Film 2
Dr. Les WRIGHT Office: 617 928 7314 MON 6‑9 PM
Office: ATB 240 Email: lwright@mountida.edu Spring 2004
HT 345 America on Film 3 credits
Representing Class, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Course Description
In this course students will examine current social issue involving social diversity, in particular from the perspective of its underpinnings embedded in social class. The course is designed to assist students in appreciating the role of the humanities in creating, articulating and challenging social issues and in developing a historical awareness of American society and its intertwining multicultural diversity. This course is open to all senior-college students, and is especially recommended for Criminal Justice majors.
Required Texts
America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, Benshoff and Griffin ISBN 0631225838
The Social Construction of Difference and Equality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, Ore ISBN 0767416708
Teaching Procedures
Weekly film screenings, lectures, and in-class discussions of assigned readings will be supplemented through weekly written assignments. The tests and papers in this course will require the student to synthesize materials she or he has become familiar with in class lectures and presentations.
Instructional Objectives
To introduce the student to the historical development of arbitrary social hierarchies of contemporary US American culture, based on class, race, and gender, to explore how the dynamic tension between life and art (literature) create, reinforce, and change the other, and to make the student aware of the process of cultural inheritance of unexamined social and moral values. To increase the student’s ability to communicate clearly and effectively, to access relevant information, to work independently and in a group, and to instill leadership skills, such as initiative, risk-taking, and independent decision-making, through involvement with the course. To bring the student to infer, deduce, extrapolate, and draw complex connections between the student’s world, contemporary society, the broader cultural and historical context, and the realm of humanities scholarship.
Grading and Attendance *
Students are required to attend all classes. (See the instructor in case of medical or other emergency.) After two absences the student will receive an attendance warning. Additional absences may result in the student being withdrawn from this course without further recourse. Failure to hand in the critical paper will also result in an automatic F for the course. Student grades will be based on the following:
| 45% | 20% | 20% | 15% |
| Test 1 15%
Test 2 15% Test 3 15% |
Research Paper
word count: 3,000-3,500 words |
Weekly Quiz (x 10) 20% | Attendance 10% |
| NOTE: All students are expected to remain in class for the complete duration of all in-class screenings. This is reflected both in attendance and in weekly quizzes. | |||
There are numerous support facilities and opportunities at Mount Ida, including a tutoring program and student-initiated meetings with the instructor. When all avenues have been exhausted, students unable to maintain minimum academic performance will be encouraged to withdraw from the course.
Dr. Les WRIGHT Office: 617 928 7314 MON 6‑9 PM
Office: ATB 240 Email: lwright@mountida.edu Spring 2004
HT 345 America on Film 3 credits
Representing Class, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
SYLLABUS
| WEEK | Chapter / Topic | In-Class Film | Homework / Film / Handouts |
| 1
01/26 |
1 Introduction:
|
The Lion King (1994) | |
| 2
02/02 |
2 Overview of Hollywood
3. Concept of Whiteness |
Focus (2001) | Focus (2001) |
| 3
02/09 |
4 African Americans | Bamboozled (2000) | Bamboozled (2000) |
| 4 | NO CLASS | Presidents Day | |
| 5
02/23 |
5 Native Americans | Smoke Signals (1998) | Smoke Signals (1998) |
| 6
03/01 |
6 Asian Americans | Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989) | Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989) |
| 7
03/08 |
7 Latinos | My Family/Mi Familia (1995) | My Family/Mi Familia (1995) |
| 8
03/22 |
8 Class & Classical Hollywood Cinema | The Grapes of Wrath (1940) | The Grapes of Wrath (1940) |
| 9
03/29 |
9 Class Struggle after the Great Depression | Bulworth (1998) | Bulworth (1998) |
| 10
04/05 |
10 Women in Classical Hollywood Film\11 Visual Parameters of Women | All That Heaven Allows (1955) | All That Heaven Allows (1955) |
| 11
04/12 |
12 Masculinity Classical Hollywood Film | Dead Reckoning (1947) | Dead Reckoning (1947) |
| 12 | NO CLASS | Patriots Day | |
| 13
04/26 |
13 Gender in Film Since 1960 | Ballad of Little Jo (1993) | Ballad of Little Jo (1993) |
| 14
05/03 |
14 Sexual Identities and Classical Hollywood Film | Celluloid Closet (1995) | Celluloid Closet (1995) |
| 15
05/10 |
15 Sexualities on Film Since the Sexual Revolution | Go Fish (1995) | Go Fish (1995) |
