10 minutes. Students will spend 5 minutes identifying specific passages from the reading that may be useful for working through a question, reading those passages, and taking notes on them & the question. Then, they will spend 5 minutes in pairs discussing what they read, wrote, and thought. -* Student driven discussion. For the next 40-60 minutes, students will have a discussion. For the first 20 minutes of that discussion, Scott is not allowed to speak unless asked a direct question from a student. -* Redirect. After the formal discussion, we'll collect another round of questions that arose or are still unanswered during the first discussion. We'll proceed straight to discussion this time. -* Break. At least 5, as much as 15 minutes, depending on energy levels, screening length, etc. -* Screening (or similar). Scott will introduce the screening and what to look for/think with/perplex over. -* Another break. At least 5 minutes, likely only ever 5 minutes. -* What did you see? Discussion of the screening. Continues until the end of class. +* _Announcements & program notes._ +* _Good news._ For about 5 minutes, everybody shares good news from their professional and/or personal and/or culinary and/or pet lives. +* _Mini-lecture._ For 10-15 minutes, Scott will digest the major background information for working through the texts at hand. This will be brief, interactive, and informal. +* _Questions._ For about 10 minutes, the two guides for the week set up our questions for the seminar discussion. The group will decide which question(s) to address ourselves to. +* _Think/Pair/Share._ 10 minutes. Students will spend 5 minutes identifying specific passages from the reading that may be useful for working through a question, reading those passages, and taking notes on them & the question. Then, they will spend 5 minutes in pairs discussing what they read, wrote, and thought. +* _Student driven discussion._ For the next 40-60 minutes, students will have a discussion. For the first 20 minutes of that discussion, Scott is not allowed to speak unless asked a direct question from a student. +* _Redirect._ After the formal discussion, we'll collect another round of questions that arose or are still unanswered during the first discussion. We'll proceed straight to discussion this time. +* _Break._ At least 5, as much as 15 minutes, depending on energy levels, screening length, etc. +* _Screening (or similar)._ Scott will introduce the screening and what to look for/think with/perplex over. +* _Another break._ At least 5 minutes, likely only ever 5 minutes. +* _What did you see?_ Discussion of the screening. Continues until the end of class. #### Reading This is a reading-heavy and reading-forward course. The attachment here is to the site of theory. I know it's a lot; you need to get through it. That doesn't mean you need to read every word carefully! Part of the explicit project here will be to relinquish an attachment to mastery. That often means burning out the anxiety about understanding every word. I'm here to help you get it right, but I'm more concerned with your finding sincere & authentically productive ways to engage. @@ -124,19 +124,26 @@ This is a reading-heavy and reading-forward course. The attachment here is to th #### Week 7: More film theory: Kyle Stevens, 2024-02-28 * Guides TBD. -* Readings TBA. +* Robert Warshow, "The Gangster as Tragic Hero" +* Stanley Cavell, "Must We Mean What We Say?" +* Mary Ann Doane, "Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing" +* Daniel Frampton, introduction to _Filmosophy_ * Screening: Lynne Ramsay, _You Were Never Really Here_ (UK/France/USA, 2019, 90 mins.) #### Midterm paper due: March 1, by 11:59pm #### Week 8: Cont'd, 2024-03-06 -* Kyle Stevenss, "The Very Thought of Theory" and "The Frame of the Skull," from _The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_ -* Zoom visit from Kyle Stevenss (Appalachian State University) +* Kyle Stevens, "The Very Thought of Theory" and "The Frame of the Skull," from _The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_ +* Kyle Stevens, "The World Heard," _Discourse_ +* Zoom visit from Kyle Stevens (Appalachian State University) #### Week 9: The material spectator: Caetlin Benson-Allot, 2024-03-13 * Guides TBD. +* Stuart Hall, "Encoding/Decoding" +* Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading" +* Vivian Sobchack, "The Scene of the Screen" * Zhou Chenshu, "Introduction: 'Projecting Cinema'," from _Cinema Off Screen: Moviegoing in Socialist China_ (2021) -* Additional screening & readings TBA. +* Screening: Walter Hill, _The Warriors_ (USA, 1981, 93 mins.) #### Week 10: Cont'd, 2024-03-20 * Caetlin Benson-Allott, "Contesting the White Gaze: Black Film and Postcinematic Spectatorship" from _The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory_