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Screen Shot from Phantom of the Opera (1929)

Instructor: K. Gillis-Bridges
Class: MW, 12:30-1:50 p.m.
Rooms: Mary Gates 082A/082
Office: Padelford A-105
Hours: MW 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Phone/Voice: 206.543.4892
Email: kgb@u

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Screen shot from Phantom of the Opera (1929)

How do film scholars critically think and write about film? In English 197, we will explore this question, drawing in part on the lectures, readings and films for Comparative Literature 272. The goal of English 197 is to help students critically analyze films, engage the work of film scholars, develop claims, evaluate their own writing as well as that of their colleagues, and use feedback to revise their drafts. Students will also learn to examine cinema studies lectures, discussion sessions, and assignments to identify significant questions in the field, scholarly beliefs about what counts as evidence, and characteristic ways of building arguments in the discipline. Class activities in the writing link reflect the importance of writing as a means of learning. Students will write to think through issues or problems as well as to articulate their knowledge. Students will do much of this writing as homework assignments that include online responses to films, summaries of readings and essay proposals.

English 197 is computer-integrated. The lab setting allows students to view and offer feedback on their peers' work, collaborate on group activities, and view film clips, and incorporate visual aids into their papers. However, technical savvy is not a course prerequisite; students will receive instruction in all technical tools used in the classroom.

Although English 197 shares some assignments with Comparative Literature 272, our composition class has separate discussion, presentation, and writing tasks. I attend lectures and meet with cinema studies course staff, but you serve as the primary link between the courses. To do well in English 197, you will need to keep up with cinema studies course lectures, discussions, and films. Occasionally, we will complete readings before they are due in Comparative Literature 272. You should also expect to re-screen selected films as you compose your essays.

My role in the writing course is to provide the tools and resources you will need to advance your own thinking about film through your writing. I will pose questions, design activities to help you think through those questions, and respond to the substance of what you write. Your role is to do the hard work—the critical film analysis, discussion, reading, and writing. You will generate ideas, evaluate evidence, and construct arguments relevant to issues raised in the cinema studies course. You will revise your papers until they are as good as you can make them.