Assignments

English 6685 Postmodern Film, Spring 2025

W 5:30-8:15 p.m., Arts & Sciences 316

Winter Storm Make Up

In order to make up for the class cancelled due to the winter storm, please read all six of today’s articles on postmodernism, and focus on the one article assigned to you here. By the start of class, share two significant quotes and five brief, bullet point main ideas or notes in the table here; and in class we will use your notes to collaboratively establish the key tenets of postmodernism. 

Book Review

The book review compels you to read and evaluate a scholarly book about the postmodern film, either the postmodern film in general, a postmodern director, or a particular postmodern film. Write an 8-10 page essay that summarizes the book's overall critical claims and evaluates the thesis and methodology. Your essay should both appreciate and interrogate the book. In class on the day your essay is due, share highlights from your book review for 5-10 minutes. The OWL provides more information about book reviews; and sample reviews by Ingle, Pralea, and Talbird are included in the GeorgiaVIEW course packet. Assume the audience for your review is teacher-scholars who might use the book for learning, research, and/or teaching.

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Sign up here for one Book Review, one Comparison and Contrast Paper, one Seminar Paper Conference Presentation, and one Teaching Demonstration.

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Comparison and Contrast Paper

The comparison and contrast paper allows you to compare a pertinent issue in two postmodern films. These films can be either two in-class film or one in-class film and one out-of-class postmodern film approved by the professor. Although no outside research is required, the essay should integrate issues or ideas from at least two of our in-class scholarly articles that define and characterize the postmodern film. Your essay should not catalogue similarities and differences but should rather argue, through textual analysis, how a significant point of structural, stylistic, and/or thematic similarity shared by the two films nonetheless functions in distinct ways across the two films.

Seminar Paper

You will write a 12-15 page seminar paper entering, engaging, and advancing the scholarly discourse of a postmodern film or films, which are either discussed in class or selected by you and approved by the professor. Your essay should be worthy of being presented at a conference, integrate at least five secondary sources (scholarly journal articles and/or book chapters that interpret the films) obtained through the library, and apply at least two theoretical articles on postmodern film available in our course packet. You will also submit a 250 word conference proposal/abstract and read 10-15 minutes of your paper-in-progress for class question and answer, akin to a conference panel.

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Sign up here for one Book Review, one Comparison and Contrast Paper, one Seminar Paper Conference Presentation, and one Teaching Demonstration.

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Teaching Demonstration

Annotated Bibliography

You will teach a class on one of our assigned postmodern films. The first step in creating a lesson plan is to conduct research. Compose an annotated bibliography comprised of 10 critical sources (scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters) interpreting the postmodern film in particular and the overarching themes of the postmodern director in general (if applicable) who you have signed up to teach.

 

The sources should comprise a mix of scholarly journal articles and scholarly book chapters as well as intepretations of the film in particular and the director in general (if applicable). 3-7 sources should be scholarly journal articles; and 3-7 sources should be scholarly book chapters. If annotating a book by a single author, select a single chapter to summarize; if annotating an essay collection, you may summarize up to three separate essays.

 

Each annotation should be approximately 100 words long and describe 1) the topic of scholarly discussion, 2) the main idea, meaning, or conclusion as it relates to the film, and 3) how the source helps your understanding of the novel. The OWL provides additional strategies of summarization, evaluation, and reflection as well as sample annotations.

 

Additionally, select one source for the entire class to read and discuss and email it to the professor via pdf or permalink one week before the teaching demonstration.

Teaching Demonstration

Consult with your professor about your lesson plan in progress approximately one week before your teaching demonstration. Then, lead class discussion of the film for 30-45 minutes by using your annotated bibliography to inform your teaching and incorporating the selected source.

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Sign up here for one Book Review, one Comparison and Contrast Paper, one Seminar Paper Conference Presentation, and one Teaching Demonstration.

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