This course will look at looking by focusing on how systems of representation (i.e., the novel and film) structure what we see, what we don’t see, and, ultimately, how we see. The novel, a print literary genre, is a form of narrative that uniquely relies on point of view. Film, a visual genre, also relies on perspective (the camera lens or apparatus), but presents a very different concept of point of view, because of its seeming objectivity. While our culture maintains a firm belief in the objectivity of the real world (and in our own ability to see what’s there), other cultures recognize the reality of invisible worlds. For comparison, we will be focusing on West African “ways of seeing” in novels and popular film.
The works we will be examining all deal with—directly or indirectly—various aspects of seeing, looking, being seen, visualization, and the unseen. They do so by incorporating these as themes or narrative strategies, and/or by unconsciously omitting various other perspectives. We will also be looking at how the various conventions of these two genres develop those ideas and concerns. Finally, this course will direct your attention toward how to write effectively about literature and film.
Course Requirements: attendance, response papers; quizzes; two formal essays; a mid-term; a final exam; participation in class discussions; group presentations.
Required
Texts (available at Revolution Books, 2626 S. King Street). IMPORTANT: the first three works are available in various editions. In each case the Norton Critical Edition is REQUIRED. It includes other texts (articles, background materials) which will be assigned.
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Norton Critical Edition; Third Edition)
• Jean Rhys, Wide
Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Edition)
• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Edition; Fourth Edition)
• Ben Okri, The
Famished Road
Major Films to be viewed:
• Robert Stevenson/Orson Welles, Jane Eyre (1943)
• Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
• John Duigan, Wide Sargasso Sea (1993)
• Frances Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979)
• Eleanor Coppola, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)
• Tunde Kelani, Thunderbolt (2007)