Trinity 247
Office Phone: 898-5534; email: aflescher@csuchico.edu
Office Hours: M/W 2:00-4:00, and by appointment
Course Description:
This course is concerned with the representation of meaning through a cinematic medium. During the semester, we will examine themes as fundamental to the human condition as selfhood, religious conviction, despair, redemption, race and ethnicity. In particular, we will focus on the relationship between self and society, with special emphasis placed on the struggling self in American contemporary society. As such, the course is concerned with the intersection of cultural studies and religious studies.
There are three general aims of the course: (1) to study methodologically how religion is used and represented in the genre of film; (2) to harness your analytical skills by closely examining the films as “texts” and attempting to comprehend the meaning or message imparted in them; and finally, (3) to develop your interpretive and critical faculties by writing informed appraisals and criticisms which apply the models, concepts, and terminology that emerge in the films, readings and class discussions. In each unit of the course we will view three films and read at least one major literary text. The latter is intended to provide the underlying context for the central issues covered in a particular unit. The course divides into three units: (1) “Religion and Self in Contemporary American Society” (2) “Religion, Redemption and Recovery” and (3) “Religion and Ethnicity: Examining our Constructions of the ‘Other’.” Throughout the course we will be guided by Jonathan Glover’s seminal Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, which connects all of these themes to one another.
Unit Overview:
In the first unit we examine the theme of the contemporary self in crisis. Increasingly, it appears that God is nowhere to be found in secular American society, where the existence of widespread and devastating evil serves as a profound challenge to our faith in a providential deity that oversees our ultimate welfare and well-being. Over the last two decades, this crisis has been marvelously portrayed in several films. What does a society in which God is presumed to have ‘left the scene’ for one reason or another look like? This unit will examine closely the themes of despair, disconnection, and the search for justice in a world seemingly bereft of hope for redemption from any supernatural source. The three films of this unit (Crimes and Misdemeanors; Grand Canyon; Changing Lanes) we view in light of the Freudian/Nietzschean thesis that the “death of God” poses a crisis of civilization. Can meaning be found within a secular context in which bad things happen without any logic or warning? As we will see, not all three films present a completely pessimistic answer to this question. In this unit we will read Freud’s seminal Civilization and its Discontents in order to bring these issues into better focus. In this text, Freud explores the tension he perceives between individual and the society that has betrayed him, delving into the modern themes of paralysis, resentment and despair.
In the second unit, the emphasis shifts to the possibility of redemption and recovery in light of the challenges to faith discussed in part one of the course. Here, we will examine films that acknowledge the arbitrariness of evil but that suggest also that the suffering, estrangement and seeming permanence of our shared human predicament might be overcome in unexpected ways. As such, we will focus on the themes of forgiveness and redemption as they are conveyed in film. What are some plausible options for our deliverance from “exile” in a world that manifests itself as both beyond our control and indifferent to our concerns? In some of these films, the traditional idea of an all-loving, all-powerful deity is reaffirmed, even if that deity remains hidden. In others, the religious alternative surfaces in rather unorthodox ways. Alongside the films that we will view in this unit (Magnolia; Jacob’s Ladder; Breaking the Waves), we will read Dostoevsky’s masterpiece about redemption and forgiveness, Crime and Punishment.
In the final unit of the course we will examine the question of our construction of the cultural “other,” a question that has become increasingly timely in light of September 11th and its aftermath. In this unit, we will address the themes of ethnicity and understanding, assimilation, power, “cognitive dissonance,” and multi-culturalism. We will pay close attention to a problem that is particular to the field of religious studies, namely, the problem of “tribalism,” which often manifests itself as a violent and enduring struggle between two or more ethnic groups in close proximity to one another, the deep-rooted nature of which often seems unexplainable to the outside world. And we will view all this in the context of the current and yet perennial conflict in the Middle East between Israeli and Palestine. The three films we will view in this unit (Do the Right Thing; Before the Rain; Three Kings) each, in their own separate way, force us, as viewers, to re-examine our own prejudices about how we form our impressions of the “other” among us. The genre of film is a particularly effective medium for addressing the issue of “difference,” as it enables us to gain an acquaintance with the cultural or religious other through a visual exposure to her. The text that we will consult to bring these films together is Amy Wilentz’s rich, poignant novel, Martyr’s Crossing.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (Norton)
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Norton)
Amy Wilentz, Martyr’s Crossing (Ballantine)
Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Yale)
Please notify me of any special need relating to your disability within the first two weeks of the semester. I will make every reasonable effort to facilitate your success in this course. Please note that you may be required to show documentation of your disability.
Four Ground Rules:
Paper #1: Six pages, double-spaced, covering themes discussed in unit 1: 30%
Paper #2: Six pages, double-spaced, covering themes discussed in unit 2: 30%
Paper #3: Six pages, double-spaced, covering themes discussed in unit 3: 30%
Journal and Participation: 10%
Attendance is mandatory
Please note: For every unexcused absence, your final grade will be lowered a full letter grade. (An excused absence is one that is the result of an unavoidable emergency and one that, if at all possible, you will have discussed with me in advance). Also, you must receive a passing grade on all written assignments in order to pass the course.
Protocol:
Class will generally meet on Monday night, for about two and a half hours. There are five classes devoted to a unit. At the beginning of each unit, I will lecture at length on the text we are reading for that unit, as well as discuss the cluster of films we are scheduled to see in that unit. (Thus, there will be three of these “big” lectures over the course of the semester.) On the nine film nights, I will typically lecture for about a half an hour, discussing the particular film we are about to see and putting it in context of the reading. Following this introduction, I will show the film, which will last between ninety minutes and two hours. Finally, at the end of each of the three units, we will devote an entire class period to class discussion, in which we will talk about the three films and readings that comprised that particular unit. During these discussion periods, my goal is to speak less than all of you. In order to contribute, you must be present, both physically and mentally. This means that in addition to having watched the films you must, by this time, have done all the readings and come prepared to discuss them. This course is highly interactive and will not work without your active participation. Please bring the texts with you to class on the days that we devote exclusively to discussion.
Week 1: (January 23rd)
Introduction to Course: Film and the Quest for Meaning/ Lecture on Freud
UNIT I: RELIGION AND SELF IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY
Week 2: (January 30th)
The Fate of Faith and Justice Following the Death of God, Freud’s Civilizations and its Discontents
Reading:
Freud, Civilizations and its Discontents, chapters I-III, pp. 10-52
Glover, Humanity, Chapter 1, “Never Such Innocence Again,” pp. 1-10
Viewing:
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
Week 3: (February 6th)
The Secular Self in Crisis, part 1
Reading:
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, chapters, IV-XIII, pp. 53-112.
Viewing:
Week 4: (February 13th)
The Secular Self in Crisis, part 2
Reading:
Glover, Humanity, Part I (chapters 2-7), “Ethics Without the Moral Law,” pp. 11-46.
Viewing:
Changing Lanes (Roger Michell)
Week 5: (February 20th)
Review/Discussion of all readings and films in Unit I
Reading: Glover, Humanity, Part II (chapters 8-13), “The Moral Psychology of Waging War,” pp. 47-116.
PAPER #1 DUE, Monday February 27th
UNIT II: RELIGION, REDEMPTION, AND RECOVERY
Week 6: (February 27th)
Lecture: The Transcendent Hidden?: Dostoevsky and Hard-Won Redemption
Reading:
Begin reading Dostoevksy, Crime and Punishment
Week 7: (March 6th)
God in Film: Theology and the Silver Screen
Reading:
Continue reading Dostoevksy, Crime and Punishment
Viewing:
SPRING BREAK: (Week of March 13th)---continue reading Crime and Punishment
Reading:
Finish Crime and Punishment
Jonathan Glover, Humanity, A Moral History of the 20th Century, part VII (chapters 42-43 and epilogue), pp. 401-414.
Viewing:
Reading:
Stephen Heath: “God, Faith and Film: Breaking the Waves” (handout)
Viewing:
Week 10: (April 3rd)
Review/Discussion of all readings and films in Unit II
Please note: there will be no class the week of April 10th. This is to give you an opportunity all week to concentrate on writing paper #2, which is due the following Monday.
PAPER #2 Due Monday, April 17th
Week 11: (April 17th)
Lecture: Self and Other in Film; Religion after September 11th
Reading:
Begin reading Wilentz, Martyr’s Crossing
Continue Wilentz, Martyr’s Crossing
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
Week 13: (May 1st)
Ethnic Conflict and Tribalism
Reading:
Glover, Humanity, part III, “Tribalism,” pp. 119-236.
Viewing:
Week 14: (May 8th)
Religion, Ethnicity and Current Events
Reading:
Finish Wilentz, Martyr’s Crossing
Viewing:
Three Kings (David O. Russell)
Week 15: (May 15th)
Review/Discussion of all readings and films in Unit III
Please note: No LATE papers accepted; papers due by 4:00 PM.