Faculty Resources - English:
Course Outline - ENG 273
| COURSE TITLE: | Film Genre: Film Noir | COURSE HOURS PER WEEK: | |
| COURSE NUMBER: | ENG 273 | Lecture: | |
| COURSE CREDITS: | 4 | Lec/Lab: | |
| COURSE PREREQUISITES: | WR 121 or its equivalent | Lab: |
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will focus on film noir, a type of film featuring hard-boiled detectives, dangerous urban landscapes, and mysterious—perhaps treacherous—dames, that flourished in the U.S. between 1948-1958. The class will concentrate on the question of definition: is noir a genre, a style, a mood, or a movement? Students will read various theories about noir and examine classical and contemporary films, measuring them against competing definitions of the genre. The course will focus on the historical and social context of noir as well as issues of gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and nationality as they relate to noir.
GENERAL COURSE OUTCOMES:
| Upon completion of this course, the successful student will be able to: | These outcomes will be verified by the following assessments: |
| A. Apply one or more of the various theories of genre to a given text | Class discussions, quizzes, midterm and final exams, analytical essays, formal segmentations, and/or shot lists, presentations, and/or group work. |
| B. Relate a given text to historical concerns, | Same as above |
| C. Develop criteria for the genre in conjunction with other students in class | Same as above |
| D. Analyze a given text in terms of race, gender, class, sexuality, or nationality | Same as above |
| E. Write meaningfully about the formal and ideological issues of the films studied during the quarter | Academic essay(s) and/or exams. |
Course outline by major topic: (See course calendars for other examples)
- Noir as a Genre: historical context and origins a. Cahiers du Cinema b. Post-WWII U.S. culture c. "B" movies and the German, ex-patriot influence d. 1930's pulp fiction
- Noir as a style: film, form, and style a. Formalist film theory and film language (mise en scène, the shot, editing, use of sound, Classical Hollywood Style)
- Noir as a Mode
- Noir as a movement
- Theoretical approaches to the genre a. Auteur theory b. Theories of spectatorship c. Reception studies d. Critical race theory e. Feminist theory f. Psychoanalysis