Make sure you check the MYLMU site for the viewing and discussion questions on The Bronze Screen, as well as the reading assignments for this week.
Post the revision of your thesis paragraph as a comment under your original entry.
It should reflect an understanding of what the dominant characteristics of the southern gothic genre are: 1)Gloomy, mysterious sense of place 2)Haunting (by an Other) 3)It articulates larger cultural anxieties.
You should articulate your understanding of the southern gothic elements in the film, not simply say that it is southern gothic, but explain what’s gothic about it? AND how does thinking about it as southern gothic help you read the film?
Remember: Avoid the “reality trap.” This is neither a documentary, nor a mirror to the world. It’s fiction. The southern gothic is a genre of story telling.
Missouri, by the way, is not the deep south. Look at map: the southern part is southern, and the northern part of the state is midwestern.
In addition to revising your thesis paragraph, read the following three short pieces. Next week we’ll talk about poverty, the middle class and American attitudes about both.
1. How Do You Define Middle Class?
For your blog response this week, write a working thesis paragraph about Winter’s Bone and The Southern Gothic. Remember, that an effective thesis has to develop analysis, not observation. What’s the “so what” of your thesis? How does thinking about The Southern Gothic help you develop an understanding of the film’s representation of gender and class power dynamics?
DUE: By 11:59PM Wednesday, November 6.
Thesis revision must be posted before class on Tuesday November 12.
Blog a response to Pariah, from the perspective that hooks articulates as the oppositional gaze. Think about how you might view the film from this perspective: it’s a critical and deliberate one, so anyone can engage in it–even if it’s not your own personal experience. Think about the oppositional gaze as a viewing strategy that is both resistant and creative.
Try to start off with hook’s discussion of the oppositional gaze as a challenge to oppressive forms of erasure and discursive violence, and as a way to create spaces for self-representation and the formation of black female subjectivity.
How does the film resist dominant forms of knowledge about black women, and what does it create instead?
Please note the the lower cases in bell hooks’s name are deliberate.
After watching the film, please post your responses here. Think about the figure of the pariah (the outsider/outcast) and how she’s presented to us. What effects does identifying with a pariah have on the viewer? What kind of conversations does it begin?
As you watch the film: take notes on three formal elements: image, sound, and time.
Image: how does the film visually present the characters, plot, and setting? Take note of color, light, composition, depth of field, contrasts, focal points.
Sound: listen to dialogue, music (the score as well as music that’s part of the narrative–called diegetic sound), other sound effects.
Time: take note of editing. This includes the length of scenes, the sequencing of shots, as well as the pacing. How does time feel?
Please remember that blog posts are due before the start of the class in which they are discussed. Whatever you do, please do not miss class in order to write one, or turn one in during class time.
For discussion on Thursday, 10.17, rewatch Superbad with an eye toward how the film establishes point of view. Take careful notes on how the camera shows you what characters see, and blog about that rewatching here.
Use the blog this week to post a quick thematic response to Superbad. Next week, we’ll be talking in more depth about formal questions and bringing them together.
Post your response to either the two episodes of Drag Race or the essay, “You Better Work” here for class discussion on Thursday 9/26.
Blog your response to the latest episode of “America’s Got Talent” available at NBC.com. You can blog about it and/or the essay “The Real History of Reality TV” I’ve posted a link on MYLMU Connect (I cannot, for the life of me, make it work here). But you can also just find it online at:
This week write your blog response focussing on the first two episodes of East Los High. You can refer to other texts that we’ve watched, read, and discussed.