- Winter 2018
Syllabus Description:
Frances McDormand, Fargo
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Assignments, Expectations and Grading
Office Hours and Contact Information
Schedule of Readings:
Week One
January 4: Class canceled due to conference travel
Week Two
January 9
Read: Hammett, “The Girl with the Silver Eyes” and “The Golden Horseshoe”
Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art of Murder”
January 11
Read: Hammett, “The House in Turk Street”
Christopher Breu, excerpt from Hardboiled Masculinities (pages 27-56)
Michael Denning, excerpts from The Cultural Front (pages 230-1; 254-258)
Week Three
January 16
Read: Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, chapters 1-22
January 18
Read: The Big Sleep (all)
Mike Davis, excerpt from “Sunshine or Noir” (pages 17-24; 36-46)
Week Four
January 23
In-class screening: Double Indemnity
January 25
Discussion of Double Indemnity
Read: Janey Place, “Women in Film Noir”
Sylvia Harvey, “Women’s Place: The Absent Family of Film Noir”
Andreas Huyssen excerpt from “Mass Culture as Woman” (42-52)
James Naremore, excerpt from “Modernism and Blood Melodrama” (81-95)
Week Five
January 30
Read: Dorothy Hughes, In a Lonely Place, chapters 1-3
February 1
Read: In a Lonely Place (all)
Week Six
February 6
Read: Chester Himes, A Rage in Harlem chapters 1-16
February 8
Read: A Rage in Harlem (all)
Manthia Diawara, “Noir by Noirs”
Topic Statement Due
Week Seven
February 13
View: The Hitchhiker
February 15
Read: Frank Miller, Sin City
Week Eight
February 20
Read: Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress, chapters1-12
February 22:
Read: Devil in a Blue Dress (all)
Paper Proposal Due
Week Nine
February 27
In-class screening: Pulp Fiction
March 1
Discussion of Pulp Fiction
Annotated Bibliography Due
Week Ten
March 6
In-class screening: Fargo
March 8
Discussion of Fargo
Final Papers Due: March 14th by 5PM