Fall 2009
Introductory Literature Courses
ENGL 190 02 Shakespearean Tragedy on Screen
MWF 09:00 am-09:50 am
Professor Scott Newstok
F4, F2i
What happens when Shakespearean tragedies written for a 17th-century theatre audience get ‘translated’ to a 20th-century cinematic medium? What interpretative strategies shape film adaptations? This course will survey Shakespeare on screen from a range of periods, directors, nations, and media in order to confront the full span of adaptation, and to complicate conventional notions of fidelity to the original text. After reading the plays closely, we will evaluate filmed versions of four major tragedies: Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear; we will also attend a live performance of Julius Caesar in Memphis. Final research projects require that students explore a contemporary screen adaptation of one play, in dialogue with earlier versions we viewed as a class. Weekly evening screening “lab” mandatory. Counts toward the English major as pre-1800 literature course. Limited to First-Years and Sophomores Only.
Film Studies Courses
ENGL 202 01 Introduction to Cinema
MWF 12:00 pm-12:50 pm
ENGL 202 02 Introduction to Cinema
MWF 01:00 pm-01:50 pm
Professor Rashna Richards
This course introduces students to the critical tools involved in the analysis of moving-image media such as film, video, and television. Students will compose essays that demonstrate a historically informed grasp of cinema’s formal techniques and how these produce meaning for spectators. Prerequisites: English 151 or equivalent. All students must attend a weekly screening.
ENGL 381 01 Advanced Topics in Film
Topic: From Hollywood to Bollywood: Cross-Cultural Remakes and Transnational Media Flows
TR 02:00 pm-03:15 pm
W 07:00 pm-09:30 pm
Professor Rashna Richards
Remakes have always been popular in Hollywood; they are usually safe commercial bets, repeating successful formulas and emphasizing cinema′s ability to shape and reshape the cultural imagination. They might even be seen, as Leo Braudy writes, to metaphorically reflect "the history and culture of this self-made and self-remade country." But what about remakes that cross cultural and national boundaries? How do they translate and appropriate foreign materials? How do they negotiate the balance between repetition and difference? This course will consider the aesthetic and ideological dynamics of cross-cultural remakes. We will begin the semester with a variety of historical, theoretical, and critical perspectives on the remake as a formative genre in filmmaking. Then, we will focus on Bollywood cinema′s appropriations of Hollywood films. Remaking a Hollywood film in Bollywood involves much more than simply translating it into Hindi. Cross-cultural remakes recast, adapt, and make over American popular culture, and such cinematic border crossings have significant implications for our understanding of how cultures embrace and resist, borrow from and interact with each other in an era of globalization. Rather than regarding these usually unlicensed Bollywood remakes as uncritical homage or derivative plagiarism, we will examine them within wider debates about the transnational flows of media; the intersecting, intertextual nature of cinematic productions; and the hybridizing character of cultural exchange. Film pairings may include Scarface to Agneepath, Hitch to Partner, Kramer vs. Kramer to Akele Hum Akele Tum, and if it′s released in time, the remake of Wedding Crashers. Prerequisites: Any 200-level film class or permission from the instructor.
Introductory and Advanced Writing Courses
ENGL 204 01 Introduction to Screenwriting
TR 12:30 pm-01:45 pm
Professor Barrett Hathcock
An introduction to the basic three-act film structure. Students will read and view various screenplays and films, and develop their own film treatment into a full-length script. Prerequisites: Must have taken a creative writing or film studies class or received permission from the instructor.
Chinese Studies Courses
CHIN 220 01 Contemporary Chinese Cinema
MWF 9:00 am - 9:50 am
With the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese cinema has consolidated its position as a significant force in international cinema and global media. While you enjoy extraordinary cinematic images on screen, this course also entices you with vivid illustrations of ancient Chinese civilization and contemporary Chinese society. More amazingly, by developing an understanding of Chinese traditions, beliefs, and values, you will seize the rapture of recognition of common humanities…However, a globally acclaimed film could be vehemently criticized or fall into oblivion in domestic China. Indeed, a comparative perspective will be adopted in the course. Therefore, your idea matters. All readings and discussion in English. No prerequisites required. Meets the requirement of F5. For more information, please contact Xiaoling Shi at shixiaoling@hotmail.com.