English 458 -- Studies in British Literature -- Prof. Jon Hegglund -- Spring 2000

Description:

The great French director François Truffaut once said that there was "a certain incompatibility between the terms 'cinema' and 'Britain.'"  One of the goals of this course is to show that, on many levels, Truffaut was wrong.  It is true that, from the 1930s to the 1980s, Great Britain's film industry lagged behind Hollywood's in terms of production values and box-office successes, and behind France's and Italy's in creativity and artistic innovation.  British film, however, has undergone a rebirth of sorts in the 1980s and 90s.  Much of the energy and vitality found in contemporary British film has to do with the way it relentlessly overturns stereotypes of England as a quaint land filled with stuffy, mannered aristocrats meandering about the gardens of their ancestral manor houses.  On the contrary, the films shown in this course focus (in one way or another) on the issues and struggles of the present, including the widening gap between rich and poor, the rise of nationalisms and racial politics after the fall of the British empire (including the struggles over Northern Ireland), and the violent collisions between tradition and modernity.  In short, while Great Britain no longer possesses an empire "on which the sun never sets," it does contain a diversity of cultures and artistic visions that are perhaps better represented in cinema than in any other art form at the present time.  To help gain some perspective on the relationships between film and other media, we will also read some contemporary British fiction and listen to some contemporary British music.

Texts:

(available at CCSU Bookstore and The Other Bookstore):

Martin Amis, Money
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia
Edna O'Brien, House of Splendid Isolation
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
course reader

films (click on the title to see the Internet Movie Database listing for each film):

Hugh Hudson, Chariots of Fire
Bill Forsyth, Gregory's Girl
Richard Eyre, The Ploughman's Lunch
Stephen Frears, My Beautiful Laundrette
Gurinder Chadha, Bhaji on the Beach
Ken Loach, Riff-Raff
Mike Leigh, Life is Sweet
Derek Jarman, The Last of England
Peter Greenaway, Drowning by Numbers
Sally Potter, Orlando
Neil Jordan, The Crying Game
Danny Boyle, Trainspotting
Peter Cattaneo, The Full Monty

Course Requirements:

Note:  While having an e-mail account and web access is not, strictly speaking, a requirement of the course, you will be at a disadvantage without these things.  Discussion questions, announcements, and updates will be posted on the website--since the class only meets once during the week, this is the most efficient means by which to send any messages.  If you haven't yet done so, please consider opening an e-mail account and gaining web access through CCSU or a private Internet Service Provider.

Assignments:

Discussion Questions: You will sign up to provide discussion questions for one of the films or novels in the course.  These should be e-mailed to me by Friday so I can post them on the web page as soon as possible.  You should consult the page well before Wednesday to get the week's questions.  During the week that you provide questions, you will also be expected to be an active participant in class discussion.

Web Page Contribution:  During the course of the semester, I will be adding your contributions to the course's web page.  Early in the semester, you will sign up for a topic on which to prepare a contribution to the page.  These will likely be: summaries of articles about British films, definitions of terms important to the course, or brief career synopses of some important British directors.  Each contribution will be submitted as a MS Word document of approximately 600-800 words.

Papers:  There will be two formal paper assignments in the course: the first, due on March 8, will be a 4-5 page paper on an assigned topic (you will, of course, have some choice of topics).  The second paper, due on May 3, will be a longer paper on a topic of your own choosing and development.  All papers should be double-spaced with 1" margins and should conform to MLA style.  You may submit your papers as either an MS Word e-mail attachment or as a hard copy.  Late papers will lose 1/3 of a grade for every day late.  Papers will not be accepted more than one week after the due date.  

Take-Home Final:  Your final exam in the course will be handed out in the last class.  The exam will consist of a question designed to elicit an essay of about 2-3 pages.  These should be word-processed and turned in (either as an e-mail attachment or hard copy) by 2 pm, Wednesday, May 17.

Grade Breakdown:

*Graduate students must provide a prospectus and annotated bibliography prior to writing the second paper.  The paper should be 10-12 pp.

Attendance and Participation:

Regular attendance is required.  Because class only meets once per week, any absence is a significant one.  Every absence after your first will lower your course grade by 1 grade per absence.  If you miss more than 3 classes, you will not pass the course.  I will take roll at the beginning of every class.  If you come to class late, it is your responsibility to let me know of your presence.  If you are more than 5 minutes late, you will receive credit for one-half of a day's attendance.  If you are more than 30 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent.

I also expect you to participate regularly in class.  "Participation" means that you have come to class having done all necessary reading or viewing and you are ready to contribute to any class discussion with questions or responses. You will not receive credit for participation simply by attending class.  Your course grade may be lowered or raised by one-third of a grade based on the frequency and level of your participation.

Course Schedule:

Unit 1: "The British Are Coming," But Who Are They?  Toward a National Cinema in the 1980s

26 Jan

• Course Introduction
• Screening: Chariots of Fire (dir. Hugh Hudson, 1981, 123m.)

2 Feb

• Read: John Hill, "British Cinema as National Cinema: Production, Audience, and Representation"
• Read: Martin Amis, Money (first half)
• Screening: Gregory’s Girl (dir. Bill Forsyth, 1981, 91m.)

9 Feb

• Read: Lester Friedman, "Thatcherism" and "The Empire Strikes Out: An American Perspective on the British Film Industry," from Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism
• Read: Martin Amis, Money (second half)
• Screening: The Ploughman’s Lunch (dir. Richard Eyre, 1983, 100m.)

16 Feb

• Discuss Money and Unit 1 films
• WEB PAGE CONTRIBUTION DUE

Unit 2: Race, Class, and Urban Realism: British Film and Thatcherism

23 Feb

• Read: Hanif Kureishi, "The Rainbow Sign"
• Screening: My Beautiful Laundrette (dir. Stephen Frears, 1985, 98m.)

1 Mar

• Read: Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (first half)
• Screening: Bhaji on the Beach (dir. Gurinder Chadha, 1993, 100m.)

8 Mar

• Read: Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (second half)
• Screening: Riff-Raff (dir. Ken Loach, 1991, 96m.)
• FIRST PAPER DUE

15 Mar

• Discuss Buddha of Suburbia and Unit 2 films
• Screening: Life is Sweet (dir. Mike Leigh, 1991, 102m.)

Unit 3: Against Realism: The Politics of Formalism

29 Mar

• Screening: The Last of England (dir. Derek Jarman, 1987, 87m. )

5 Apr

• Read: Michael Walsh, "Allegories of Thatcherism: The Films of Peter Greenaway," from Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism
• Screening: Drowning By Numbers (dir. Peter Greenaway, 1988, 119m.)

12 Apr

• Read: House of Splendid Isolation (first half)
• Screening: Orlando (dir. Sally Potter, 1992, 93m.)

Unit 4: Regionalism, Nationalism, and Globalism: The British "Blockbuster" At Home and Abroad

19 Apr

• Read: House of Splendid Isolation (second half)
• Read: Terry Byrne, excerpt from "Neil Jordan and the Emergent Eighties," in Power in the Eye
• Screening: The Crying Game (dir. Neil Jordan, 1992, 112m.)

26 Apr

• Discuss House of Splendid Isolation and The Crying Game
• Screening: Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle, 1996, 94m.)

3 May

• Read: Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
• Screening: The Full Monty (dir. Peter Cattaneo, 1997, 91m.)
• SECOND PAPER DUE

10 May

• Discuss High Fidelity and Unit 4 films
• Course wrap-up
• Screening: TBA

17 May

• TAKE-HOME FINAL DUE BY 2PM

page last updated on 10/10/00
hegglundj@ccsu.edu