English 3504, Film and Literature:
"Emerging
Genres and their Implications: Climate Literature, Film, and Media"
Dr. Robin L. Murray Fall 2019: TR Online
Office: CH 3351 Phone: 549-0199 before 10
Office Hours:
T 1-2, W 1-3, and R 1-3 & by
appointment by phone, Skype, or Facetime
Course Description:
The Fall 2019 section of ENG 3504 will highlight “cli-fi,” a term coined
by Dan Bloom for climate fiction literature, film, and media. These ''cli-fi''
texts in print and on cinema and other screens engage with the local and global
impact of human caused climate change. In a May 2014 interview, however, Bloom
takes this definition further, claiming that “cli fi novels and movies can
serve to wake up readers and viewers to the reality of the Climapocalypse that
awaits humankind if we do nothing to stop it” (Vemuri). As Margaret Atwood asserts, “Dystopic novels
used to concentrate only on hideous political regimes, as in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Now, however,
they’re more likely to take place in a challenging landscape that no longer
resembles the hospitable planet we’ve taken for granted.” This section of ENG
3504 will begin to explore this emerging genre and its possible implications. Online
Themes for this
course include the following:
Identity & Culture, Genre, Form, &
Poetics, Media, Technology & Popular Culture
Please note: We
will be using D2L for this class.
- D2L Student Orientation:
https://online.eiu.edu/d2l/home/6909
- For IT Help, please call the
Help Desk at 217-581-HELP.
Texts:
About Genre:
Grant, Ed., Film Genre Reader III
Cli-Fi Novels read individually and/or in groups
Atwood, Year of the Flood
Bacigalupi, Shipbreaker
Butler, The Parable of the Sower
Kingsolver, Flight Behavior
McCarthy, The Road
Watkins, Gold, Fame, Citrus
Course Objectives: The following outlines the course
objectives:
Students
completing this course will:
- Identify and analyze the historical
forces that helped shape the development of various national and world
cinemas, including industrial, technological, and cultural influences
through both readings and film screenings related to climate fiction
literature and film. (quizzes,
discussion posts, presentation, and paper)
- Identify and analyze the emergence
of prominent world film movements related to cli-fi. (quizzes, blog
posts, and exams)
- Evaluate the uses of camera, editing,
lighting, sound, and acting, as well as their contributions to the
construction of meaning for audiences. (blog posts and exams)
- Analyze how cli-fi cinema and
literature reveals and responds to the social, economic, and cultural
contexts of their production. (discussion posts, presentation, and paper)
- Examine how meaning in cli-fi cinema
and literature is filtered through various cultural contexts through both
readings and film screenings. (discussion posts, presentation, and paper)
- Identify, critique and apply genre theories
in relation to global historical contexts through both readings and film
screenings. (discussion posts, presentation, and paper)
- Write analytically and effectively
about cli-fi literature and film in relation to its historical and
cultural contexts. (presentation, paper, and exams)
Learning Goals: Course objectives are designed to help
students achieve each of four learning goals of general education and
university-wide assessment as follows:
I. Critical
Thinking
EIU graduates
question, examine, evaluate, and respond to problems or arguments by:
- Asking essential questions and engaging diverse
perspectives.
- Seeking and gathering data, information, and knowledge
from experience, texts, graphics, and media.
- Understanding, interpreting, and critiquing relevant
data, information, and knowledge.
- Synthesizing and integrating data, information, and
knowledge to infer and create new insights Anticipating, reflecting upon,
and evaluating implications of assumptions, arguments, hypotheses, and
conclusions.
- Creating and presenting defensible expressions,
arguments, positions, hypotheses, and proposals.
II. Writing and
Critical Reading
EIU graduates
write critically and evaluate varied sources by:
- Creating documents appropriate for specific audiences,
purposes, genres, disciplines, and professions.
- Crafting cogent and defensible applications, analyses,
evaluations, and arguments about problems, ideas, and issues.
- Producing documents that are well organized, focused,
and cohesive.
- Using appropriate vocabulary, mechanics, grammar,
diction, and sentence structure.
- Understanding, questioning, analyzing, and synthesizing
complex textual, numeric, and graphical sources.
- Evaluating evidence, issues, ideas, and problems from
multiple perspectives.
- Collecting and employing source materials ethically and
understanding their strengths and limitations.
III. Speaking and
Listening
EIU graduates
prepare, deliver, and critically evaluate presentations and other formal
speaking activities by:
- Collecting, comprehending, analyzing, synthesizing and
ethically incorporating source material.
- Adapting formal and impromptu presentations, debates,
and discussions to their audience and purpose.
- Developing and organizing ideas and supporting them with
appropriate details and evidence.
- Using effective language skills adapted for oral
delivery, including appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and sentence
structure.
- Using effective vocal delivery skills, including volume,
pitch, rate of speech, articulation, pronunciation, and fluency.
- Employing effective physical delivery skills, including
eye contact, gestures, and movement.
- Using active and critical listening skills to understand
and evaluate oral communication.
IV. Responsible
Citizenship
EIU graduates
make informed decisions based on knowledge of the physical and natural world
and human history and culture by:
- Engaging with diverse ideas, individuals, groups, and
cultures.
- Applying ethical reasoning and standards in personal,
professional, disciplinary, and civic contexts.
- Participating formally and informally in civic life to
better the public good.
- Applying knowledge and skills to new and changing
contexts within and beyond the classroom.
Course Requirements:
1.
Responses for Small-Group Discussions: For these
frequent responses, you will
answer questions about the film(s) screened and/or text read for that class and
share them with your small group. Responses should be approximately 150 words.
Replies to peers should add connections with other films, literature, or
experiences or offer an alternative perspective.
2.
Group Presentations and Full-Class
Discussions: Members of four
groups will present one (or half) of cli-fi novel to the rest of the class. A
handout will be provided. These will serve as starting points for discussions
throughout the semester. For these, those folks outside the group presenting
will share a response to one of the questions the group members provide in
their multimedia presentation. Everyone will participate in a discussion and
will respond to at least two of their peers.
3.
Midterm:
This exam will include
information up to the middle of the semester. It will provide an opportunity to
internalize material read for class as a group and as a class, as well as apply
what you’ve learned to the films viewed in the class. You may use your film log
for this exam!
4.
Final Exam: This exam will be cumulative after
midterm. It will provide an opportunity to internalize material read for class
as a group and as a class, as well as apply what you’ve learned to the films
viewed in the class. You may use your film log for this exam!
5.
One traditional or digital “paper” with a
proposal and draft: You
will write one “paper” due near the
end of the semester. A handout will be provided for this project. This project will
allow you to look beyond films screened for class to examine a cli-fi novel
and/or film sub-genre in a paper of approximately 1500 words or its digital
equivalent. This can come in the form of a traditional essay or a video essay,
a wiki, a podcast with script, or some other digital format (as long as it
meets the criteria on the handout).
6.
Film Blog: This blog will offer a place for you to
write brief responses to the films we watch for class. These should be informal
and approximately 150 words and can be completed on the film analysis
worksheets. Respond to them in relation to Film Narrative and Style or our
class theme (cli-fi). You will use the blog on D2L for these responses.
Grades:
Grades will be determined
as follows for a total of 100%:
Small
Group Responses--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15%
Group
Presentation and Discussions-----------------------------------------------------------------20%
Midterm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15%
Final
Exam------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15%
Final
“Paper” and Proposal----------------------------------------------------------------------------20%
Film
Log---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15% _________
100%
Grading
of Discussions, Presentations, and Papers:
Discussion grades will be based on
analytical complexity and completed criteria. Please see rubric on D2L
“Paper” grades will be based on the
following areas in relation to the media chosen for the projects: Audience
awareness, organization, development, sentence structure, word choice,
grammar/usage/mechanics. The first three areas will be weighted more heavily
than the second three (60% vs. 40%). I will also distribute the English Department’s
grade analysis in class and a paper rubric in class and on D2L.
Presentations will be evaluated according
to a rubric I will distribute in class and on D2L.
Students
with Disabilities: If you
have a documented disability and wish to receive academic accommodations,
please contact the Coordinator of the Office of Disability Services (581-6583)
as soon as possible.
Plagiarism:
The English Department states, "Any teacher who discovers an act of
plagiarism -- `The appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and/or
thoughts of another author, and representation of them as one's original work'
-- has the right and the responsibility to impose upon the guilty student an
appropriate penalty, up to and including immediate assignment of a grade of
"F" in the course."
Electronic Writing Portfolio: This class is a writing intensive class,
so you may submit your paper as a writing portfolio sample, following the
instructions on the CASL Website. Submissions must be made during the course of
the class to receive my approval. Please note that the Writing Center is
available for help with all writing assignments, as well. Take advantage of
this free service.
Writing Center: Ambitious students can also seek help from
the Writing Center. Call for an appointment (581-5920) or visit ((CH3110) at
any point in the writing process, from brainstorming, planning and drafting, to
final editing. Bring your assignment sheet and any written work and/or sources
with you. The Writing Center is open Monday-Thursday, 9-3 and 6-9, and Friday
from 9-1.
Please Note: Students seeking Teacher Certification in
English Language Arts should provide each of their English department
professors with the yellow form, “Application for English department Approval
to Student Teach.” These are available on a rack outside the office of Dr.
Melissa Ames.
Also Note: You must complete all major assignments to
complete this course.
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