D R A F T -- this page is still under construction

Speech Communication 515 Rhetoric of Film and Television -- Seminar in the Rhetoric of Narrative Film Fall 2002 Tuesday – 209 South Henderson Building – 2:30-5:30 p.m. (film showing) Thursday – 309 Sparks Bldg -4:15-5:30 (discussion)    class e-mail addresses: l-spcom515-FA02@lists.psu.edu class photos

Professor Thomas W. Benson 227 Sparks Building University Park, PA 16802 814-865-4201 mailto:t3b@psu.edu office hours Wednesday 2:30-5:00 --- and by appointment ======================================

  Final Examination

Alfred Hitchcock and the Critics:

The Rhetoric of the Thriller as Art, Entertainment, and Social Text

DATE	FILM		ASSIGNMENT
(1) Tues Aug 27 Thurs Aug 29	Murder! (1930)	Handel Fane in woman's costume Handel Fane in policeman's costume Handel Fane on trapeze	Readings: William Rothman, "Alfred Hitchcock’s Murder!: Theater, Authorship, and the Presence of the Camera"; Jean Douchet, "Hitch and His Public"; Maurice Yacowar, "Hitchcock’s Imagery and Art," in A Hitchcock Reader; Donald Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius, 1-137; William Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, 1-107; O. B. Hardison, "The Rhetoric of Hitchcock's Thrillers," Man and the Movies, ed. W. R. Robinson (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967), 137-152, on electronic reserve; Thomas W. Benson, "Joe: An Essay in the Rhetorical Criticism of Film," Journal of Popular Culture 8 (1974): 608-618, on electronic reserve; Tania Modleski, "Male Hysteria and the 'Order of Things': Murder," chapter 2 of The Women Who Knew Too Much, 31-42. Recommended Viewing: The Lodger (1926); Blackmail (1929); Juno and the Paycock (1930); Battleship Potemkin (1925); The Public Enemy (1931); M (1931); Little Caesar (1930)
(2) Tues Sept 3 Thurs Sept 5	The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Blackmail (1929)		Readings: Elisabeth Weis, "Consolidation of a Classical Style: The Man Who Knew Too Much"; Robin Wood, "Retrospective"; Leonard J. Leff, "Hitchcock at Metro"; Lesley W. Brill, "Hitchcock’s The Lodger"; Leland Poague, "Criticism and/as History: Rereading Blackmail," in A Hitchcock Reader; Charles Barr, "Blackmail: Silent and Sound," Sight and Sound 52 (1983): 189-193, on electronic reserve; Deborah Linderman, "The Screen in Hitchcock's Blackmail," Wide Angle 4 (1980): 20-28, on electronic reserve; Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much, Introduction and chapter 1, 1-30; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 141-159. Recommended Viewing: The Rules of the Game (1939); Rio Bravo (1959); Bringing Up Baby (1938); Duck Soup (1933); The Awful Truth (1937): The Blue Angel (1930); Les Carabiniers (1963); The Silence (1963); The Informer (1935); Scarface (1932).
(3) Tues Sept 10 Thurs Sept 12	The 39 Steps (1935)		Readings: Charles L. P. Silet, "Through a Woman’s Eyes: Sexuality and Memory in The 39 Steps," in A Hitchcock Reader; William Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, 110-172; Alan Williams, "Structures of Narrativity in Fritz Lang's Metropolis," Film Quarterly 27.4 (1974): 17-24, on electronic reserve. Recommended Viewing: It Happened One Night (1934); I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932).
(4) Tues Sept 17 Thurs Sept 19	The Lady Vanishes (1938)		Readings: Patrice Petro, "Rematerializing the Vanishing ‘Lady’: Feminism, Hitchcock, and Interpretation," in A Hitchcock Reader; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 163-189; Lucy Fischer, "Lady Vanishes: Women, Magic, and the Movies," Film Quarterly 33 (1979): 30-40, on electronic reserve; Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," Screen 16 (1975): 6-18, on electronic reserve; Mary Ann Doane, "Film and Masquerade--Theorizing the Female Spectator," Screen 23 (1982): 72-87, on electronic reserve. Recommended Viewing: Secret Agent (1936); Sabotage (1936); Shanghai Express (1932); Snow White and the Seven Drawfs (1937); Modern Times (1936); Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).
(5) Tues Sept 24 Thurs Sept 26	Shadow of a Doubt (1943)	sequence 1 from Shadow of a Doubt   sequence 2 from Shadow of a Doubt	Readings: James McLaughlin, "All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt," in A Hitchcock Reader; Jonathan Freedman and Richard Millington, "Introduction"; Debra Fried, "Love, American Style: Hitchcock’s Hollywood," in Hitchcock’s America; Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, 174-244; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 207-279; Ronnie Scheib, "Charlie's Uncle," Film Comment (March-April 1976), 55-62, on electronic reserve; Robin Wood, "Ideology, Genre, Auteur," Film Comment 49 (Jan-Feb 1977): 46-51, on electronic reserve; Peter Wollen, "The Auteur Theory," Movies and Methods, ed. Bill Nichols, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976): 529-541, on electronic reserve; Barbara Klinger, "Cinema / Ideology / Criticism Revisited: The Progressive Text," Screen 25.1 (1984): 30-44, on electronic reserve. Recommended Viewing: Jamaica Inn (1939); Rebecca (1940); Foreign Correspondent (1940); Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941); Suspicion (1941); Saboteur (1942); The Maltese Falcon (1941); Citizen Kane (1941); Dumbo (1941); High Sierra (1941); Casablanca (1943); The Ox Bow Incident (1943) Paper 1. Due on Friday 27 September. Write a close analysis of a scene or sequence from any Hitchcock film made before 1950. Choose what seems to you a scene that is of some interest for its dramatic contribution to the story and of some interest visually. In your paper, describe and analyze the scene in detail, including attention to dialogue, camerawork, editing, and sound. Consider how the scene shapes a viewer's response both to the scene under consideration and to the film as a whole. You may include captured frames or sketches to support your analysis.10-12 pages.
(6) Tues Oct 1 Thurs Oct 3	Notorious (1946)		Readings: Richard Abel, "Notorious: Perversion par Excellence"; Thomas Hyde, "The Moral Universe of Hitchcock’s Spellbound," in A Hitchcock Reader; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 283-316; Michael Renov, "From Identification to Ideology: The Male System of Hitchcock's Notorious," Wide Angle 4 (1980): 30-37, on electronic reserve; Jean-Louis Baudry, "Cinema: The Ideological Effects of the Basic Apparatus," Film Quarterly 27.2 (1974-1975): 39-47, on electronic reserve; Daniel Dayan, "The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema," Movies and Methods, ed. Bill Nichols, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976): 438-450, on electronic reserve; William Rothman, "Against the System of the Suture," Movies and Methods, ed. Bill Nichols, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976): 451-468, on electronic reserve; Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much, chapters 3 & 4, 43-71. Recommended Viewing: Lifeboat (1944); Spellbound (1945); Open City (1945); The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); Hail the Conquering Hero (1944); Meet Me in St. Louis (1944); The Killers (1946).
(7) Tues Oct 8 Thurs Oct 10	Rope (1948)		Readings: Amy Lawrence, "American Shame: Rope, James Stewart, and the Postwar Crisis in American Masculinity," in Hitchcock’s America; D. A. Miller, "Anal Rope," Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, ed. Diana Fuss (New York: Routledge, 1991), 119-141, on electronic reserve; Rodney Farnsworth, "John Wayne's Epic of Contradictions," Film Quarterly 52 (Winter 1998-1999): 22-34, on electronic reserve; Thomas W. Benson, "The Rhetorical Structure of Frederick Wiseman's High School," Communication Monographs 47 (1980): 233-261, on electronic reserve; Martin J. Medhurst and Thomas W. Benson, "The City: The Rhetoric of Rhythm," Communication Monographs, on electronic reserve. Recommended Viewing: The Paradine Case (1947); The Naked City (1948); All the King's Men (1949); The Snake Pit (1948); Gentleman's Agreement (1947); Paisan (1946); Crossfire (1947); It's a Wonderful Life (1947); Call Northside 777 (1948); State of the Union (1948); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
Mon Oct 14 Tues Oct 15		Fall Break -- no classes
(8) Thurs Oct 17			discussion of Rober Kapsis, Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation.
(9) Tues Oct 22 Thurs Oct 24	Strangers on a Train (1951)		Readings: Robin Wood, "Strangers on a Train," in A Hitchcock Reader; Robert J. Corber, "Hitchcock’s Washington: Spectatorship, Ideology, and the ‘Homosexual Menace’ in Strangers on a Train," in Hitchcock’s America; Thomas W. Benson, "Looking for the Public in the Popular: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Rhetoric of Collective Memory," Terministic Screen, ed. David Blakesley (forthcoming), 1-37, on electronic reserve; Thomas W. Benson, Thinking through Film: Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist," Rhetoric and Community, ed. J. Michael Hogan (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), 217-255, on electronic reserve; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 319-356. Recommended Viewing: Under Capricorn (1949); Stage Fright (1950); The Lavender Hill Mob (1951); The Men (1950); The Bicycle Thief (1949); Home of the Brave (1949); Panic in the Streets (1950); Twelve O'Clock High (1950); The African Queen (1951); A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
(10) Tues Oct 29 Thurs Oct 31	Rear Window (1954)		Readings: Dana Brand, "Rear-View Mirror: Hitchcock, Poe, and the Flaneur in America," in Hitchcock’s America; Robert Stam and Roberta Pearson, "Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Reflexivity and the Critique of Voyeurism," in A Hitchcock Reader; Nick Browne, "The Spectator-in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach," Film Quarterly (Winter 1975): 26-38, on electronic reserve; Daniel Sallitt, "Point of View and 'Intrarealism' in Hitchcock," Wide Angle 4.1 (1980): 39-43, on electronic reserve; Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much, chapter 5, 73-85. Recommended Viewing: I Confess (1953); Dial "M" for Murder (1954); Seven Samurai (1954); Pather Panchali (1955); Aparajito (1956); The World of Apu (1958); High Noon (1952); The Quiet Man (1952); Singin' in the Rain (1952); From Here to Eternity (1953); On the Waterfront (1954).
(11) Tues Nov 5 Thurs Nov 7	The Wrong Man (1956)		Readings: Marshall Deutelbaum, "Finding the Right Man in The Wrong Man," in A Hitchcock Reader; Frederick Foster, "Hitch Didn't Want It Arty," American Cinematographer 38.2 (1957): 84-85, 112-114, on electronic reserve; William Lafferty, "A Reappraisal of the Semi-Documentary in Hollywood, 1945-1948," The Velvet Light Trap 20 (1983): 22-26, on electronic reserve; Charles F. Altman, "Psychoanalysis and Cinema: The Imaginary Discourse," Quarterly Review of Film Studies 2.3 (August 1977): 257-272, on electronic reserve; Irving Schneider, "Images of the Mind: Psychiatry in the Commercial Film," American Journal of Psychiatry 134 (1977): 613-619, on electronic reserve; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 359-427. Recommended Viewing: To Catch a Thief (1955); The Trouble with Harry (1955); Grapes of Wrath (1940); Young Mr. Lincoln (1939); My Darling Clementine (1946); Twelve Angry Men (1957); Rebel Without a Cause (1955); Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). Paper 2. Due on Friday 8 November. A 10-12 page paper on any Hitchcock film released before 1956. As an appendix to your paper, include a list of scenes from your chosen film (for an example of how to do this, see a list of scenes from Taxi Driver). In your paper, include an analysis of the narrative structure of the film, attending to such dimensions as story line, point of view, repetition, sequence, suspense, and surprise. But you may go beyond the rhetoric of narrative structure in any direction your analysis takes you so long as it illuminates the rhetoric of the film.
(12) Tues Nov 12 Thurs Nov 14	The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)		Readings: Elsie B. Michie, "Unveiling Maternal Desires: Hitchcock and American Domesticity," in Hitchcock’s America. Recommended Viewing: Viva Zapata! (1952); The Robe (1953); The Country Girl (1954); Bridge on the River Kwai (1957);
(13) Tues Nov 19	Vertigo (1958)		Readings: Robin Wood, "Male Desire, Male Anxiety: The Essential Hitchcock"; Marian E. Keane, "A Closer Look at Scopophilia: Mulvey, Hitchcock, and Vertigo," in A Hitchcock Reader; Paula Marantz Cohen, "Hitchcock’s Revised American Vision: The Wrong Man and Vertigo"; Jonathan Freedman, "From Spellbound to Vertigo: Alfred Hitchcock and Therapeutic Culture in America," in Hitchcock’s America"; Virginia Wexman, "The Critic as Consumer: Film Study in the University, Vertigo, and the Film Canon," Film Quarterly 39 (1986): 32-41, on electronic reserve; Vittorio Giacci, "Alfred Hitchcock: Allegory of Ambiguous Sexuality," Wide Angle 4.1 (1980): 4-11, on electronic reserve; Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much, chapters 6 - 7 and afterword, 87-121. Recommended reading: Auiler, Hitchcock's Notebooks, 319-325. Recommended Viewing: Touch of Evil (1958); Paths of Glory (1957); Some Like It Hot (1959). Please plan to stay until 5:30 on Tuesday; because we will not meet on Thursday, we will discuss the film as a group on Tuesday after the film (and after a short break).
Thurs Nov 21		National Communication Association Annual Meeting -- class will engage in on-line discussion -- no class meeting.
(14) Tues Nov 26	North by Northwest (1959)		Readings: Richard H. Millington, "Hitchcock and American Character: The Comedy of Self-Construction in North by Northwest," in Hitchcock’s America; Stanley Cavell, North by Northwest, in A Hitchcock Reader; Marian Keane, "The Designs of Authorship: An Essay on North by Northwest," Wide Angle 4 (1980): 44-52, on electronic reserve; Raymond Bellour, "Hitchcock: The Enunciator," Camera Obscura 2 (1977): 66-87, on electronic reserve; Recommended reading: Alain Silver, "Fragments of the Mirror: Hitchcock's Noir Landscape," Film Noir: A Reader 2, ed. Alain Silver and James Ursini (New York: Limelight, 1999), 106-127. Recommended Viewing: On the Waterfront (1954); Anatomy of a Murder (1959); Ben Hur (1959); Breathless (1959); The 400 Blows (1959); Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959); Pickpocket (1959). Please plan to stay until 5:30 on Tuesday; because we will not meet on Thursday, we will discuss the film as a group on Tuesday after the film (and after a short break).
		November 28-29 - Thanksgiving holiday
(15) Tues Dec 3 Thurs Dec 5	Psycho (1960)		Readings: Raymond Bellour, "Psychosis, Neurosis, Perversion"; Barbara Klinger, "Psycho: The Institutionalization of Female Sexuality"; Leland Poague, "Links in a Chain: Psycho and Film Classicism," in A Hitchcock Reader; Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, 246-347; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 443-479; Editors of Cahiers du Cinema, "John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln," Movies and Methods, ed. Bill Nichols, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976): 493-528, on electronic reserve. Recommended Viewing: The Entertainer (1960); L'Avventura (1960); La Dolce Vita (1960); La Notte (1960); Shoot the Piano Player (1960); Jules and Jim (1961).
(16) Tues Dec 10 Thurs Dec 12	The Birds (1963)		Readings: Camille Paglia, The Birds (1998); Ian Cameron and Richard Jeffery, "The Universal Hitchcock," and Margaret M. Horwitz, "The Birds: A Mother's Love," in A Hitchcock Reader; Janet Bergstrom, "Enunciation and Sexual Difference (Part 1)," Camera Obscura 3-4 (33-69), on electronic reserve; Jacqueline Rose, "Paranoia and the Film System," Screen 17 (1977): 85-104, on electronic reserve; Spoto, Dark Side of Genius, 483-555. Recommended Viewing: Marnie (1964); Torn Curtain (1966); Topaz (1969); Frenzy (1972); Family Plot (1976); The Hustler (1961); Lawrence of Arabia (1962); 8 1/2 (1963); The Conformist (1970); M*A*S*H (1970); The Godfather (1972); Le Boucher (1970); Le Chien andalou (1928); Philadelphia Story (1940); Bonjour Tristesse (1958); The Time Machine (1960); Barbarella (1968); Suddenly Last Summer (1959); On the Beach (1959) Paper 3. Due on December 13. Write a paper in which you (1) Consider some aspect of the rhetoric of Hitchcock's filmmaking in 3 of his films. You might, for example, concentrate on a formal issue (such as camerawork; point of view, suspense, mise en scene, editing, sound) or on a thematic element (such as gender, guilt, voyeurism, or some other theme that has come up in our readings or discussions); or (2) compare a Hitchcock film with its remake (such as Psycho; The 39 Steps; Sabotage (1936) [remade as The Secret Agent (1996)]; Dial M for Murder [remade as A Perfect Murder, 1998]); or (3) write about a "Hitchcock " film made by another director, in which you analyze the Hitchockian appropriations, through close analysis of your chosen film and explicit comparison with Hitchcock's work. Remember that in the case of any of these assignments, you should try to engage in detailed description and close analysis of the film as a structure inviting an audience response. About 10-12 pages. Please leave the paper before 5 pm in Professor Benson's mailbox in room 232 Sparks Building.
Dec 16-20	FINAL EXAMS	Our exam is scheduled for Monday, December 16, 10:10-12:00 noon in 209 South Henderson	final exam

 

Required Textbooks

(note: local bookstores have been provided with this booklist; you may also want to shop at online bookstores to compare prices).

Deutelbaum, Marshall, and Leland Poague, eds. A Hitchcock Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1986.

Freedman, Jonathan, and Richard Millington, eds. Hitchcock’s America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Kapsis, Robert. Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. [this text is not assigned for a particular date, but you should read it before the end of the semester].

Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too Much. New York: Routledge, 1988.

Paglia, Camille. The Birds. London: British Film Institute, 1998.

Rothman, William. Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.

 

Internet Resources

For a guide to Internet sources on Hitchcock, try the Alfred Hitchcock Scholars MacGuffin page.

The Museum of Modern Art web site on Hitchcock

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - exhibit on Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences

Recommended Viewing

 
Each week, we have recommended several films that you might wish to view in connection with that week's required reading and viewing. Viewing a selection of these films will allow you to see more of Hitchcock's work, and to see films that are mentioned in the week's readings, or that were made at about the same time as the Hitchcock film featured in the week's viewing and discussion. Most of these films are available for viewing in the music and media library, which is part of the Arts and Humanities library in Pattee Library, 2nd floor, West wing.

Electronic Reserves

Some of the assigned course readings are available at the Electronic Reserves site in Pattee Library. You can access these files from any Internet connection, using your Penn State ID and password. To get to the electronic reserves, sign on the the enhanced online catalogue -- the CAT -- and then click the icon for course reserves. Once you have signed on to the electronic reserve site, look for the listings for Benson,, then for our course. Please have the assigned readings prepared and bring a printout to class to help support group discussion. If you wish to quote from the electronic reserve readings, be cautious about possible typographical errors--these materials were scanned and then converted to electronic text, and some errors inevitably appear. Because of the way the library has organized its reserve lists, many of the electronic reserves for this seminar appear on the library's list for SpCom 415 -- please check there as well as in the 515 list, and let me know at once if you have any problems accessing the materials.

Regular Reserves

Because many students will be needing access to the library's collection of books about Alfred Hitchcock, I have placed a number of these books on reserve in Pattee Library, some about Hitchcock and some about film more generally.

Academic Integrity

All work submitted for the course is assumed to be your own unless otherwise indicated. Violations of this standard will result in failure of the assignment and possibly in failure of the course and sanctions by University discipliinary authorities. You may of course discuss your work with other students, but all work that is quoted or paraphrased should be clearly identified. Do not submit in this course work that you have submitted or plan to submit to another course. Please consult me if you are in doubt about how to handle these issues. See also the parallel discussion of plagiarism in student writing maintained on the English department web site.

Grades

 
Grades will be based on

• assigned papers 20% each (60%)
• final examination 20%
• participation in class discussion and listserv 20%

Papers

 
You are assigned three critical papers of 10 - 12 pages. Each paper should engage in close reading of one or more films (see the more detailed assignments in the weekly schedule). In preparing each paper, you should do some library research--in each, you should cite at least three printed sources supporting your research. These citations may come from assigned or reserve readings, from newspaper reviews, or from relevant scholarly sources. Citations should be in the format described by the MLA Handbook. For other citation help see also the online reference shelf section at the Penn State University Libraries.

Note: although you may of course refer to any of Hitchcock's films in all of your papers, please do not make the same Hitchcock film the main subject of more than one of your papers--unless you have conferred with the instructor about building one long paper towards which the earlier papers are building.

Your paper should have a title page, the text of the paper, and a list of works cited. The second paper also requires an appendix--a list of scenes from the film about which you are writing. You may also include a list of scenes with your other papers to support your analysis, and you may include frames copied from a videotape to your computer, or hand-drawn sketches or diagrams. Please turn your paper in on the date it is due; on the same day, please send an electronic copy of the paper to me as an e-mail attachment.

Papers may be placed in my mailbox in Room 232 Sparks Building before 5:00 p.m. on the due date.

Attendance

 
Attendance is expected, at both film screenings and discussions. Readings are due on the date indicated in the syllabus, and students are expected to be ready to discuss them. Please bring to class the assigned readings for the day. Failure to attend will affect final grades. This class is based on a model of cooperation, participation, and active learning. Your work is to learn more about film and film criticism, and also to teach others about these subjects through your participation in discussion of course readings and film viewings.

Listserv

In order to extend class discussion beyond the Thursday meeting and to provide an opportunity for each student to participate fully in the discussion, each student is assigned to contribute to an on-line class discussion at least twice each week. These contributions will be counted as part of the class participation grade. At a minimum, each student should send a well considered contribution to the class by Friday evening, commenting on the film we have watched that week or on the week's readings and class discussion. By Sunday evening, please send to the list a comment or question on the readings for the coming week. Your comments may be informal, but they should be at least substantive enough to allow for discussion by the rest of the class. Of course, additional comments are welcome, and you are invited to respond to the notes of other students in a spirit of cooperative inquiry. Send your notes to l-spcom515-fa02@lists.psu.edu

Access

 "The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admissions, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. The Pennsylvania State University does not discriminate against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status." Penn State University Affirmative Action Office.

back to Tom Benson home page

to course announcement for Speech Communication 515, Fall 2002