Film as Literature Spring 2016

Please refer to the week-by-week below to keep on track in the course. Make sure you have read the textbook
pages and articles by each Friday; we will discuss them that day, and you will have a quiz on them (along with
Week Film
Pattern
LiteratureArticles/Suppl
Textbook the
pages
Assignments
due
other materials
from the week).
There will also
be class work throughout
weeks not
listed.
Related Focus emental Texts assigned (due
(Friday)
Thursday each
week/quizzed
Friday)
1

None

The Matrix

Film
terminology;
genres; literary
terms
Heros
Journey

Source
material;
theme

Chapter 4: Miseen-Scene (pgs.

118-163)

Film Terms
Reference Sheet
Quiz 1/ Film v.
Literature Debate

Allegory of the
Cave

Chapter 5:
Cinematography
(pgs. 167-218)

Observation Chart
Stages of the
Heros Journey map
for Neo
Quiz 2
/Philosophical
Chairs

Spirited
Away

Psycho

Heros
Journey

Solving a
Mystery

Symbols and
Influence of
Shintoism

Spirited Away:
Film of the
fantastic and
evolving
Japanese folk
symbols

The Animated
Film: pgs. 382-390

Parallel stories

Psycho and
Priming the
Audience

Chapter 2: Film
Form (pgs. 56-74)

Observation Chart
Quiz 3
/Philosophical
Chairs

Observation Chart
Quiz 4
/Philosophical
Chairs

Beasts of
the
Southern
Wild

Mad Max:
Fury Road

The Lives
of Others

Jaws

Bildungsroman

Mood

The Story
Behind Beasts
of the
Southern Wild

Chapter 3:
Narrative as a
Formal System
(pgs. 78-97)

Observation Chart

Writing a Critical
Analysis of a Film:
pgs. 443-445

Film Criticism of
Mad Max

You Must
Remember
This: The Lives
of Others and
the Cinematic
Imagination

Chapter 9: Film
Genres (pgs. 328346)

Observation Chart

Jaws,
Ideology and

NONE

Observation Chart

Performance
task: Film
criticism
Historical
Fiction

Summer
Blockbuster

Character
development

Flight and
Pursuit

Quiz 5
/Philosophical
Chairs

Quiz 6
/Philosophical
Chairs

Film Theory

Les
Miserable
s

Overcoming
Obstacles

The
Godfather,
Part 1

Devolution

The
Godfather,
Part 1, 2

Devolution

12

The
Godfather,
Part 2

Devolution

Performance
task: Film
criticism of
your choice

Writing a Critical
Analysis of a Film:
pgs. 443-445

Film criticism of film

of your choice

13

About a
Boy

Personal
growth

Narrative arc

NONE

Observation Chart

10

11

Character
development

Quiz 7
/Philosophical
Chairs

Coming into
power

Chapter 7: Sound
in the Cinema
(pgs. 269-284)

Observation Chart

NONE

Observation Chart

Quiz 8
/Philosophical
Chairs

Quiz 9
/Philosophical
Chairs
Flashback

Patterns of
Corruption

NONE

Observation Chart
Quiz 10
/Philosphical Chairs

Quiz 11
/Philosphical Chairs
14

15

16

Cave of
Forgotten
Dreams

Discovery

Grand
Budapest
Hotel

Making
Order of
Chaos

Nostalgia
for the
Light

Remembran
ce

Persuasion;
Appeals;
Thesis

Cinema
Returns to Its
Source:
Werner
Herzogs Cave
of Forgotten
Dreams

Chapter 10:
Documentary Film
(pgs. 349-359)

Observation Chart

Story within a
story within a
story; Flight
and Pursuit

NONE

Observation Chart

Symbols

NONE

Quiz 12
/Philosophical
Chairs

Quiz 13
/Philosophical
Chairs
Observation Chart
Ethos, Logos,
Pathos Foldable
Quiz 14
/Philosophical
Chairs

17

Casablanc
a

Lost Love

Character
development

Chapter 1: Film as
Art (pgs. 8-22, 28-

Observation Chart

18

None

Performance
Task (make
film using
pattern)

41)

Quiz 15
/Philosophical
Chairs

NONE

Final Performance
Task: Short Film