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Screen Cultures | Spring 2019

SYLLABUS|WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Class 1: Monday, February 11

Introduction to Screen Cultures

Reading: None

Viewing: Selected clips — chosen by the students — that beg the question: “Why and how does film move
us?”

ACT 1: INSTILLING FEAR: UNPACKING FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS IN (HORROR) FILM

Class 2: Thursday, February 14

The Neon Demon

Reading [13 pages]:

- Halberstam, Jack. “Sadism Still Demands a Story.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 13 Dec. 2015: 1-5.
Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Sadism-Still-Demands-a-Story/234536 [optional]
- Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema.” Visual and Other Pleasures. 2nd ed. London
and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 14-27. [13 pages]

Viewing: The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)

Class 3: Monday, February 18

The Neon Demon (continued)

Reading [10 pages]:

- Bastién, Angelica Jade. “Horror Is Not Defined by What Scares You.” Vulture 5 Dec. 2018: 1-4. Web. 10
Feb. 2019. https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/horror-is-not-defined-by-what-scares-you.html [4 pages]
- Williams, Linda. “When the Woman Looks.” Horror: The Film Reader. Ed. Mark Jancovich. London and
New York: Routledge, 2002. 61-66. [6 pages]
Viewing: The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)

Class 4: Thursday, February 21

Black Swan

Reading [16 pages]:

- Fisher, Mark. “The Weird and the Eerie (Beyond the Unheimlich).” The Weird and the Eerie. London:
Repeater Books, 2016. 8-13. [6 pages]
- Williams, Linda. “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess.” Film Quarterly 44.4 (1991): 2-13. [10
pages]

Viewing: Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

ACT 2: EXERCISING/EXORCISING FEAR: MAPPING RACE, GENDER, AND NATIONAL


TRAUMA IN AMERICAN (CINEMATIC) HISTORY

Class 5: Monday, February 25

Gone with the Wind

Reading [24 pages]:

- McPherson, Tara. “Romancing the South.” Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the
Imagined South. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. 39-65. [24 pages]

Viewing: Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) [Part 1 only]

Class 6: Thursday, February 28

Gone with the Wind (continued)

Reading [30 pages]:

- hooks, bell. “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.” Black Looks: Race and Representation.
Boston: South End Press, 1992. 115-131. [16 pages]
- Taylor, Helen. “The Racial Politics of Gone with the Wind.” Gone with the Wind (BFI Film Classics).
London: Palgrave, 2015. 70-88. [14 pages]

Viewing: Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) [Part 1 only]

Class 7: Monday, March 4

The Searchers

Reading [25 pages]:

- Courtney, Susan. “Looking for (Race and Gender) Trouble in Monument Valley.” Qui Parle 6.2 (1993):
97-130. [25 pages]

Viewing: The Searchers (John Wayne, 1956)


Class 8: Thursday, March 7

The Beguiled

Reading [23 pages]:

- Bastién, Angelica Jade. “How The Beguiled Subtly Tackles Race Even When You Don’t See It.” Vulture
10 July 2017: 1-4. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://www.vulture.com/2017/07/the-beguiled-subtly-tackles-race-
even-when-you-dont-see-it.html [4 pages]
- Botting, Fred. “Negative Aesthetics.” Gothic. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. 1-19. [19 pages]

Viewing: The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola, 2017)

Class 9: Monday, March 11

12 Years a Slave

Reading [19 pages]:

- Ball, Erica L. “The Unbearable Liminality of Blackness: Violence in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.”
Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora 119 (2016): 175-186. [12 pages]
- Ebiri, Bilge. “Horrendous Acts in a Beautiful Way: Behind the Scenes of 12 Years a Slave.” Vulture 13
Nov. 2013: 1-4. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://www.vulture.com/2013/11/behind-the-scenes-of-12-years-a-
slave.html [4 pages]
- Pecchenino, Daniel. “A Real American Horror Story: On Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.” Southern
Spaces 19 Feb. 2014: 1-3. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://southernspaces.org/2014/real-american-horror-
story-steve-mcqueens-12-years-slave [3 pages]

Viewing: 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)

Class 10: Thursday, March 14

Candyman

Reading [16 pages]:

- Kydd, Elspeth. “Guess Who Else Is Coming to Dinner? Racial/Sexual Hysteria in Candyman.” Cineaction
36 (1995): 63-72. [7 pages]
- Lazic, Manuela. “Before Get Out, There Was Candyman.” The Ringer 4 Oct. 2018: 1-9. Web. 10 Feb.
2019. https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/10/4/17933940/candyman-get-out-race-horror [9 pages]

Viewing: Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992)

Class 11: Monday, March 18

I Am Legend

Reading [19 pages]:

- King, Claire Sisco. “Legendary Troubles: Trauma, Masculinity, and Race in I Am Legend.” Millennial
Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema. Ed. Timothy Shary. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press, 2013. 243-264. [19 pages]
Viewing: I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)

Class 12: Thursday, March 21

Get Out

Reading [19 pages]:

- hooks, bell. “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston:
South End Press, 1992. 21-39. [19 pages]

Listening [44 minutes/optional]:

- Gross, Terry, and Jordan Peele, narrators. “Get Out Sprang from an Effort to Master Fear, Says Director
Jordan Peele.” Fresh Air 15 March 2017. Web. 10 Feb. 2019.
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/15/520130162/get-out-sprung-from-an-effort-to-master-
fear-says-director-jordan-peele [44 minutes/optional]

Viewing: Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

INTERMISSION

Monday, March 25: No class (Reading Week)

Thursday, March 28: No class (Reading Week)

Monday, April 1: No class (Jonathan is in Morocco)

Thursday, April 4: No class (Jonathan is in Morocco)

ACT 3: ENGENDERING FEAR: TRACING THE (DE)CONSTRUCTION OF THE CINEMATIC


SUBJECT FROM 1963 TO THE PRESENT

Class 13: Monday, April 8

Jackie

Reading [17 pages]:

- Bastién, Angelica Jade. “The Gore and Glory of Jackie.” The Outline 12 Jan. 2017: 1-3. Web. 10 Feb.
2019. https://theoutline.com/post/871/the-gore-and-glory-of-jackie [3 pages]
- Hirsch, Marianne, and Valerie Smith. “Feminism and Cultural Memory: An Introduction.” Signs 28.1
(2002): 1-19. [14 pages]

Viewing: Jackie (Pablo Larraín, 2016)

Class 14: Thursday, April 11

The Stepford Wives

Reading [16 pages]:


- Friedan, Betty. “The Feminine Mystique.” 1963. The Essential Feminist Reader. Ed. Estelle B. Freedman.
New York: The Modern Library, 2007. 269-282. [13 pages]
- Pilcher, Jane, and Imelda Whelehan. “Cyborg.” Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies. London and
Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publishing, 2004. 20-24. [3 pages]

Viewing: The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1975)

Class 15: Monday, April 15

Halloween

Reading [20 pages]:

- Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Horror: The Film Reader. Ed. Mark
Jancovich. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 77-89. [12 pages]
- Wood, Robin. “The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s.” Horror: The Film Reader. Ed. Mark
Jancovich. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 25-32. [8 pages]

Viewing: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

Class 16: Thursday, April 18

Aliens

Reading [22 pages]:

- Creed, Barbara. “Alien and the Monstrous Feminine.” Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary
Science Fiction Cinema. Ed. Annette Kuhn. London and New York: Verso, 1990. 128-141. [13 pages]
- —. “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection.” Horror: The Film Reader. Ed. Mark
Jancovich. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 67-76. [9 pages]

Viewing: Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)

Monday, April 22: No class (Easter Monday)

Class 17: Thursday, April 25

Fatal Attraction

Reading [34 pages]:

- Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Three Rivers Press,
1991. 1-15; 125-136. [25 pages]
- Jermyn, Deborah. “Rereading the Bitches from Hell: A Feminist Appropriation of the Female
Psychopath.” Screen 37.3 (1996): 251-258; 266-267. [9 pages]

Viewing: Fatal Attraction (Adrien Lyne, 1987)

Class 18: Monday, April 29

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Reading [22 pages]:


- Jeffords, Susan. “Can Masculinity Be Terminated?” The Film Cultures Reader. Ed. Graeme Turner.
London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 344-354. [11 pages]
- Neale, Steve. “Masculinity as Spectacle: Reflections on Men and Mainstream Cinema.” Screening the
Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema. Eds. Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark. London and
New York: Routledge, 1993. 9-20. [11 pages]

Viewing: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)

Class 19: Thursday, May 2

Hush

Reading [16 pages]:


Listening [33 minutes]:

- Newman, Geneveive, narrator. “Sonic Horror Geographies: Hush, Gender, and Disability.” The Coachella
Review 24 March 2017. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. http://thecoachellareview.com/wordpress/2017/03/24/sonic-
horror-geographies-hush-gender-and-disability/ [33 minutes]
- Sutton, Travis. “Avenging the Body: Disability in the Horror Film.” A Companion to the Horror Film. Ed.
Harry M. Benshoff. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. 73-88. [16 pages]

Viewing: Hush (Mike Flanagan, 2016)

Class 20: Monday, May 6

Cam

Reading [20 pages]:

- Mazzei, Isa. “Isa Mazzei, Screenwriter and Co-Creator of Netflix Thriller Cam, Talks about Sex Worker’s
Representation in Cinema.” ErikaLust 19 Jan. 2019: 1-2. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://erikalust.com/so-you-
wanna-put-a-sex-worker-in-your-movie-the-dos-and-donts-of-sex-worker-in-your-movie-isa-mazzei/ [2
pages]
- Och, Dana. “Beyond Surveillance: Questions of the Real in the Neopostmodern Horror Film.” Style and
Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film. Ed. Wickham Clayton. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 195-
212. [15 pages]
- Rife, Katie. “One Year after Get Out, Another Social Thriller Deserves Oscar Love for Its Script.” The AV
Club 19 Jan. 2018: 1-3. Web. 10 Feb. 2019. https://film.avclub.com/one-year-after-get-out-another-social-
thriller-deserve-1831841939 [3 pages]

Viewing: Cam (Daniel Goldhaber, 2018)

Class 21: Thursday, May 9

Annihilation

Reading: No new reading is assigned; students who choose to attend this class are encouraged to go over the
notes they took in classes 2-21 (and revisit the accompanying PowerPoint presentations).

Viewing: Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018)


Class 22: Monday, May 13

Podcast Festival

Optional class: Re-winding Screen Cultures: Tuesday, May 14, 18:00-20:00

Gone Girl

Reading: No new reading is assigned; students who choose to attend this class are encouraged to go over the
notes they took in classes 2-21 (and revisit the accompanying PowerPoint presentations).

Viewing: Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)

Class 23: Thursday, May 16

Final Exam

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