This course explores the genre of noir in both film and literature beginning chronologically in post-World War II America, exploring McCarthyism and Hollywood blacklisting, as well as women's changing roles during and after the war. This background will provide a basis for the success of film noir with American audiences. Texts used early in the course are often those adapted into film (James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep). Emphasis in film is placed on the visual techniques used to create the aesthetic of film noir. As filmmakers fled Germany and Austria in the 1930s to work in Hollywood, techniques from German expressionist film helped to visually convey feelings of alienation, obsession, and instability fundamental to the genre (for example, Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, and Otto Preminger’s Laura). The second half of the course will focus on the genre of noir in contemporary literature and film. Cinematic examples may include Devil in a Blue Dress, Memento, Mulholland Drive. Literary texts may include those written by Walter Mosley, Megan Abbott, and S. A. Cosby. Please note that ENGL 202 is non-repeatable; students wishing to take a second 200-level Texts in Conversation course will need to register for ENGL 201, 203, or 204. This is a cross-listed course, with 12 seats in this ENGL 202-W02 section and eight seats in FILM 297-W01. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 121, 190 or instructor permission.
This course explores the genre of noir in both film and literature beginning chronologically in post-World War II America, exploring McCarthyism and Hollywood blacklisting, as well as women's changing roles during and after the war. This background will provide a basis for the success of film noir with American audiences. Texts used early in the course are often those adapted into film (James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep). Emphasis in film is placed on the visual techniques used to create the aesthetic of film noir. As filmmakers fled Germany and Austria in the 1930s to work in Hollywood, techniques from German expressionist film helped to visually convey feelings of alienation, obsession, and instability fundamental to the genre (for example, Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, and Otto Preminger’s Laura). The second half of the course will focus on the genre of noir in contemporary literature and film. Cinematic examples may include Devil in a Blue Dress, Memento, Mulholland Drive. Literary texts may include those written by Walter Mosley, Megan Abbott, and S. A. Cosby. NOTE: This is a cross-listed course, with eight seats in this FILM 297 section and 12 seats in the ENGL 202-W02 section. Prerequisite: ENGL 106, 121, 190 or instructor permission.