Announcing a course for Spring 2001

Speech Communication 515

Seminar in the Rhetoric of Narrative Film

Tom Benson

This course will offer an intensive examination of the art of Alfred Hitchcock, one of the great film artists of the twentieth century.

Each week, the class will screen one or more of Hitchcock’s classic films. The class will then meet in small discussion sections for intensive analysis of the films and a series of related readings. Our discussions and readings will explore Hitchcock as one of Hollywood’s most successful popular entertainers, the "master of suspense"; as one of the great artists of the medium; as a critic of American culture; and as a persona whose reputation is a construction of his own efforts, and the product of reviewers and academic critics.

Among the films to be screened:

Psycho	The Man Who Knew Too Much	Shadow of a Doubt
Vertigo	Rear Window	The Lady Vanishes
Strangers on a Train	The Birds	The 39 Steps
The Wrong Man	Notorious	Suspicion
Rope	North by Northwest

The class will meet for screenings Tuesdays, 2:30 – 5:30 pm. in room 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building.

A small discussion section will meet Wednesday afternoons, 1:00 - 2:15 p.m. for 75-minute sessions, in room 219 Thomas Building.

A draft of the course syllabus will soon be available on this site. Click on the paw icon

For more information on the course, contact Professor Thomas W. Benson , whose web site is at