English 4109:

Film as Literature - Cinematic Representations of Youth

October      November      December


( er ) = electronic reserve on library website

Introduction to Teen Film

August

23
Introduction to course, policies, etc.




25 The Beginnings of Youth on Film: Exploitation vs. Edification

Reading: Doherty, "American Movies as a Less-than-Mass Medium" (er p.1-12);
                Corrigan, "Beginning to Think" (Chapter 2)




30
The Social Problem of Youth: The Twenties and Thirties

Reading: Palladino, "The High School Age"(er p. 3-15), "A New Deal for Youth" (er p.35-46); Quart, "A Second Look" (er p.55)

Screening: Boys Town (Taurog, 1938)


September

1
Dangerous Impressions

Reading: Forman, "The Path to Delinquency" (er p.179-195);
                Corrigan, "Film Terms and Topics" (Chapter 3)

Group Discussion Leaders #1

Writing Workshop




6
The American Teen-Age: The Fifties

Reading: Gilbert, "A Problem of Behavior" (er p.11-23); Considine, "Cinema of Adolescence" (er p.118-25)

Screening: Blackboard Jungle (Brooks, 1955)




8
The J.D.

Reading: Gilbert, "Rehearsal for a Crime Wave" (er p.24-41)

Group Discussion Leaders #2




13
Birth of a Counter-Culture: The Sixties

Reading: Goodman, "Introduction" to Growing Up Absurd (er p.3-16)
                 Friedenberg, "Adolescence in an Open Society" (er p.4-26)

Screening: Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969)




15
Conformity and Anti-Conformity

Reading: Palladino, "Lies My Father Told Me" (er p.207-23); begin reading A Clockwork Orange

Group Discussion Leaders #3

Formal Response Due




20
Fall-out and Aftermath: The Seventies

Reading: Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

Screening: Clockwork Orange


22
Post-Vietnam and Global Youth

Reading: Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (cont.)

Group Discussion Leaders #4




27
Ferris Bueller, You're My Hero: The Eighties

Reading: Gaines, "The Kids in the Basement" (er p.15-38)

Screening: The Breakfast Club (Hughes, 1985)




29
Teenage Wasteland?

Reading: Gaines, "Us and Them" (er p.90-113)

Group Discussion Leaders #5




October



Genre Theory

4
Genre Theory and Film

Reading: Schatz, "Film Genres and the Genre Film" (er p.14-36)

Introduce Genre Response Paper




6 Midterm Exam




11
Genre and Teens

Reading: Altman, "Genre and Culture" (er p.328-339)

Screening: Rebel Without a Cause (Ray, 1955)




13
Themes and Style

Reading: Rapping, "Hollywood's Youth Cult Films" (er p.14-19)

Group Discussion Leaders #6

LAST DAY to withdraw with grade of W




18
The Impossibility of Genre Borders

Reading: Schatz, "Generic Evolution: Patterns of Increasing Self-Consciousness" (er p.36-41)

Screening: Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)

Group Discussion Leaders #7




20
Restrictions of Genre

Reading: Corrigan, "Six Approaches to Writing About Film" (Chapter 4)

Writing Workshop - Draft of Genre Response Due



Analyzing the Films

25
Analyzing the Teen Film Genre

Reading: Lipsitz, "Genre Anxiety and Racial Representation" (netlibrary)

Screening: Boyz N' the Hood (Singleton, 1991)

Introduction to Research Project




27
The Youth Subculture and the Market

Reading: Doherty, "The Teenage Marketplace" (er p.32-53)

Genre Response Paper Due


November


1
Subcultural Resistance

Reading: Hebdige, "Case Studies" (p.23-70)

Screening: Dogtown and Z-Boys (Peralta, 2001)




3 Can Youth Resist?

Reading: Hebdige, "The Function of Subculture" (p.73-89)




8
Where the Girls Are

Reading: Lewis, "The Way of the Beautiful" (er p.57-76)

Screening: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Heckerling, 1982)




10
A Moment of Splendor, a Lifetime of Consequences

Reading: Douglas, "Sex and the Single Teenager" (er p.61-81);
                Corrigan, "Researching the Movies" (Chapter 6)

Writing Workshop




15
Nostalgia

Reading: Shumway, "Rock and Roll Soundtracks and the Production of Nostalgia" (er p.36-51)

Screening: American Graffitti (Lucas, 1973)




17
Whose fantasy?

Reading: Neale, "Teenpics" (er p.218-22)

Research Proposal Due




22
NO CLASS - Conferences on Research Papers




24
THANKSGIVING BREAK (no class)




29
NO CLASS - Conferences on Research Papers


December


1
Draft of Research Paper Due

Peer Review




6
LAST DAY OF CLASS

Research Paper and Annotated Bibliography Due




13
Essay Exam from 2-4 pm