Frances McDormand, Fargo

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Assignments, Expectations and Grading

Course Materials

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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 14^th by 5PM