Freshman Seminar - Fall 1998
Prof. Nancy Mellerski
Bosler M-05 Ext. 1248
e-mail: mellersk@dickinson.edu
Office hours: 9 MWF
This course will look at the ways in which certain American phenomena have been shaped into myth and presented to us in popular film. We will observe how the complex historical realities of the western experience, the culture of criminality, and the nation's participation in wars in the twentieth century have given rise to mythic figures--the cowboy, the outlaw, the soldier--made familiar to us in movies and reinterpreted over time. Why do such characters continue to fascinate us? How is their popularity related to twentieth century American culture? What collective values, aspirations and experiences are articulated by these figures? What role does genre play in forming and transmitting the myths we are studying? To answer these questions, as well as many others, we will be viewing, analyzing and assessing the significance of a number of films produced from the 1930s through the 1990s, using a variety of critical approaches. To provide some contrast and points of reference, we will read two novels, a text on the cultural importance of film, and several smaller pieces dealing with the nature of American myth.
This course will operate as a seminar, that is, a continuous communal dialogue. It is emphatically NOT a lecture class, which means that at all times you will be expected and encouraged to share your ideas with your classmates. You will be asked to keep an electronic journal containing notes on pre-determined questions, library research, brainstorming exercises, questions and responses arising from readings and viewings, tentative answers to questions posed, and any reflections and insights that occur to you as the semester unfolds. These journals will be shared among all members of the seminar by e-mail. Class discussions will usually be led by students. You will do a great deal of writing in this course, both informal and formal, the latter through a process of drafts and revisions subject to constructive peer comments as well as grading by me.
Selected readings in handouts.
Click on any of the above films to go to the electronic journal questions.
Your seminar grade will be based on four written essays (the last two weighted more heavily than the first two) for a total of 70%, and on the regularity and quality of your contribution to classroom work, of which the electronic journal is considered a part (30%). Because students will be reading each other's papers in the course, it is essential that work be ready on the assigned date. Late papers will be penalized one-half grade for each day overdue.
