An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into the designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

This course will provide an introduction to narrative theory as it relates to the visual and time arts in the production of both documentary and fiction films. We will consider various narrative genres as well as the range of film narrative forms from Classical Hollywood to Contemporary Independent to Avant-Garde. To fully understand the practical narrative possibilities of film's technology, we will spend some time in class analyzing and writing adaptations of literature (short stories, poems, performance monologues, novels) for film. Requirements include film screenings; reading from theoretical works, literature, and screenplays; and writing both analytical and practical exercises. There will be an additional screening time scheduled.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

"In every generation and in every intellectual sphere and in every political moment, there have been African American women who have articulated the need to think and talk about race through a lens that looks at gender, or think and talk about feminism through a lens that looks at race. So this is in continuity with that." --Kimberle Crenshaw

"I really didn't let gender and race issues bother me. I knew I would have trouble with both. I was determined to do what I was going to do at any cost. I kept plugging away. Whatever I had to do, I did it." --Madeline Anderson, from Reel Black Talk.

This course will be an intense and focused examination of Black Women's film-making in the USA beginning with the 1970's LA Rebellion/UCLA Rebellion of Black Filmmakers through contemporary work. The critical journey will include Black feminist & womanist political theories, Black Feminist manifestos, histories of black women filmmakers and traditional film theory & Black film aesthetic theories. We will consider Black women's documentary tradition, their relation to and gendered representation of African-American to African heritage; and intersectional POV of race, gender, sexuality, and class. We will analyze form, content and theoretical interventions in order to sketch, if not fill in, an artistic, cultural, and political practice that remains in the literal shadows of Hollywood and White film hegemony. You MUST be prepared to screen many films, read critical and theoretical essays, and write thoughtful, cogent papers that will help us center a space that is too often decentered.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective