This assignment is an inspiration I had last summer, and I’m eager to see what you will make of it. In particular, I encourage you to use your blogging voice in this assignment—don’t just “write a paper.” If you want to know what a blogging voice is, my response is “the voice you’re currently using to write your blog with.” There’s a freshness and engagement there that I’m intrigued by, and I’d like to see what happens when you use that voice and medium to do more sustained analytical work. I don’t want you to be chatty or trivial or superficial, but I am interested in the passion and direct engagement that characterize your blogs.
The assignment has two parts. You must complete both.
Part one is a blog entry of substantial length, complexity, and imagination in which you do the following:
a. Work with one film from the unit (including the cognate), analyzing some aspect of it in detail. Most students have found they get the best results from choosing one or two scenes to work with in particular. Though it is possible to analyze larger portions specifically, it is harder. You should resist the temptation to write generally about plot or character or theme only. The best papers will engage with the film as a film, thinking about visual and aural elements as well as dialogue, character, etc.
b. For films in units one, two, or four, you should also consider aspects of the movie as adaptation of the written text that informs that unit (The Glass Key, or Little Women, or Portrait of Jennie).
c. For films from any unit, you must use at least one essay from the Film Theory and Criticism reader as an analytical lens for your work with your film. That is, you should the critical/theoretical perspective in at least one essay to illuminate the film you’re analyzing. Note that you do not have to agree with everything (or anything at all) in the FTC essay(s) to use its/their perspective in your analysis. I urge you to quote from the FTC essay(s) you use so that you are not reducing the complexity through paraphrase.
d. You may use a cognate film if you choose, but you do not have to.
Part Two is a blog entry in which you comment on blog entries written by your classmates concerning the unit you’ve chosen to write about. Your commentary should be explicit, but it should also include links (a kind of implicit commentary) to each blog post you’re working on.
Images and multimedia are welcome. You may also link to outside sites, audio, video, etc.
For an example of a particularly fine final project, look here.
Questions or concerns, let me know.