Revised Syllabus

EN 326 Topics in American Cinema: the Western

CRN: 20347 Fall 2014

W/F 11:30-12:45: Duffy 201

Wendy Chapman Peek

Office: Cushing-Martin 123

508-565-1706

wpeek@stonehill.edu

Office Hours: Mondays 2-4; Wednesdays and Fridays by appt.

ERes password: Cowboy

Objective: This course will survey major themes and development of the most popular film genre in American cinema, the Western.  Our focus will be on three distinct periods in the development of the genre: Making Myths, Challenging Myths, Busting Myths. In addition, we will work on acquiring the skills of filmic analysis and effective written and spoken communication.

Assignments and Grades:

7 1-2 Page Homework Essays on specified topics and including aspects of production and design using film terms, 45% total (the lowest 4 grades are dropped)

For various films, I will ask you to write roughly a page or more about a certain aspect of film production in the assigned film.  These assignments serve to increase your familiarity with film language, to encourage your analytic skills, and to develop your ability to express yourself clearly and concisely.

Expect to discuss this work with your colleagues in class.

3 Film Terms quizzes (15% total)

1 Research Paper (10 pp. min.; 25 % of final grade) on one of following general topics: 1) the  history of an event represented on film (e. g. the building of America's railroads, the Johnson County War) and an argument about the film's engagement with the historical events; 2) the work of a writer, director or actor whose work was a strong influence in the development of the Western genre; 3) a study of the source material for a film and an argument about the film’s engagement with its source.  Your essay will use the research to inform an argument about the representation of that event, person, or text.  You may submit a draft of the paper for my comments.

For this paper, the research expectations are:

1.    For a history paper, begin by looking for an entry in the BFI Companion to the Western.  From there, consult with the professor about finding useful materials.  I expect you to read at least 1 book about the topic or 4 articles (a chapter in a book counts as 1 article).

2.    For a paper on a person, you will need to view in total 3 Westerns by or with that person (you cannot include films we watched in class toward that total). Then read their entry in the BFI Companion to the Western.  From there, look at the Stonehill library collection for biographies or critical studies of that person.  You might also look for autobiographies (be sure to read them critically).  Consult with the professor in selecting materials.  I expect you to read at least 1 book about the person or 4 articles (a chapter in a book counts as 1 article).

3.    If using source material, you may need to do some research to identify the source text.  If your source text is a short story, you will also need to supplement that reading with 3 critical articles about the film.

Expect to discuss this work with your colleagues in class.

1 presentation (you will receive a written evaluation)

Your aim is to lead—for 30 minutes--a lively and informed discussion about your film, bringing out aspects of the film that relate to the genre of the Western, to its dominant themes, to the structure of the course, to other films we’ve studied.  You will lead discussion by asking open-ended questions—that is, without clear “yes” or “no” answers--and soliciting discussion about clips you have selected.  Ask questions that will promote discussion from two or more perspectives AND that can be substantiated with citations from the text.

Presentations receiving the highest evaluations will integrate readings, film, and cinema terms in leading a vigorous discussion. 

Please note that if you fail to show up for your presentation, your final course grade will drop one full letter grade.

Review the detailed instructions about presentations at the link on the right, “Instructions for Presentations.”

A comprehensive final exam, 15%

Week 1
A29
Intro
How to read a Western
The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter; 1903)

Week 2
S3
Read for class: Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” ERes and
http://www.honorshumanities.umd.edu/205%20Readings.pdf

Homework Essay Topic 1: See link on right-hand side of blog homepage for “Instructions for Turner reading” which contains guidelines for Homework Essay 1.

View for class: Union Pacific (Cecil B. DeMille, 1939)

Presenter: Peek

S5
Film Terms: Mise-en-scène

View in class: Barsam DVD Looking at Movies, “Setting and Expression” & “Lighting and Familiar Image”

Opt. Read Barsam Looking at Movies, 3rd ed. Chapter 5 Looking at Movies, "Mise-en-scène" on reserve in library

Week 3
S10  Making myth: the salvific frontier
View for class: Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

Read for class: Guy de Maupassant, “Boule de Suif [Ball of Fat]”

"Boule de Suif" is available online at gutenberg.org: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21327/21327-h/21327-h.htm.  Please use this translation so that we all have the same text.

Presenter: Peek

Homework Essay Topic 2: Though Stagecoach is modeled on the plot of “Boule de Suif,” what effect, if any, does the presence of the Western frontier, with all its concomitant associations,  have on either the plot of the story and the significance of its events in Stagecoach?

Some questions to consider while watching the film:
•      What conventions or themes germane to the Western genre do you see in this film?
•      What does the title mean in relation to the story?
•      Why does the movie start the way it does?
•      When was the film made and how does this date affect your interpretation of it?
•      How do the opening credits give the viewer clues about how to view the film?
•      Why does the film conclude with the image it does?
•      Is there a pattern of striking camera movement, perhaps long shots or dissolves or abrupt transitions?                                              
•      Which three or four sequences are the most important and why?  What criteria are you using in counting these sequences as “important”?

S12
Film Terms: Lighting, Camera Distance
View in class: Barsam DVD, "Lighting" and "Shot Types and Implied Proximity"
Opt. Read Looking at Movies, Chapter 6, “Cinematography” on reserve in library

Week 4
S17
Prof out sick

S19 Making myth: Cattlemen v. Cowboys
View for class: Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
Read for class: Excerpt from Blake Allmendinger, The Cowboy: representations of labor in an American work culture (handout)
Discussion Question:  What myths of the cowboy, as discussed by Allmendinger, do you see in Red River?
Presenter: Peek

Week 5

S24

Finish discussing Red River

S26

Film Terms: Sound

            Examples: The 39 Steps (YouTube), The Searchers, Sideways, Red River, Mildred Pierce, Rear Window…

Opt. Read Barsam Looking at Movies on reserve in library, Chapter 9 "Sound"

Week 6

O1 Making Myth: the process of civilization

View for class: My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

Read for class: Richard Slotkin “Regeneration through Violence: the language of myth,” from Gunfighter Nation, pp. 10-16. ERes

Presenter: Tom

Homework Essay Topic 3: My Darling Clementine Assignment, 1-2 pp.

Select from My Darling Clementine either the Hamlet scene or Chihuahua’s surgery scene (which is divided by the death of Billy Clanton into two separate scenes; you can talk about both of the scenes of her surgery). If you write on the Hamlet scene, feel free to look at the Shakespearean text.

Develop a thesis about the significance of the scene as developed by at least two of the following elements:  lighting, mise-en-scène (including character placement, production design, costuming, etc.), camera distance, and sound.  If you discuss two aspects of mise-en-scène alone, that will be fine.

03

Film Terms Quiz #1 on mise-en-scène, lighting, camera distance, sound

Week 7

08 Making Myth: the evolution of democracy

View for class: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

Read for class:

1. Jim Kitses, “Authorship and Genre: Notes on the Western” from The Western Reader, pp. 57-68 ERes

2. Richard Slotkin, “’Progressives’ and ‘Populists,’” from Gunfighter Nation pp. 22-24 (stop at end of paragraph beginning “As the political struggles…”). ERes

Presenter: Jess

010

Film Terms: Camera movement and angles

View in class: Barsam DVD Looking at Movie Chapter 6 "Camera Angles" and "The Moving Camera"

Week 8

015 Making Myth: the good man with a gun

View for class: Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

Read for class:

Robert Warshow, “Movie Chronicle: the Westerner,” from The Western Reader, ed. Jim Kitses and Gregg Rickman, pp. 35-40 (stop at …”but his defeat.”); 46 (from paragraph starting “These attitudes, however…” to end). ERes

Homework Essay Topic 4: Select a scene from Shane that depicts one of Kitses' "antinomies" (from p. 59), and discuss how the film dramatizes this “antinomy” through editing, lighting, camera angle or distance.

OR: Select part of Warshow’s argument about the “Westerner.”  Does Shane fit this model?  Closely analyze a scene that either endorses or contradicts Warshow’s argument.

Presenter: Kate

017

Film Terms: Camera Lens

View in class: Barsam DVD Looking at Movies, Chapter 6, "Focal Length"

Week 9

022 Challenging Myth: “I wasn’t at the Surrender.  Didn’t turn no swords into plowshares neither.”

View for class: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Read for class: Scott Simmon, “The Sleep of Death” and “My Darling Clementine and the Fight with Film Noir” from The Invention of the Western Film, pp. 193-208.  ERes

Discuss Research Paper

Presenter: Peek

024

Film Terms Quiz #2

Read for class: Richard Slotkin,  pp. 461-471 (read to bottom of the page) from Gunfighter Nation. ERes

Optional Reading:

2. Peter Lehman, “’You Couldn’t Hit it on the Nose’: the Limits of Knowledge in and of The Searchers” from The Searchers: Essays and Reflections on John Ford's Classic Western, ed. Arthur Eckstein and Peter Lehman, pp. 239-263. ERes

--A great article, so if you're really into The Searchers, enjoy.

Week 10

O29 Challenging Myth: “Hunting a man to kill him? You’re beginning to like it.”

View for class: Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

Read for class: Jeanine Basinger, pp. 83-89; 97-102 from Anthony Mann (Twayne Pubs 1979).  ERes (note that this reading includes pp. 19-33 which you do not need to read).

Presenter: Peek

Deadline for submitting a paragraph describing your topic for the research paper and an annotated bibliography for the paper. Do consult with me before you finalize the works on your bibliography.

031

Film Terms: Editing, Goulet terms 86-100

View in class: Barsam DVD Looking at Movies,

Chapter 8, "The Evolution of Editing: Montage,"(ca. 14:00) and "The 180-Degree Rule"(ca. 5:00)

Homework Essay Topic 5:  Pick a scene from Winchester '73 and in 1-2 pages (250-500 words or so) do a close reading of the scene focusing on one of these four formal techniques as discussed in Basinger's analysis from pp. 85-87 of the reading:

1) the use of landscape and use of space;

2) composition;

3) editing;

OR

4) camera movement.

Week 11

N5 Challenging Myth: [high-pitched wail from Jimmy Stewart]

View for class: The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)

Presenter: Nina

N7

Film Terms: Editing, Goulet terms 101-113
Barsam: “The Evolution of Editing: Continuity and Classical Cutting," (ca. 14:00)

Homework Essay Topic 6:

Douglas Pye, in "The Collapse of Fantasy: Masculinity in the Westerns of Anthony Mann,” argues that in Mann’s films the “traditional life of male independence is characterized as savage, neurotic, regressive…the ideal man, the fantasy figure of supreme completeness is transformed into a nightmare of psychological trauma, violence, and hysteria” (Pye 170).

Pick a scene that demonstrates this point and analyze it closely with reference to relevant elements of mise-en-scéne, sound, camera movement, editing, etc.

Deadline for optional drafts of Research paper

Week 12

N12 Challenging Myth: “Safe? Who knows what’s safe?”

View for class: 3:10 from Yuma (Delmer Daves, 1957)—Note: this is the ORIGINAL 3:10 to Yuma

Read for class: Read: Robert G. Porfirio “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir” in Film Noir Reader, ed. Alain Silver and James Ursini ERes

Presenter: Paul

N14

Film Terms: Special Effects

Week 13

N19

Busting Myths: "I got poetry in me!"

View for class: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

Read for class:

Presenter:  Peter

N21 
Hand out topic for final exam

Homework Essay Topic 7:  Pick a scene for close analysis that best demonstrates Altman’s revision of Western themes and ideologies.  Discuss this difference with reference to relevant elements of mise-en-scène, sound, camera movement, editing, etc.    Hint #1: If you argue that Altman revises the tradition, it can be helpful to quote specific moments from traditional westerns with which his work contrasts. Hint #2: You might also listen to the commentary track for the scene you select.

Research Paper due— or after Thanksgiving, your choice.

Informal presentations on your topics

N26 THANKSGIVING

N28 THANKSGIVING

Week 14

D3 Busting Myths: “We're gonna stick together, just like it used to be! When you side with a man, you stay with him! And if you can't do that, you're like some animal, you're finished! We're finished! All of us!”

View for class: The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

Read for class: Jim Kitses, “Sam Peckinpah: The Savage Eye” from Horizons West (2004 edition), pp. 201-205; 216-223 ERes

Presenter: Peek

D5

Film Terms Quiz #3

Week 15

D10 Busting Myths: “You shoot to kill, you better hit the heart.”

View for class: A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1967) or Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)

Read for class: Jay Hoberman, “Da Pasta” ERes

Presenter: Peek

Policies on Papers and Quizzes:

Format:

1) Format your papers with 1" margins on all sides, double-spaced, and fonts no larger than 12 point (scaled roughly to Times New Roman size). Cover sheets are a waste of paper, but a thoughtful title is always appreciated.

2) It is not necessary to provide a “Works Cited” page for assigned readings. If you use materials not explicitly assigned in class, cite them using MLA Style (the basics of which: parenthetical references with a Works Cited page). When in doubt, refer to The Concise Wadsworth Handbook.

Grading Rubric for Papers

Grading Guidelines: I give out numerical rather than alphabetical grades. The scale is:

97 = A+

93 = A

90 = A-

87 = B+

83 = B

80 = B-

77 = C+

73 = C

70 = C-

67 = D+

63 = D

60 = D-

59 & below = F

F = You fail to turn in the paper, or your paper lacks a thesis, or you have no arguments or evidence in defense of your thesis. Simply completing the work does not guarantee a passing grade.

D = A thesis with some supporting arguments and examples/quotations. A “D” signifies serious problems with the organization of the argument (weak topic sentences, unconvincing examples, no transitions between ideas) and/or with expression (diction, wordiness, poor grammar, mechanical errors, lack of necessary specifics).

C = A clear thesis, with some convincing supporting arguments with examples/quotations. Some acknowledgment of relevant objections, if appropriate. A “C” indicates that there are problems with organization and/or developments of the thesis, although the writing may be clear and the argument convincing.

B = A clear thesis, with fully developed and convincing supporting arguments. Appropriate and helpful examples/quotations. Careful attention to details of expression, whether verbal or visual. Sensitivity to the subtleties of the text. You demonstrate that you are a careful reader as well as a competent writer. Consideration and refutation of relevant objections, if appropriate. Free of mechanical errors.

A = Everything required for a B, plus significant, original thought. The thesis and analysis in an “A” paper are sophisticated, complex, subtle. In particular, the work with quotations closely reads and builds on the ideas in the quotations.

Grading Rubric for Weekly Homework

You must turn in the weekly homework in person.  The 4 lowest grades will be dropped.

To help in doing your best work, make sure that you:

•      demonstrate intellectual acuity and careful thought, especially in the selection of points or evidence to emphasize

•      show that you're working to increase the quality of your analyses

•      engage in interpretive bravery

•      write in complete sentences

•      use film terms when appropriate

•      provide accurate detail and quote accurately (and use quotations to support your points)

•      take pains to polish your prose, and

•      type your comments along with the questions

Policies on late papers and missed quizzes

1) The grade on late papers and homework will drop 10 points per calendar day that the paper is late. A paper is considered late if it is turned in after the end of class on the day it is due.

2) If illness prevents you from turning your written work in on time, email me as soon as possible, and we’ll make appropriate arrangements. If you have a computer draft of a paper, you may email that to me on the due date.

3) You must complete all of the assignments to pass the class (even if they are turned in so late that they cannot receive a passing grade).

4) If you are absent on the day of a quiz, it is your responsibility to speak with me about re-taking the quiz within 3 days of the original quiz. Please note that the make-up quiz will be more challenging than the original quiz.

5) I encourage you to bring rough drafts to my office hours for discussion. Sometimes we can have even more productive meetings if several class members come together to these meetings. I cannot read emailed drafts (unless I specifically ask for them).

6) Homework must be turned in in class (which means you have to be there too).

Attendance Policy:

Attend every class. We have a lot of ground to cover in a very short amount of time. If you become ill during the semester, send me an email immediately. Please find a friendly face in class to take notes for you and to collect or turn in any handouts or assignments that are due.

Note, too, that you will not be able to turn in the required homework unless you attend class.

If you encounter circumstances that make it difficult to abide by this policy, come and talk to me. An excessive number of absences will have a deleterious effect on your final grade. It is necessary, though not sufficient, that you attend at least 75% of the classes for a passing grade.

Diversity and inclusion: Stonehill College embraces the diversity of students, faculty, and staff, honors the inherent dignity of each individual, and welcomes their unique cultural and religious experiences, beliefs, and perspectives. We all benefit from a diverse living and learning environment, and the sharing of differences in ideas, experiences, and beliefs help us shape our own perspectives. Course content and campus discussions will heighten your awareness to these differences.

The Office of Intercultural Affairs (Duffy 149) serves as an accessible resource to anyone seeking support or with questions about diversity and inclusion at Stonehill. If you are a witness to or experience acts of bias at Stonehill or would like to learn more about how we address bias incidents, please email diversity@stonehill.edu.

Academic Integrity:

(From the The Hill Book): Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following actions:

a) presenting another's work as if it were one's own;

b) failing to acknowledge or document a source even if the action is unintended (i. e. plagiarism)

[N. B. This can take various forms: 1) using the writer's exact words; 2) paraphrasing the argument; 3) even following the general outline or drift of the argument];

c) giving or receiving, or attempting to give or receive, unauthorized assistance or information in an assignment or examination;

d) fabricating data;

e) submitting the same assignment in two or more courses without prior permission of the respective instructors; or

f) having another person write a paper or sit for an examination.

In the class, a violation of the Academic Integrity policy will result in a failing grade for the course.

English Department Policy on Academic Integrity

In support of Stonehill College’s Academic Integrity Policy, the English Department requires that faculty notify the Director of Academic Services about every student who has plagiarized or violated the Academic Honor Code in any manner. All members of the College community have the responsibility to be familiar with and to follow the College’s policy on academic integrity. Since the actions that constitute violation of the policy are covered in many places, in The Hill Book and in presentations at orientation, pleading ignorance will not work. If you have questions about what constitutes a violation of the code or how to incorporate outside sources in your work, please consult with your professor before you turn in your assignments.

Students with documented disabilities: If you are seeking classroom accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you are required to register with the Center for Academic Achievement, located in Duffy 109. To receive academic accommodations for this class, please request an accommodation letter from the Center for Academic Achievement and meet with me at the beginning of the semester.