Course description and goals

Texts

Requirements and grading policies

Format for writing

Criteria for Evaluation

Assignments

Course calendar 

To Marlboro Writing Page

(Printable version of this syllabus here.)

Writing Seminar:  America Noir

T-Th, 1:30 - 2:50, Th 6:30 - 9:00 (film viewing), Dalrymple 38

Instructor:  John Sheehy

Reading packet table of contents

References in the course calendar will be to these numbers, NOT to page numbers.

Thinking about Film Genres

1. “Photograph and Screen” – Stanley Cavell
2. “'Cinema / Ideology / Criticism' Revisited:   the Progressive Genre” – Barbara Klinger
3. “Ideology, Genre, Auteur” – Robin Wood
4. “Genre Films and the Status Quo” – Judith Wright
5. “A Semantic / Syntactic Approach to Film Genre” – Rick Altman
6. “The Genius of the System” – Thomas Schatz

Speaking of Noir

7. “The Hardboiled Detective Film” – Thomas Schatz
8. “ Film Noir: Style and Content – Dale E. Ewing, Jr.
9. “Lounge Time:   Postwar Crises and the Chronotype of Film Noir ” – Vivian Sobchack
10. “What is this Thing Called Noir ?”   -- Alain Silver and Linda Brookover
11. “ No Way Out:   Existential Motifs in Film Noir ”   Robert Porfirio
12. “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” – Janey Place and Lowell Peterson
13. “Notes on Film Noir ” – Paul Schrader
14. “Paint it Black:   the Family Tree of the Film Noir ” – Raymond Durgnat
15. “Noir Cinema” – Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg
16. “ Three Faces of Film Noir ” – Tom Flinn
17. “The Evolution of the Crime Film” – Claude Chabrol

Speaking of Neo- Noir

18. “Son of Noir :   Neo Film Noir and the Neo-B Picture” – Alain Silver
19. “Writing the New Noir Film” – Sharon Cobb
20. “Dumb Lugs and Femmes Fatales ” – B. Ruby Rich

Women and Film Noir

21. “Women in Film Noir ” – Janey Place
22. “Woman's Place:   the Absent Family of Film Noir ” – Sylvia Harvey
23. “Film Noir , Voiceover and the Femme Fatale ” – Karen Hollinger
24. “ Girl Power:   Female-Centered Neo-noir ” – William Covey
25. “Violence and the Bitch Goddess” – Stephen Farber

Case Studies:   Film Criticism and Reviews

After Dark, My Sweet

26. “ After Dark, My Sweet ” – Sight and Sound
27. “ After Dark, My Sweet ” – Robert Seidenberg

Touch of Evil

28. “ Foreign Relations, Welles and Touch of Evil ” – Sight and Sound

Miller's Crossing

29. “Miller's Crossing ”   -- Sight and Sound
30. “ Miller's Crossing ” – Robert Seidenberg
31. “ Miller's CrossingI” – Richard McKim, Cineaste
32. “Chasing the Hat” – Richard Jameson

Red Rock West

33. “Red Rock West ”   -- Sight and Sound
    

Double Indemnity

34. “Disciplinary Identities, or Why is Walter Neff Telling this Story?” ( Double Indemnity) – David Shumway
35. “ Double Indemnity :   Crime and Punishment” – Ruth Prigozy
36. “'I Love You Too':   Sexual Warfare and Homoeroticism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity ”   -- Brian Gallagher
37. “ Double Indemnity ” – Claire Johnston
    

The Maltese Falcon

38. “Tracking The Maltese Falcon :   Classical Hollywood Narration and Sam Spade” – William Luhr
39. “John Huston and The Maltese Falcon ” – James Naremore
40. “ The Maltese Falcon :   Melodrama or Film Noir ?” – Steven Gale
    

The Killers

41. “ The Killers :   Expressiveness of Sound and Image in Film Noir” – Robert Porfirio

Blue Velvet

42. “ Blue Velvet :   A Parable of Male Development” – Lynne Layton
43. “ Blue Velvet :   an Interview with David Lynch” – Laurent Bouzereau
44. “Out to Lynch” – David Chute
45. “Generic Convention and the Subversive Imagination in Blue Velvet ”   -- Betsey Barry
46. “Dantean Imagery in Blue Velvet ” – James Preston
47. “ Blue Velvet Once More ” – C. Kenneth Pellow

Chinatown

48. “ Chinatown , City of Blight ” – Liahna Babener
49. “Language, Oedipus and Chinatown ” – John Belton
50. “Incest and Capital in Chinatown ” – Vernon Shetley
51. “ Los Angeles as Scene of the Crime” – Paul Arthur
    

The Postman Always Rings Twice

52. “Cain, Naturalism and Noir ”   ( The Postman Always Rings Twice ) – Christopher Orr
53. “Whatever Happened to the Film Noir ?   The Postman Always Rings Twice ” – Robert Porfirio
    

Sunset Boulevard

54. “The War between Words and Images:   Sunset Boulevard ”   -- Kaitlyn Trowbridge
    

The Big Sleep

55. “The Trouble with Harry:   on Hawks Version of The Big Sleep ” – Christopher Orr
    

Kiss Me Deadly

56. “Sound, Woman and the Bomb:   Dismembering the “Great Whatsit” in Kiss Me Deadly ” – Carol Flinn
57. “The Fantastic Realism of Film Noir:   Kiss Me Deadly ”   -- J.P. Telotte
58. “Dead Lily” ( Kiss Me Deadly ) – David Thomson
59. “Remembrance, Communication and Kiss Me Deadly ” – Rodney Hill
60. “Looking for the “Great Whatzit”:   Kiss Me Deadly and Film Noir ” – Robert Lang
61. “Creativity and Evaluation:   Two Films Noirs of the Fifties” ( Kiss Me Deadly) – Robin Wood

Others

62. Raymond Chandler without His Knight:   Contracting Worlds in The Blue Dahlia and Playback ”   -- Gay Brewer
63. From Fascism to the Cold War:   Gilda 's “Fantastic” Politics” – Linda Dittmar