LSA Course Guide

< back	Printer Version

Class Detail:
WN 2013 English Language and Literature ENGLISH 140 - First-Year Seminar on English Language and Literature Section 002 Paranoia and the American Film
Credits:	3
Requirements & Distribution:	HU
Other:	FYSem
Waitlist Capacity:	unlimited
Consent:	With permission of instructor.
Advisory Prerequisites:	Enrollment restricted to first-year students, including those with sophomore standing.
Repeatability:	May not be repeated for credit.
Primary Instructor:	Hu,Tung-Hui
	(real time availability for all sections)

What is behind the resurgence of conspiracy in contemporary film and TV shows such as Homeland? What can paranoid films tell us about the politics of a nation at war with terror, or worried about an enemy infiltrating our borders — an enemy that often looks exactly like us? Is this a new phenomenon, or is paranoid thinking "as American as apple pie," as one political historian writes? In this intensive first-year seminar, we'll watch films noir, conspiracy films, contemporary remakes, and surveillance art; we'll also learn how to talk and write about film critically. Films may include: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956); The Manchurian Candidate (1962); The President's Analyst (1967); Chinatown (1974); The Conversation (1978); JFK (1991); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2002); Homeland (2011) Texts may include: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 42; Emily Apter, On Oneworldedness: or Paranoia as a World System; Wendy Chun,Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics; Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison; Mark Fenster, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture; Frederic Jameson, The Geopolitical Aesthetic

Course Syllabi Syllabi are available to current LSA students. IMPORTANT: These syllabi are provided to give students a general idea about the courses, as offered by LSA departments and programs in prior academic terms. The syllabi do not necessarily reflect the assignments, sequence of course materials, and/or course expectations that the faculty and departments/programs have for these same courses in the current and/or future terms. Search for Syllabus

Textbooks/Other Materials (data maintained by department in Wolverine Access)

Note:	Feel free to buy any edition of "A Short Guide to Writing about Film" as long as it is at least the 5th edition.

ISBN: 1844572781	Invasion of the body snatchers, Author: Grant, Barry Keith, 1947-, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan 2010
Required

ISBN: 0205236391	A short guide to writing about film, Author: Timothy Corrigan., Publisher: Pearson 8th ed.
Required	Other Textbook Editions OK.

ISBN: 006091307X	The crying of lot 49, Author: Thomas Pynchon., Publisher: Perennial Library 1st Perenn 1986
Required	Other Textbook Editions OK.

ISBN: 0816654948	Conspiracy theories : secrecy and power in American culture, Author: Mark Fenster., Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Rev. and u 2008
Required