SCREENsite: Seminar in Genre Theory

This course material © 1995 Leo Braudy. It may be reproduced for non-profit, educational uses, but publication in any profit-making form or in any book or magazine form must first be cleared with the author.

Leo Braudy (braudy@mizar.usc.edu), Department of English, Taper Hall of Humanities, University of Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089.

Fall 1995	Leo Braudy
Monday 3-6	Lucas 205/7/309

English 660
Seminar in Genre Theory

I. From Literature to Film: Some Basic Myths Reseen

Sept 11 Introduction: Genre and Ritual: Horror as Religion
James Whale, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (in class)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1819)
James Whale, Frankenstein (1931)
Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)
Todd Browning, Dracula (1931)
Suggested:
William Friedkin, The Exorcist (1973)
M. G. Lewis, The Monk (1796)

Sept 18 Genre and Gender: Horror as Proto-Psychology
Rouben Mamoulian, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) (in class)
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
Suggested:
Victor Fleming, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Sept 25 Edgar Allan Poe (d. 1849): William Wilson; Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Purloined Letter
Alfred Hitchcock, Shadow of a Doubt (1943); Psycho (1959)
Suggested:
Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966)
Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Oct 2 Genre and Pattern: The Detective Story
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930)
John Huston, The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Suggested:
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (1939)
Howard Hawks, The Big Sleep (1946)

Oct 9 Robert Aldrich, Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (in class)
Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury (1947)
Suggested:
Ross MacDonald, Black Money (1966)

II. Genre and Film Form: The Possibilities of Self-Criticism

Oct 16 Genre and History: The Western
Owen Wister, The Virginian (1902)
John Ford, Stagecoach (1939)
Howard Hawks, Red River (1948)
Suggested:
Raoul Walsh, They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

Oct 23 John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock (1954) (in class)
Louis L'Amour, Hondo (1953)
Suggested:
John Ford, The Searchers (1956); The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Robert Aldrich, Ulzana's Raid (1972)
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992)

Oct 30 Genre and Society: The Musical
Busby Berkeley/Lloyd Bacon, 42nd Street (1933)
Mark Sandrich, Shall We Dance? (1937)

Nov 6 Vincent Minnelli, The Pirate (1948) (part in class)
Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) (part in class)
Suggested:
R. Wise/J. Robbins, West Side Story (1961)
Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come (1973)

Nov 13 Genre and Gender: Crime, Melodrama, Comedy
Mervin LeRoy, Little Caesar (1930) (in class)
W. R. Burnett, Little Caesar (1929)
Howard Hawks, Scarface (1932)
Francis Coppola, The Godfather (1972)

Nov 20 Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas (1923)
King Vidor, Stella Dallas (1937)
James Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941)
Michael Curtiz, Mildred Pierce (1945)

Nov 27 John Stahl, Imitation of Life (1934) (in class)
Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life (1959) (clips)
Fannie Hurst, Imitation of Life (1933)
Suggested:
John Stahl, Magnificent Obsession (1935)
Douglas Sirk, Magnificent Obsession (1954)
Lloyd C. Douglas, Magnificent Obsession

Dec 4 Genre and the Future: Technology and Politics
Robert Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (1952)
Robert Wise, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks, The Thing (1951)
Fritz Lang, Metropolis (1926)
Suggested:
Ridley Scott, Alien (1979)
James Cameron, The Terminator (1984)
James Cameron, Aliens (1986)

Let us also try to have an after-the-semester session in which we look at some examples of the mixed genres of the present.

Critical Readings

Texts
Leo Braudy. The World in a Frame, second edition. University of Chicago Press, 1984.
John Cawelti. Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture. University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Barry Keith Grant, ed. Film Genre Reader. University of Texas Press, 1986.
Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy. Film Theory and Criticism, fourth edition. Oxford UP, 1992.
Thomas Schatz. Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Studio System. Random House, 1981.
*Packet of articles.

Sept 11
Braudy, 104-24; Cawelti, 1-50; Schatz, 1-41.
Edward Buscombe, "The Idea of Genre in American Cinema," FGR, 11-25.
Bruce Kawin, "The Mummy's Pool," FTC, 549-560.
Andrew Tudor, "Genre," FGR, 3-10.

Sept 18
Braudy, 65-76.
Bruce Kawin, "Children of the Light," FGR, 236-57.
Thomas Schatz, "The Structural Influence: New Directions in Film Genre Study," FGR, 91-101.
Thomas Sobchack, "Genre Film: A Classical Experience," FGR, 102-113.

Sept 25
Braudy, 225-235.
*Braudy, "Genre and the Resurrection of the Past," from Native Informant.
*Linda Williams, "When the Woman Looks," FTC, 561-77.
*Janet Wolff, The Social Production of Art, chapter 4.

Oct 2
Braudy, 76-94; Cawelti, 80-138.
Rick Altman, "A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre," FGR, 26-40.
John Cawelti, "Chinatown and Generic Transformation in Recent American Films," FGR, 183-201.

Oct 9
Cawelti, 139-191; Schatz, 11-49.
Barbara Klinger, "'Cinema/Ideology/Criticism' Revisited: The Progressive Genre," FGR, 74-90.
Paul Schrader, "Notes on Film Noir," FGR, 169-82.
Robin Wood, "Ideology, Genre, Auteur," FGR, 59-73/FTC, 475-85.
Judith Hess Wright, "Genre Films and the Status Quo," FGR, 41-49.

Oct 16
Braudy, 124-39; Cawelti, 192-259.
Tag Gallagher, "Shoot-Out at the Genre Corral: Problems in the 'Evolution' of the Western," FGR, 202-216.
Douglas Pye, "The Western (Genre and Movies)," FGR, 143-58.
Robert Warshow, "Movie Chronicle: The Westerner," FTC, 434-50.

Oct 23
Braudy, 182-218; Schatz, 45-80.
Barry Keith Grant, "Experience and Meaning in Genre Films," FGR, 114-28.
Richard De Cordova, "Genre and Performance: An Overview," FGR, 129-42.

Oct 30
Braudy, 124-39.
Jean-Loup Bourget, "Social Implications in the Hollywood Genres," FGR, 50-58.
Jane Feuer, "The Self-Reflexive Musical and the Myth of Entertainment," FGR, 329-343.

Nov 6
Braudy, 139-181; Schatz, 45-80.
*Rick Altman, "Dickens, Griffith, and Film Theory Today."

Nov 13
Schatz, 81-110.
Edward Mitchell, "Apes and Essences: Some Sources of Significance in the American Gangster Film," FGR, 159-68.
*Robert Warshow, "The Gangster as Tragic Hero."

Nov 20
Cawelti, 260-95; Schatz, 221-60.
Thomas Elsaesser, "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama," FGR, 278-308.
*Tania Modleski, "Time and Desire in the Woman's Film," FTC, 536-48.
*Linda Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess," Film Quarterly 44.1 (Summer 1991): 2-13.

Nov 27
Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," FTC, 746-57.
Christine Gledhill, "Recent Developments in Feminist Criticism," FTC, 93-114.
*Jacques Derrida, "The Law of Genre."
Recommended:
Brian Henderson, "Romantic Comedy Today: Semi-Tough or Impossible?" FGR, 309-28.
E. Anne Kaplan, ed. Women in Film Noir (reserve).

Dec 4
Braudy, 20-57.
Margaret Tarrat, "Monsters from the Id," FGR, 258-77.
*Susan Sontag, "The Imagination of Disaster."
*Vivian Sobchack, "Child/Alien/Father: Patriarchal Crisis and Generic Exchange."

Topics for Oral Presentations

September 18	Theories of Horror Literary Evolution of Horror
September 25	Evolution of Horror as Film Genre: 1970s-1990s
October 2	Literary Detective Genre
October 9	Film Detective Genre Political Interpretations of Genre
October 16	Westerns as a Literary Genre
October 23	Westerns as a Film Genre Theories of Western as Genre: Evolution or Instant Genesis?
October 30	Musicals and the Vaudeville Stage Theories of Musical as Genre: Altman, Feuer, etc.
November 6	Musicals and Movie Technology: The Question of Collective Authorship
November 13	Genre and Authorship: Hawks, Hitchcock, etc.
November 20	Melodrama Controversy: Doan, Modleski, Williams, Gledhill, etc.
November 27	Gender Theories of Genre
December 4	Science Fiction as Genre Cold War and Genre Modulation

Requirements

This seminar will investigate the major theories of genre in both fiction and film through an examination of films from the history of American genre film augmented by works of both fiction and theory.

Four pieces of work will be required:

a presentation on a weekly topic relevant to the reading, for example, the history of detective fiction, the coming of sound film, the Cold War and the politicization of genre, and so on. This need not be formally written down, but I would like you to compile--and copy for the rest of the class--an annotated bibliography of useful works.
an informal presentation on the critical reading for the week, focusing on significant issues.
two papers, 10-15 pages each, dealing with 1) a setting of a particular film or films within their historical context or in relation to their literary sources; and 2) the consideration of a particular film or films in the light of a significant theory of genre.

**Since a good deal of the learning of genre requires a submersion into as many varieties of the forms as possbile, I suggest that sudents keep a journal of their watchings and readings. This is not required. But it will certainly be useful and rewarding.

Sept 11	Introduction: Genre and Ritual: Horror as Religion James Whale, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (in class) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1819) James Whale, Frankenstein (1931) Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) Todd Browning, Dracula (1931) Suggested: William Friedkin, The Exorcist (1973) M. G. Lewis, The Monk (1796)
Sept 18	Genre and Gender: Horror as Proto-Psychology Rouben Mamoulian, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) (in class) Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) Suggested: Victor Fleming, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Sept 25	Edgar Allan Poe (d. 1849): William Wilson; Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Purloined Letter Alfred Hitchcock, Shadow of a Doubt (1943); Psycho (1959) Suggested: Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966) Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Oct 2	Genre and Pattern: The Detective Story Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930) John Huston, The Maltese Falcon (1941) Suggested: Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (1939) Howard Hawks, The Big Sleep (1946)
Oct 9	Robert Aldrich, Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (in class) Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury (1947) Suggested: Ross MacDonald, Black Money (1966)

Oct 16	Genre and History: The Western Owen Wister, The Virginian (1902) John Ford, Stagecoach (1939) Howard Hawks, Red River (1948) Suggested: Raoul Walsh, They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Oct 23	John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock (1954) (in class) Louis L'Amour, Hondo (1953) Suggested: John Ford, The Searchers (1956); The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Robert Aldrich, Ulzana's Raid (1972) Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven (1992)
Oct 30	Genre and Society: The Musical Busby Berkeley/Lloyd Bacon, 42nd Street (1933) Mark Sandrich, Shall We Dance? (1937)
Nov 6	Vincent Minnelli, The Pirate (1948) (part in class) Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) (part in class) Suggested: R. Wise/J. Robbins, West Side Story (1961) Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come (1973)
Nov 13	Genre and Gender: Crime, Melodrama, Comedy Mervin LeRoy, Little Caesar (1930) (in class) W. R. Burnett, Little Caesar (1929) Howard Hawks, Scarface (1932) Francis Coppola, The Godfather (1972)
Nov 20	Olive Higgins Prouty, Stella Dallas (1923) King Vidor, Stella Dallas (1937) James Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941) Michael Curtiz, Mildred Pierce (1945)
Nov 27	John Stahl, Imitation of Life (1934) (in class) Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life (1959) (clips) Fannie Hurst, Imitation of Life (1933) Suggested: John Stahl, Magnificent Obsession (1935) Douglas Sirk, Magnificent Obsession (1954) Lloyd C. Douglas, Magnificent Obsession
Dec 4	Genre and the Future: Technology and Politics Robert Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (1952) Robert Wise, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks, The Thing (1951) Fritz Lang, Metropolis (1926) Suggested: Ridley Scott, Alien (1979) James Cameron, The Terminator (1984) James Cameron, Aliens (1986)