ENG 271: Popular Film Genre
Summer 2023 (5/22-6/30, online async)
This is a six week, zero-cost course that takes place entirely online in an asynchronous format. All readings, lectures, and films will be posted on the course Laulima site; similarly, quizzes and assignments will be submitted on Laulima.
In this online course, we will explore the conventions, expectations, pleasures, and meanings that attend Hollywood genre movies. “Genre movies,” film scholar Barry Keith Grant writes, “are those commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations.” Genre movies are mutable: over the last century, some of Hollywood’s popular genres have included the musical, Western, comedy, historical epic, sci-fi, teen, and gangster movie; some genres movies like the Hollywood ”woman’s film” (popular in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s) have disappeared, while genres like the Western have experienced waves of popularity and relevance.
Each week, we will put the spotlight on one Hollywood film genre as we read film scholarship and watch movies that will seem both familiar and newly strange to us. To better grasp how genre movies do their work, we will also watch a few films by indie filmmakers who work outside of Hollywood and who adapt or utterly reject Hollywood’s generic conventions.
Along the way, we will ask: How should we “read” and study genre movies? What is the relationship between genre movies and gender? What do genre movies tell us about the role of myth in U.S. culture, as well as Hollywood as an industry and exporter of cultural imperialism? When and how do genre movies evolve?
Assignments include weekly quizzes, two short genre analysis papers, and one original pitch for a genre movie.
Course requirements and expectations include: 1) Watch two movies per week 2) Read and listen to recorded lectures 3) Complete quizzes and paper assignments. It is crucial that you have access to reliable internet access and are comfortable navigating Laulima. Most importantly, to succeed in this asynchronous course, you will need to be self-motivated; you should plan to commit roughly 10-12 hours per week for screenings, readings, and assignments.
Tentative Film List
Musicals
Singin’ in the Rain
Cabin in the Sky
Westerns
Stagecoach
Westworld
Road Trip Movies
Easy Rider
Thelma & Louise
Sci-fi/Horror
The Blob
Poltergeist
Comedy
Bringin ‘Up Baby
Smiley Face
Films Made Outside of Hollywood
Bacurau (Brazil)
Edge of the Knife (Haida Gwaii)