ENGH 474: Topics in Screen Cultures

ENGH 474-001: Film, Poetry & Social Justice
(Spring 2015)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM M

Section Information for Spring 2015

"One of the questions I often hear is 'How did that happen' as it relates to mind-numbing moments of injustice," says Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen, in a recent interview with cultural theorist Lauren Berlant.  This course will investigate questions of citizenship and social justice through film and poetry.  How do fact, memory, image and text interact differently in poetry and in film and what may be gained by reading one form of expression through another?  How do these invite us to perceive social reality as unjust and how do they elicit our outrage and wish for justice?  In other words, how is the reader of poetry or the viewer of film invited to assume her position as citizen--as member of a community, of the nation, or the world?  Team taught by Professor Carla Marcantonio (film and media studies) and Sally Keith (poetry), this course will juxtapose contemporary projects in poetry and film to investigate how art asks us to engage in issues of social justice.  The course will begin with a brief overview in order that all students are grounded in the basic critique of poetry and film.  Throughout the semester students will be required to write critical essays, though the final project will include an option for creative work (poetry/video) either individually or in collaboration.

Course Information from the University Catalog