A lecture/seminar satisfying the second half of the Reading & Composition requirement, R4B offers structured and sustained practice in the processes used in reading, critical analysis, and writing. Students engage with thematically-related materials from a range of genres and media. In response, they craft short pieces leading to longer expository and/or argumentative essays. Students develop a research question, draft a research essay, gather, evaluate, and synthesize information from various sources. Elements of the research process--a proposal, an annotated bibliography, an abstract, a works cited list, etc.--are submitted with the final report in a research portfolio. Students write a minimum of 32 pages of prose.

"Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion." --Umberto Eco The audience that flocked to theaters in 1959 to see Billy Wilder’s blockbuster film Some Like it Hot delighted in a host of stereotypes of the Roaring 20's—the gangster with his immaculate spats, the buxom song-and-dance starlet, and the dashing leading man. They came expecting to see a portrait of the pre-Depression age of innocence cast as comedy. More than that, though, they came to see the star, Marilyn Monroe, the iconic figure of their own time whose very way of walking and talking expressed the desires of all who had purchased their tickets and consented to sit shoulder-to-shoulder in that dark room. The event of the film itself, its projection in thousands of theaters, amounts to more of a statement about American contemporary culture of the late 50s than about the slice of history it parodies. In many cases, artistic choices that go into the making of popular films take on unforeseen meanings that influence the fabric of public truth. How did the quirky alt-protagonist of Juno come to be adopted against creator Diablo Cody’s will as the poster child for religious conservatives? How can the artistic dispute between the writer and the director of The Social Network conceal an impassioned public debate over the issue of privacy on the internet? How did the psychological clichés of horror provide Jordan Peele’s low budget Get Out with the recipe for deconstructing racism to a mass mainstream audience? In this course, you will explore the conversation between Hollywood and American culture. You will start by learning how to analyze the style of the conventional Hollywood film, with help from B.F. Dick’s Anatomy of Film and McKee’s Story. Texts like Lunsford's Everything's an Argument will help you to become conscious of the rhetorical events that underpin written and visual media. The class will culminate in a research-based essay in which you will assess a wide variety of nonfiction sources—essays, histories, blogs, documentaries, interviews, advertising, reviews, tattlers—that enter into the discourse on the formation of American taste in film and TV.

Enrollment is restricted to students who have satisfied the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. This course satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills