ENGL 272

Fall 2018 All Classes

All Classes

Minority Images in Amer Film

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 hours.

Addresses how a range of films made in the United States have represented diverse ethnicities and cultures in relation to each other and to dominant American media conventions and social ideas. A comparative, case study approach examines racial and gender stereotyping, historical and economic factors, and reactions of various audiences to the films.

Same as AFRO 272. Prerequisite: Fulfillment of the Composition I English requirement; sophomore standing or above.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Humanities – Lit & Arts

Cultural Studies - US Minority

My Favorites

My Schedule

Section Status updates every 10 minutes.

ENGL 272 class schedule data for fall 2018
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	66187	Lecture-Discussion	S	3:00PM -4:50PM	TR	148 Armory	Curry, R	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/18-12/12/18 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts, and Cultural Studies - US Minority course. Section Info: This course explores how movies made in the U.S. across the 20th century and into the 21st have represented diverse ethnic/racial (e.g., African American, Asian American, Latino/a, Native American) populations and cultures. The course also attends closely to how “racialized” images embed representations of gender and class. We will approach those issues through case studies (one feature film per week), both Hollywood movies and independently-produced works. We’ll study those productions within the contexts of American media conventions and historically ingrained social attitudes and practices, and, as relevant, as alternatives or challenges to dominant American racial ideologies. Case study films assigned to all for extended discussion in class might include, e.g., Birth of a Nation (1915); Salt of the Earth (1953); Zoot Suit (1981); Chan Is Missing (1982), Do the Right Thing (1989); and Smoke Signals (1998). The primary course text is Benshoff’s and Griffith’s America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies (2nd ed., 2009), supplemented by some essays which directly address the assigned films. Although the sequence of films we’ll watch together as a class will enable an understanding of American cinema’s historical (but persistent) representations of “minorities,” students are encouraged to do research for writing assignments about contemporary media, whether recent feature films made for “the big screen” or productions for broadcast or cable television or through streaming services. Course requirements include active participation in class discussion of readings and films, several short reports, a research essay, and a final exam. The course meets General Education requirements for both Humanities and the Arts and U.S. Minority Cultures and fulfills a distribution requirement for English and MACS majors and minors.