Course Title: KEY TRENDS IN AMERICAN FILM

Coordinator: RICHARD NOWELL Ph.D.

Contact: richard_nowell@hotmail.com

Location: American Center

Times: Every Second Tuesday 17:00 - 20:00 [26 February; 12 March; 26 March; 9 April; 23 April; 7 May; 21 May]

Course Description and Purpose

This course offers students insights into the ways in which the production, content, and themes of mainstream American motion pictures are shaped by socio-political events, currents, and shifts. As a storytelling medium par excellence, American cinema has tended to be characterized by depictions of harmony, conflict, and resolution that are enacted by heroes, victims, and villains. It is perhaps the changing nature of the heroic, the despicable, and the vulnerable that reveals most about films’ relationships to the public-sphere discourses against which they take form and to which they sometimes contribute. An ideal opportunity to consider the relationship between film texts and relevant social contexts is provided by historically-specific clusters of topical films. Some of the most prominent trends in American cinema of the last forty years students will be (re)introduced to by way of film screenings, home viewings, Anglophone scholarship, and bi-weekly seminars. Case studies will be organized into two groups: films mediating changing social conditions, and those engaged directly - sometimes explicitly, sometimes allegorically - with political discourse. Students’ development of essential and transferable critical analysis skills will therefore be facilitated by their approaching of mainstream American films as cultural artifacts with important things to say about the times in which they were made and released.

Course Goals and Student Learning Objectives

Key Trends in American Film aims to facilitate students’ deeper understanding of the relationships that exist between, on the one hand, the content and themes of American mainstream cinema, and, on the other hand, certain prominent social, cultural, political discourses circulating the public (and private) sphere. In doing so, the course will seek to familiarize students with important and transferable critical tools, frameworks, approaches, and skills that will serve to deepen their capacity to engage with, and to read, audiovisual texts critically both on, and hopefully outside of, the course. Key Trends in American Cinema aims to enable students to appreciate that the interplay between texts and contexts is more than a simple "sign of the times" but is characterized by complex processes of mediation, selection, and interpretation at the levels of production, promotion, and reception.

By the end of the course, students will be expected to posses: the critical abilities to produce insightful analysis of film texts; the skills necessary to conduct sound contextual analysis; the demonstrable capacity to synthesize original ideas in a lucid and coherent manner, both verbally and in writing; a solid understanding of the complex social, cultural, historical, and political relationships that have shaped important aspects of American cinematic output (and by implication different forms of audiovisual media produced both inside and outside of the US); and solid understanding of debates circulating the case-studies that comprise the course.

Texts and Resources

Students are expected actively to contribute to seminar discussions, which will center on the mandatory film screenings, the mandatory readings, and critical analyses thereof. Accordingly, students are required to study all of the relevant set readings before each class. All of the readings will, well before the first day of the semester, be available in PDF form to download from the SIS course website. Students are advised to bring to class hard copies of the relevant readings as use of electronic devices will not be permitted during seminars.

One-on-One Tutorials

All students are invited to arrange one-on-one tutorials to discuss assignments and/or any issues arising from the course. Meetings can be arranged by email and can take place at a location and time of mutual convenience.

Assignments

Mid-term Paper

Value: 50% of Final Grade

Each student is to submit a 2,000 word essay in based on a topic introduced in sessions 1-3. A choice of three questions will be revealed in good time.

Deadline: Midnight CET 19 April 2013

Final Essay

Value: 50% of Final Grade

Each student is to submit a 2,000 word essay in based on a topic introduced in sessions 4-6. A choice of three questions will be revealed in good time.

Deadline: Midnight CET 31 May 2013

All Essays are to be submitted in PDF or word format to richard_nowell@hotmail.com

Late Submission of Work

Penalties

On the day following the due date - 5 marks out of 100 deducted

On the 2^nd day following the due to date - 10 marks out of 100 deducted

On the 3^rd day following the due date - 15 marks out of 100 deducted

On the 4th day following the due date - 20 marks out of 100 deducted

After the 4^th day following the due date - all marks deducted

Exemptions

Penalties are waved on medical and compassionate grounds (e.g. familial bereavement) only; please do not enquire about the waving of penalties on other grounds incase refusal offends.

Feedback

Each student will be emailed individually with detailed personal feedback on his or her mid-term paper and final paper. This feedback is designed to be constructive so will spotlight strengths and any possible shortcomings.

Grading/Evaluation:

Grades from 1-4 will be awarded based on the following criteria:

	Argumentation/Understanding	Sources/Evidence	Communication
1 70<	Insightful, vigorous, and demonstrating considerable depth of understanding and a significant amount of original thought; addressing question directly through a wholly coherent synthesis of ideas; demonstrating a degree of mastery over subject; demonstrating a deep and thorough understanding of key concepts.	A wide range of sources consulted; sources employed with significant discrimination and sound judgment; thorough assessment of evidence; use of a broad range of examples.	Near-Faultless typography and layout; near-flawless turns of phrase and expression; sophisticated and precise vocabulary; clear structure; exemplary citation and bibliography.
2 55-69.9	Perceptive and insightful; some evidence of original thought; for the most part addressing question directly; mainly coherent synthesis of ideas; thorough and somewhat critical understanding of key concepts.	A fairly wide range of sources consulted; solid assessment of evidence; sophisticated use of a fairly broad range of examples.	Very Solid typography and layout; few errors in grammar; mainly sophisticated turns of phrase and expression; mostly clear structure; strong citation and bibliography.
3 40-54.9	Solid understanding addressed, for the most part, to the question; good synthesis of ideas; reasonably solid understanding of key concepts; evidence of gaps in knowledge and some minor misunderstandings of key concepts.	Several sources consulted; evidence of some assessment of evidence; use of mostly workable examples.	Good typography and layout; comprehensible and largely error-free grammar, turns of phrase, and expression; reasonable clearly structured; some attempt to provide citation and bibliography.
4 (Fail) <40	Barely if it all addressed to question; no real synthesis of ideas; mainly descriptive rather than analytical; weak and patchy understanding of key concepts; significant gaps in knowledge and misunderstanding of key concepts.