LBST 6000 FILM AND IDENTITY

SPRING 2005

Objectives

• To explore modes of identity in Hollywood and European Cinema.
• To introduce students to historical and current debates on identity politics.
• To explore the role of memory, place, heritage, gender, and ethnicity on national, group, and individual identity.
• To reflect on the influence of identity politics on identity construction in films.
• To reflect on the role of film in constructing identity.
• To develop and refine skills of close film analysis    

Outcomes

 On completion of the course students should be able to:

• Understand different theoretical approaches to exploring issues of identity in film.
• Identify and analyze specific instances of constructed identity in film.
• Identify and analyze specific instances of how film constructs identity.
• Assess critically how Hollywood and European cinema deal with issues of identity.
• Develop an ability to analyze film in depth.

Curriculum content

• Selected essays on issues of identity in film.
• Paradigmatic and otherwise exemplary films treating issues of identity politics
• Paradigmatic and otherwise exemplary films that help construct identity

Teaching and learning strategy

Teaching will be by lecture and student-led seminars that focus on weekly readings and films. In addition students will engage in independent research and analysis and be guided by the professor in these endeavors.

Assessment

• 20% Leading class discussion on individual films and readings.
• 20% Contribution to class discussion
• 40% 2500-3500 word essay (10-15 pages)
• 20% Class presentation of essay

SYLLABUS SPRING 2005 LBST 6000 FILM AND IDENTITY

Readings:

Clinefelter, Joan. “A Cinematic Construction of Nazi Anti-Semitism.”  In Cultural History through a national Socialist Lens, edited by Robert C. Reimer, 133-154. Rochester, NY: Camden House.

Davies, Jude and Carol R. Smith. “Introduction: The Uses of identity in Post_Reagan Hollywood Film.” In Gender, Ethnicity and Sexuality in Contemporary Film American, Jude Davies and Carol R. Smith, 1-15.  Keele, England: KeeleUP, 1997.

-------------  “White masculinity as paternity.” In Gender, Ethnicity and Sexuality in Contemporary Film American, Jude Davies and Carol R. Smith, 16-27.  Keele, England: KeeleUP, 1997.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, edited by Philip Rosen, 198-209. New York, Columbia UP, 1986.

Reimer, Robert C. and Carol J. Reimer. “The Importance of Remembering,”  In Nazi-retro Film, Robert C. Reimer and Carol J. Reimer, 169-204. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

Williams, Linda. “Introduction.” In Viewing Positions: Ways of Seeing Film, edited by Linda Williams, 1-19. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP., 1995.

--------------. “Rewriting the Plantation Legend: Scarlett ‘Totes a Weary Load.’”   Playing the Race Card, Linda Williams. 187-219. Princeton, NJ, 2001.

--------------. “When the Woman Looks.” In Re-vision: Essays in Feminist Criticism, edited by Mary Ann Doane, Patricia Mellencamp, and Linda Williams, 83-99. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1984.

Students with documented disabilities who require accommodation in this class should access services as soon as possible through the UNC Charlotte Office of Disability Services in Fretwell Building, Room 218. 

I expect students to follow the university academic integrity code which read as follows:

THE UNC CHARLOTTE CODE OF STUDENT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY governs the responsibility of students to maintain integrity in academic work, defines violations of the standards, describes procedures for handling alleged violations of the standards, and lists applicable penalties. The following conduct is prohibited in that Code as violating those standards:

A. Cheating. Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, notes, study aids or other devices in any academic exercise. This definition includes unauthorized communication of information during an academic exercise.

B. Fabrication and Falsification. Intentional and unauthorized alteration or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise. Falsification is a matter of altering information, while fabrication is a matter of inventing or counterfeiting information for use in any academic exercise.

C. Multiple Submission. The submission of substantial portions of the same academic work (including oral reports) for credit more than once without authorization.

D. Plagiarism. Intentionally or knowingly presenting the work of another as one's own (i.e., without proper acknowledgment of the source). The sole exception to the requirement of acknowledging sources is when the ideas, information, etc., are common knowledge.

E. Abuse of Academic Materials. Intentionally or knowingly destroying, stealing, or making inaccessible library or other academic resource material.

F. Complicity in Academic Dishonesty. Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.

A full explanation of these definitions, and a description of procedures used in cases where student violations are alleged, is found in the complete text of The UNC Charlotte Code of Student Academic Integrity. This Code may be modified from time to time. Users are advised to contact the Office of the Dean of Students to ensure they consult the most recent edition.

Instructor:         Robert C. Reimer

Office:              COED 416

Phone:              704.687.8767 (w) 704.537.7008 (h)

Email:               RCReimer@email.uncc.edu

Office Hours:    WR 4-5, before and after class, and by appointment