ENGLISH 9730-001: BOOKS INTO MOVIES, SPRING 2009

English 9730; Falvey IMS 4; Thursday 5.30-9.30

Prof Hugh Ormsby-Lennon; SAC 466; Voicemail 94655 (Best to call me at home.)

Office Hours: Tuesday 4.00-6.15; Thursday: 4.00-5.00

Home Phone/Voicemail: 215-9234260. Check for home fax

This is my barest-boned syllabus ever. Zap me with questions in class. I gave you the reading list in an email more than a month ago

Syllabus

Jan 15 Introduction.

Jan 22 The Thirty Nine Steps

Jan 29 The Third Man

Feb 5 High Fidelity

Feb 12 The Commitments

Feb 19 Wonder Boys

Feb 26 Howards End [Also read Zadie Smith's On Beauty and contemplate making a movie from it.]

Mar 5 Spring Break

Mar 12 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner. Future Noire

Mar 19 Watchmen [Fingers crossed for 3-6-9]

Mar 26 Fight Club

Apr 2 No class. Instead we shall attend the poetry reading by Nick Laird, Zadie Smith's husband, at 7.00 and the lecture by A. C. Spearing at 8.30.

Apr 9 Easter holiday

Apr 16 Two Lives/My House in Umbria

Apr 23 The Talented Mr Ripley/Purple Noon

Apr 30 The Orchid Thief/Adaptation

Class requirements: lively discussion and (ideally, prior knowledge of the movies). As I recommended in pre-class emails, you should consider renting the films from Netflix and getting together in order to view and discuss them informally prior to class.

I have no preconceptions about the content of your 15-20 page term papers. You may wish to focus upon an individual comparison between a single book and a single film that we have discussed. Then again, you may prefer to develop a thematic approach involving the complex passage of the printed word to the screen (casting, filming, editing, sound-track etc). You may wish to explore aspects of film theory (from Eisenstein or Cahiers du Cinema to more recent explorations in cultural capital or feminism). You may certainly use the semester's reading and viewing as a springboard for explorations of your own interests. I am amenable to all suggestions and very much look forward to discussing them with you individually.