Road Movies |
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COM 75-684 | Summer 2019 |
Course Schedule and Resource Links:
Week one:
May 15: Introduction to Road Movies; Screen Wanderlust (2006)
May 16: Screen Gun Crazy, or Deadly is the Female (1949)
Read: Archer, "Introduction: A Road Map for the Road Movie"; and Archer Notes; Cohan & Hark, "Introduction to The Road Movie Book"; Uhlman and Heitmann, "Stealing Freedom"
May 17: Screen Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
Read: Laderman, Ch. 1; Orgeron, "Introduction: Road Work Ahead" and Orgeron Notes; Corrigan, "Genre, Gender, and Hysteria"; Silva, "Gun Crazy: Cinematic Amour Fou"
Week two:
May 20: Discuss Gun Crazy and Bonnie & Clyde
Read: Leong, Sell, & Thomas, "Mad Love, Mobile Homes"; Creekmur, "On the Run and On the Road"; Leggett, "Convergence and Divergence in the Movie Review"
Due: Critical Connections Essay 1: Gun Crazy and Bonnie & Clyde
May 21: Screen Easy Rider (1969)
Read: Mills, "What Automobility Offers Cultural Studies"; Mills, "Bibliography"; and Mills, "Works Cited"
May 22: Screen Badlands (1973)
Read: Laderman, Ch. 2; Klinger, "The Road to Dystopia"; Orgeron, "Misreading America in Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider" and Notes
May 23: Discuss Easy Rider and Badlands
Read: Laderman, Ch. 3; Brickman, "Coming of Age in the 1970s"
Due: Critical Connections Essay 2: Easy Rider and Badlands
May 24: No Class--Writing Day
Week three:
May 27: No Class--Memorial Day
May 28: Screen True Romance (1993)
Read: Morris, "The Reflexivity of the Road Film"
May 29: Do-it-Yourself Road Movie Filmmaking Workshop
Due: Road Movie Analysis Project
May 30: Screen Natural Born Killers (1994)
Read: Carlson, "The Comeback Corpse in Hollywood"; Barra, "Why Bonnie & Clyde Won't Die"May 31: Discuss True Romance and Natural Born Killers
Read: Boyle, "What's Natural About Killing?"; Orgeron, "Roads and Movies as Another Century Turns: Stone & Lynch" and Notes
Due: Critical Connections Essay 3: True Romance and Natural Born Killers
Week four:
June 3: Screen Thelma & Louise (1991)
Read: Laderman, Ch. 5
June 4: Screen Get on the Bus (1996)
Read: Man, "Gender, Genre, and Myth in Thelma & Louise"; Cooper, "'Chick Flicks' as Feminist Texts"; Heller-Nicholas, "The F Word"
June 5: Discuss Thelma & Louise and Get on the Bus
Read: Holt & Jackson, "Reconstructing Black Manhood"
Due: Critical Connections Essay 4: Thelma & Louise and Get on the Bus
Collaborative DIY Road Movie Filmmaking Project
June 6: Due: Road Movie Research Project [electronic submission]
Design, Photography, and Text © 2019 by Bob Bednar
Department of Communication Studies
Southwestern University
Georgetown, Texas 78626 USA
vox: (512) 863-1440
email: bednarb@southwestern.edu