ENGLISH 381: SCOTTISH CINEMA
M 3-6:30 pm
(Screenings) and W 3-5:30 pm (Discussions), HHH 323
PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN
Office: HHH
425, Office Phone: (715) 836-4369
Office Hours: MWF
1-1:30 pm, M 6:40-7:20 pm, T 9:50-10:30 pm,
and W 5:40-6:20 pm
as well as By Appointment.
ranowlan@uwec.edu
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan
COURSE
EXPLANATION
English 381: Scottish Cinema will explore Scottish
cinema in historical and cultural context. We will learn about
the institutional history of cinematic production in Scotland, as well
as about the history of the distribution, exhibition, and reception of
cinema in Scotland. We will take into account major achievements
in Scottish film making as well as films that indicate the diversity
and peculiarity of Scottish cinema. The course will include
particular consideration of the art and politics of cinematic
(self-)representations of Scotland, of distinct Scottish populations
past and present, and of ‘Scottishness’—in films made ‘from Scotland’,
as well as in films made ‘from beyond Scotland’. How film
contributes toward discursive constructions of Scotland and
Scottishness will be a major focus of our collective critical
inquiry—as will be the case with a corollary collective critical
inquiry into what kind of influence and impact these constructions
exert, in Scotland and for Scots, as well as beyond Scotland and for
non-Scots. In other words, a major focus of our interest will be
to study how film contributes to the ways Scottish and non-Scottish
people conceive of and relate to both Scotland and Scottishness, as
well as how cinematic constructions of Scotland and Scottishness are
interrelated with those taking shape in other kinds of cultural
productions, and through other forms of cultural activity. We
will study Scottish film in connection with Scottish literature,
Scottish music, Scottish art, and other dimensions of Scottish popular
culture, as well as in connection with Scottish geography and
topography. We will also examine Scottish interrelations with
England and Wales; Great Britain and the United Kingdom; Ireland and
Northern Ireland; Europe and North America; pan-Celtic identities and
cultures; empire, exile, and internal as well as external emigration;
and colonial, neo-colonial, and post-colonial nations, peoples, and
cultures of the so-called ‘Third World’.
***
Scotland is a small nation, and, as part of both
Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, Scotland is also what might well be conceived as ‘a smaller
nation within a larger nation’ (along with England, Wales, and Northern
Ireland). Yet Scots have nevertheless exerted an enormous
impact in world history (with Scots’ contributions as scientific
inventors and to the philosophical legacy of the European Enlightenment
serving as merely two of the most famous examples of this
impact). In addition, Scotland and Scottishness have long
exercised a considerable global fascination and appeal (Scotland
continues to attract disproportionately higher tourism than the rest of
the UK, while serving as a seemingly endlessly protean stimulus for
romance and myth). What’s more, even over the course of the three
hundred years since the Act of Union in 1707 which effectively
eliminated Scotland as a sovereign nation-state, Scotland has retained
a highly distinct national culture as well as many highly distinct–and
highly influential–social institutions (including in areas, for
example, of law, education, religion, and the provision of social
welfare). At the same time, as surveys of public opinion
repeatedly attest, Scots tend to identify as Scottish in much higher
proportions than they do as British. Plus, since 1999, with
the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the devolution of
significant self-governing authority–and national autonomy–to a
Scottish government elected by the Scottish people, Scottish
distinctiveness is now routinely manifest and widely
acknowledged, even by staunch unionists (i.e., those who oppose full
Scottish independence, and who instead support the continuation of
Scotland within the UK, and the continued ultimate subordination of the
Scottish government in Edinburgh to the UK government in Westminster).
One striking recent illustration of Scotland’s
distinctiveness showed up in the results of the May 2010 UK national
election, where the Labour Party comfortably won the largest number of
votes across Scotland, while the Conservative Party comfortably won the
largest number of votes across much of England; post-election-results
maps of the UK often depicted Scotland as overwhelmingly red, for
Labour, and England as overwhelmingly blue, for Conservative.
Indeed, Scotland has long maintained, as a whole, stronger support for
an unmitigatedly egalitarian social democratic form of welfare state
politics (as well as for a culture that privileges communal social
bonds and the virtues of class-based collective solidarity over
individualism) than has often been the case in much of England.
Yet, at the same time, what it means to be Scottish,
and what is conceived to be distinctive about Scotland and
Scottishness–past and present–continue to function as sites of intense
contestation, especially among Scots. Scotland, in fact,
encompasses ‘many Scotlands’ with their own considerably distinct
characteristics in turn–and these ‘Scotlands’ can be distinguished
along lines of region, locale, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality,
generation, subcultural affiliation, political identification,
language, religion, and yet many more lines of demarcation. At
the same time, the history of modern (and postmodern) Scotland has been
obsessed with imagined Scotlands and imagined Scottishnesses, as well
as with myths of Scotland, and myths of Scottishness. These are
neither simple falsehoods, nor illusions (let alone delusions), not by
any means. These are, instead, ways people have represented to
themselves and to others what they conceive Scotland and Scottishness
to be–and to mean. These representations include images people
conjure in thinking, talking, and writing of Scotland and Scottishness,
as well as stories people tell about how they conceive of Scotland and
Scottishness. And these images and stories in turn exert immense
impact–and exercise immense power. In other words, imaginations
of Scotland and Scottishness exercise enormous real effects, over what
people think, feel, believe, and do in ‘real life’. The same is
true of myths–these are myths people live by, and which they
continually turn to and draw upon in seeking to make sense of their own
experience, and that of others both (seemingly) similar to and
different from themselves, both (seemingly) close to and distant from
themselves, and both (seemingly) related to and unrelated to
themselves. Yet, since a considerable plurality of
imaginations–and myths–of Scotland and Scottishness exist, and persist,
while all of these imaginations and myths continue to evolve, develop,
and transform, people don’t engage with a single notion of what
Scotland is, or a single notion of what Scottishness is either.
Not by a long shot.
Scottish cinema (along with Scottish literature and
other influential kinds of media and cultural production) represents a
preeminent site through which the dissemination of these diverse,
contesting imaginations–and myths–of Scotland and of Scottishness takes
place. Yet the question of what constitutes ‘Scottish cinema’ is
complicated. Operating out of a small nation, Scots have long
struggled to find adequate means to produce, distribute, and exhibit
films. They have likewise often struggled to secure
adequate training, as well as adequate means of sustaining a livelihood
through film making, or such that they could concentrate considerable
time and energy in film making while still earning their living
elsewhere and otherwise. At the same time, Scottish film makers
have had to deal not only with the global hegemony of Hollywood, but
also the considerable weight of major continental European national
cinemas, and of the prioritization of the interests of English film
making (and of English film makers) within British national
cinema. Nevertheless, Scots have often demonstrated considerable
ingenuity in finding ways to make many impressive films, including
films with distinctive accents, emphases, styles, and flavors.
Throughout the history of film making in Scotland, government
support–on the UK level, on the Scottish national level, and on
regional and local levels within Scotland–has often proven vital in
enabling Scottish films to be produced, distributed, and exhibited, yet
the forms by which this support has been made available, as well as the
structures under which and the strictures according to which it has
been allocated have repeatedly shifted, often considerably, as have the
amounts available for the kinds of film making projects Scottish film
makers have been most interested in pursuing. The 1990s, and
especially the latter half of that decade, represented a breakthrough
period for Scottish cinema, which some even dubbed a ‘renaissance’, but
over the course of the last decade much of the optimism sparked during
that brief heyday has waned, while Scottish film makers today maintain
considerable uncertainty, as well as anxiety, about what the future of
government support will be like. Film makers worry about the
consequences to follow from the recent dissolution of Scottish Screen
and the Scottish Arts Council into Creative Scotland, as well as about
the substantial reductions in state support for art and culture looming
imminently on the horizon, as the new UK Conservative-Liberal
Democratic coalition government promises substantially to slash public
sector spending over the course of the next five years, as well as to
significantly reduce the overall size of the public sector in the UK
economy.
But Scottish film makers have long made films with
considerable support and involvement from many people outside of
Scotland, and will likely do so to an even greater extent in the
future. What’s more, many films have been and continue to be made
in Scotland by people who are not Scottish citizens, and many films
whose stories are set in Scotland, and which feature ostensibly
Scottish characters, are–and long have been–routinely filmed outside of
Scotland. As Duncan Petrie writes, at the beginning of chapter
one of his book Screening Scotland,
Since the very
beginnings of the cinema a great many
films have been made which feature Scottish subject-matter, Scottish
locations, Scottish actors and even on occasion Scottish
directors. But practically all of these have, by and large, been
initiated, developed, financed and produced by individuals and
companies based in either London or Los Angeles. In other words,
from an industrial and institutional point of view
‘Scottish’ cinema is
a construct subsumed within the history of British cinema or of
Hollywood. This is not to say that these films are somehow
irrelevant or uninteresting; indeed they are informed by the discursive
practices within which the dominant representations of Scotland and the
Scots have been constructed. (15)
Increasingly, scholars engaging with Scottish cinema extend their focus
widely, examining a broad range of films, including films (past and
present) that are not made by Scots, and not made in Scotland, but
which nevertheless relate stories set in Scotland and featuring
Scottish characters. Increasingly, in other words, ‘Scottish
cinema’ becomes a locus to examine the multiply diverse and contesting
ways many film makers–and many film audiences–imagine Scotland, and
Scottishness, as well as the multiply diverse and contesting myths of
Scotland and Scottishness that these disparate film makers and film
audiences find compelling and appealing. In this class we will do
the same while taking into account where film makers are coming from,
when, how, and why in producing the images of and relating the stories
about Scotland and Scottishness they do (and, likewise, we will take
into account what kinds of audiences film makers specifically target
with their particular representations of Scotland and Scottishness, as
well as how different audiences, coming from different vantage points,
respond differently to these representations).
Initially, many serious scholars focusing their work
on Scottish film harshly critiqued the predominant myths animating and
circulated by many, if not most, prominent cinematic representations of
Scotland and Scottishness. Among some of the most historically
prominent of these myths are the following: 1.) the Scottish Highlands
and Islands as remote, primitive, exotic, isolated, and pristine
locations overpoweringly suggestive of a pre-modern wilderness and
sublimely resonant with the force of the supernatural; 2.) rural Scots
as canny and wily yet also simple and childlike, or, alternately, as
simultaneously noble yet savage; 3.) Scots–especially Scottish
Highlanders–as an historical race replete with idealistic, romantic,
and courageous rebels and freedom fighters; 4.) Scots as people with
pronounced tendencies toward exceptionally strong interest in–and,
especially, exceptionally strong attraction to–the mysterious, the
macabre, the morbid, the gothic fantastical, the bizarrely horrific,
and the surreally miserablist; 5.) Scots as tending likewise toward
intense fascination with–and, indeed, as strongly convinced of
the ineradicable–duality and division of identity, with doubles and
doppelgangers, as well as with continuous internal tensions along with
continuous external struggles between light and dark, good and evil,
and the elect and the damned; 6.) middle class Scots as inclined toward
a dour, distrustful, and overtly prickly outward demeanor combined with
a strong proclivity toward frugality and asceticism; 7.) Scots as
highly argumentative, restless, dissatisfied, and even hyper-critical
while at the same time both overtly stridently anti-sentimental yet in
actual practice quickly inclined toward and readily indulgent in
sentimentality; 8.) urban working class Scottish males as tough, hard
men, with a penchant for drinking, fighting, criminal gangs, and
miscellaneous other forms of violent masculine excess which they will
revel in when and if not otherwise adequately employed in productive
physical wage-labor, or the equivalent (such as sport); and 9.)
Scottish urban working class communities–especially in
‘post-industrial’ times–as poor and often struggling desperately to
hold themselves together yet, at the same time, functioning either as
sites of persistently resilient social solidarity or as sites of edgy,
perversely attractive collective pursuits of alternative lifestyles.
Scotch Reels,
edited by Colin MacArthur, and
published in 1982, to this day epitomizes the position which critiques
cinematic representations of these myths–and others like them–as
stereotypes, i.e. as reductive and denigrative mis-representations of
what Scotland, Scots, and Scottishness have been and are actually
like. At its most extreme, this line of criticism, David
Stenhouse suggests, finds these kinds of representations “inauthentic,”
indeed “debased, deformed, and pathological,” traceable to a cultural
imperialist imposition by privileged American or English “outsiders”
who do not know what Scotland, Scots, and Scottishness ‘really
are like’ (“Not Made in Scotland: Images of Scotland from Furth
of the Forth;” Scottish Cinema Now;
Jonathan Murray, Fidelma Farley,
and Rod Stoneman, eds; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, page
179). Over the course of the last two decades, however, this line
of criticism has receded in popularity, with more and more scholars
inclined to interpret common mythic representations of Scotland and
Scottishness in more positive (or at least ambiguous) terms. As
Stenhouse proposes, “many of these cultural manifestations of interest
in Scotland are playful, celebratory, and exploratory rather than
reductive or definitive statements about Scottish identity”
(182). Likewise, critics such as Jane Sillars (“Admitting the
Kailyard,” Scottish Cinema Now,
122-138), argue that even long reviled
traditions of sentimental popular representation, such as the
small-town, rural Scottish Kailyard (or “cabbage patch”) are more
contradictory and open to positive re-appropriation than previously
recognized. As Duncan Petrie writes, “cinema’s engagement with
Scottish history . . . constitutes a full-blown celebration of myth,
fantasy and overt display, rather than any concerted effort to
resurrect or engage with historical reality” and “these mythical
constructions of Scotland . . . directly engage a wide range of
audience pleasures, emotions and fantasies” (Screening Scotland
72), Moreover, as Adrienne Scullion argues, “the role of
mythology, legend and fable, the Gothic, the supernatural and the
unconscious within the development of the Scottish imagination is not a
symptom of psychosis but a sophisticated engagement with the fantastic
that other cultures might celebrate as magic realism” (“Feminine
Pleasures and Masculine Indignities: Gender and Community in Scottish
Drama”; Gendering the Nation:
Studies in Scottish Literature;
Christopher Whyte, ed.; Edinburgh University Press, 1995, page
201). In short, naturalism and social realism are by no means the
only viable aesthetic approaches toward engaging with issues of
national identity, while measuring cinematic representations, first and
last, entirely in terms of how ‘true’ they seem to correspond to
extra-cinematic ‘empirical reality’ can itself be highly reductive and
denigrative. All cinema–even naturalist and social realist
cinema–offers an artificial construction of a semblance of reality
(i.e., a cinematic counter-reality) rather than an unmediated ‘window
onto the world’. In addition, as many contemporary scholars have
noted, the Scotch Reels line
of criticism has tended to marginalize and
dismiss not only the fantastical but also the feminine, even in the
course of elaborating the precise ‘Scotch myths’ that were supposedly
so objectionable.
What’s crucial, therefore, in assessing all
representation of Scotland and Scottishness, is what ideas they
embody
and circulate, and how these representations are interpreted and put to
use, for what ends, and in whose interests. And it’s important to
keep in mind that all of this can be multiple and contradictory as well
as subject to variation and change. In other words, films may
well embody and circulate multiple and contradictory ideas about
Scotland and Scottishness; these films may invite multiple and
contradictory interpretations of what they are expressing and
communicating in relation to Scotland and Scottishness; and the ways
audiences make sense of, as well as respond to, the representations of
Scotland and Scottishness these films maintain will vary depending on
who makes up the audience as well as change over time. Indeed,
representations of Scotland and Scottishness in films made by
‘outsiders’–i.e., by non-Scots–often, as Petrie puts it, are “as much
about the fantasies, the desires and the anxieties of the metropolitan
culture [whether this is England or America], as they are about simply
confirming the imposition of cultural power over the Celtic subaltern”
(28-29). Following this recognition, it is possible, as Sarah
Street proposes, to focus critical attention on how, throughout the
history of cinematic representations of Scotland, “a Scottish setting
is often the setting for a re-evaluation of self that does not
necessarily result in an affirmation of place or identity” (“New
Scottish Cinema as Trans-national Cinema,” Scottish Cinema Now,
151). Likewise, as Petrie observes, throughout the history of its
cinematic representation, Scotland is “a place in which a range of
fantasies, desires and anxieties can be explored and expressed,” and it
is useful, following this point, to think carefully about whose
fantasies, desires, and anxieties are being explored and expressed, and
why so, even when these take the form of representing Scotland as
“alternatively an exotic backdrop for adventure and romance, or a
sinister and oppressive locale beyond the pale of civilisation”
(32). Richard Zumkhawala-Cook amplifies this last point by
concluding his book Scotland as We
Know It: Representations of Identity
in Film, Literature and Popular Culture (McFarland, 2008) with
the
following declaration: “constructions of Scotland’s cultural and
historical home deserve constant critical attention not only because
they are so common and widespread, but because they are often dark
fantasies parading as benign expressions of heroism and sentimentality”
(181).
Yet Scottish cinema also includes many examples of
films that are deliberately made in accord with fundamentally divergent
goals and practices versus Hollywood-style ‘entertainment films’,
including many examples of ‘art films’ and ‘films as
critical-oppositional social-political argument, commentary, and
critique’ (as well as hybrid combinations of all three of these broad
kinds of films). Across the board, Duncan Petrie contends, many
impressive recent Scottish films share a notable commonality, as they
have demonstrated “a particular interest in cinema as personal
expression, marked by recurring themes such as the alienated or
isolated subject, the significance of the environment in relation to
subjectivity and a preoccupation with biographical and autobiographical
modes of narrative” (Screening
Scotland, 151). At the same time,
“the new Scottish cinema [has] provided an unprecedented range of
images that worked against any simple reductionism” (218) while
taking on a leading role “at the heart of a revitalised national
culture in reflecting the diversity of contemporary Scottish
experience, interpreting and reinterpreting the past, and providing
space for social criticism and the imagination of alternative
possibilities” (226).
Writing nearly a decade later, in “Screening
Scotland: a Reassessment” (Scottish
Cinema Now, 153-170), Petrie is
considerably more ambivalent about the present and future state of
Scottish cinema than he was at the end of Screening Scotland, where he
declared “Scottish film-making is entering the new millennium with
unprecedented levels of confidence, achievement and ambition”
(226). Yet he is still cautiously optimistic, and ultimately
positive in his overall assessment of recent and contemporary Scottish
cinema, as well as persistently hopeful for the future:
I still believe
that
over the last decade Scottish
filmmaking has followed literature in playing a key role in the
reawakening of a sense of national self-awareness and cultural
confidence. The predominant screen images of the nation have been
transformed: a rural and remote setting for romantic or unsettling
encounters has given way to a greater focus on an urban post-industrial
environment framing narratives concerned with various aspects of
contemporary experience and social change. Rural depictions are
still in evidence, but these tend to eschew romance in favour of
darker, more unsettling preoccupations. Moreover, given the close
associations between culture, tourism, and “the national brand” at the
heart of the Creative Industries agenda, it is significant that many
Scottish films continue to posit a critical engagement with the
negative aspects and limitations of contemporary society and
identity. In this way the new Scottish cinema functions as an
important component of a national conversation that weaves together
tradition and innovation, past and present, inside and outside, local
and global. The sense of the permeability of categories is
particularly important. As the Australian film scholar Tom
O’Regan asserts, national cinemas “are not alternatives to
internationalisation, they are one of its manifestations . . . [they
are] vehicles for transnational integration [Australian National
Cinema, Routledge, 1996]. Similarly, Mette Hjort suggests
that
the impact of global forces has generated new ways of considering small
national cinemas, including the potential for new collaborations and
connections among such cinemas and the imagination of alternative
globalisations [Small Nation, Global
Cinema: the New Danish Cinema,
University of Minnesota Press, 2005]. One key example of this is
provided by the Danish-initiated Dogme 95 phenomenon . . . Dogme 95 is
a concerted effort to generate an alternative and oppositional
aesthetic which is international in application while remaining closely
associated with its nationally-specific origins. Similarly, in
the Scottish context the more overtly cosmopolitan configuration within
which Scottish filmmakers are patently operating does not diminish the
national dimension of their work. (“Screening
Scotland: a
Reassessment,” 167-168).
***
Scottish Studies has become an area of intense
interest for me over the course of the past eight years. This
includes Scottish history, Scottish politics, Scottish literature,
Scottish music, Scottish theatre, Scottish art, Scottish sport, and
much more–as well as Scottish film. It certainly includes
Scottish whisky. I’ve immensely enjoyed the opportunity to visit
Scotland on 12 separate occasions during this period of time, including
for close to five weeks this past summer. I love Edinburgh–it is
my favorite city–but I am also greatly fond of Glasgow as well, and I
am glad this summer I gained the opportunity to visit St. Andrews,
Perth, Dundee, Stirling, Islay, New Lanark, and a significant stretch
of the Northwest Highlands as well. Previously I’ve visited
Aberdeen and Inverness. I’m excited not only to teach this class
but also Scottish Crime Fiction (English 359) in the spring 2011
semester; crime fiction is a long-time passion of mine, and Scottish
crime fiction has become a passion within a passion. And I’ve
developed a considerable fascination with Scottish indie rock, folk
rock, and folktronica, which I now often emphasize on my weekly radio
show, Insurgence, Thursdays 10-12 pm, on WHYS Community Radio, 96.3 FM
Eau Claire. For all I’ve learned, and all I’m learning, about
Scotland culture, I have much more to learn, and teaching is always one
of the greatest ways to exponentially advance one’s learning of any
subject. I look forward to learning together with you.
I’m aware of my vantage point, as an American, and
ready, as a result, to be humble as well as self-critical about my
perceptions, my interpretations, and my judgments concerning Scottish
issues. I recommend you follow a similar path as we work together
this semester. In fact, it will frequently be worthwhile to draw
points of comparison and contrast between Scottish and American
history, society, culture, and politics as well as between Scottish and
American film, and to pay attention to how the United States, and
Americans, as well as ‘Americanness’ is perceived by Scots, and
represented in Scottish films. Often this kind of comparison and
contrast can enable us to develop a much more rigorously critical
self-awareness about who we are, what we are about, where we are
situated, and where we are coming than would be the case without the
advantage of such an opportunity for comparison and contrast. At
the same time, of course, I hope you will learn a great deal of
interest to you about Scotland, Scots, and Scottishness (within and
beyond how Scotland, Scots, and Scottishness are involved with, and
represented by, Scottish cinema).
TEXTS
The following required books
are available for
purchase at Crossroads Books, 301 South Barstow Street, Eau Claire,
Wisconsin:
1. Petrie, Duncan. Screening Scotland.
London: British Film Institute, 2000. ISBN#: 0-81570-785-8.
2. Martin-Jones, David. Scotland: Global
Cinema–Genres, Modes and Identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University
Press, 2009. ISBN#: 978-0-7486-3391-3.
3. Murray, Jonathan, Fidelma Farley, and Rod
Stoneman, eds. Scottish Cinema
Now. Newcastle Upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. ISBN#: 1-4438-0331-6.
4. Gardiner, Michael. Modern Scottish
Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2005.
ISBN#: 0-7486-2027-3.
5. Zumkhawala-Cook, Richard. Scotland as We
Know It: Representations of National Identity in Literature, Film and
Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.
ISBN#:
978-0-7864-4031-3.
In additional, the following optional, supplemental
books are also available for purchase at Crossroads Books:
1. Abrams, Lynn and Callum G. Brown, eds. A
History of Everyday Life in Twentieth-Century Scotland.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. ISBN#:
978-0-7486-4231-7.
2. Reid, Harry, Paul Henderson Scott, Betty Davies,
Neil Kay, and Tom Nairn. The
Independence Book: Scotland in
Today’s World. Viewpoints. Edinburgh: Luath Press,
2008. ISBN#: 1-906307-90-3.
3. Houston, Rab. Scotland: a Very Short
Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
ISBN#:
978-0-19-923079-2.
Crossroads Books is a locally owned and operated
bookstore in downtown Eau Claire. Steadily more instructors at
UWEC are supporting companies like Crossroads rather than local
branches of international chain stores (the UWEC campus bookstore is
owned and operated by Barnes and Noble). Crossroads is open
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 5:30 pm; Thursday
from 10 am to 7 pm; and Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The
store’s phone number is 715-831-9788; their email contact address is
CustServ@CrossroadBookStore.com;
and their website, including
information about the store as well as a map and directions for how to
get there, is available at: http://www.crossroadbookstore.com/.
You need to obtain the required books in time to use for class, as
assigned in the Schedule section of this syllabus. You may feel
free, however, as you wish–and as you find convenient–to obtain these
from another outlet, including by ordering them online (such as by way
of www.amazon.com, for example).
The optional, supplementary books provide
additional background, context, and critical perspective which you may
find useful in work on course requirements, especially the final
project. But you are not required to purchase any of those books.
I will supply copies of all guides, outlines,
lecture notes, and other written texts we will be making use of
this semester. I will also supply copies, as well, of all
films–in DVD format–we will be using this semester, including for your
work on the interview conference and final project assignments (see the
later section of this syllabus focused on “specific requirements for
the course grade”).
Please note well that UWEC maintains no budget to
pay for films used in film classes, and so all of these I have
purchased–they are my all own copies. Likewise UWEC maintains no
budget to pay for all-region, multi-standard DVD players either, so I
have purchased two of these as well for use in my classes. I will
be loaning you copies of DVDs to work on for the interview conference
and final project assignments–and, as necessary, an all-region,
multi-standard DVD player too–but I ask you to be very careful with
these because if any damage develops I am entirely responsible for
repair or replacement. In addition, since these are all my own
copies and equipment, I don’t ever loan any of this out to students who
miss regularly scheduled screening sessions (as part of the week to
week semester schedule of classes); if, by chance, you ever need to
miss a screening session I will arrange with you to schedule a make-up
screening session in HHH 323 or a classroom like HHH 323, but I won’t
give you the DVDs or the DVD player to take with you and make use of on
your own.
Finally, please note well that the readings are
important–they will provide us valuable contexts and perspectives to
draw upon and refer to, as we work together to make critical sense of
the films we will screen, even when we need to extrapolate from the
writers’ discussions of other films–and other issues–to do so.
Note well that I emphasize critical sense here; this means that we will
hardly limit ourselves to uncritical appreciation of any of these
films. It also means that we will strive to engage with these
films in intellectually rigorous ways, and this includes films that
might not readily appeal to you. Our primary concern here is not
simply with likes and dislikes, but rather with understanding, at a
serious, scholarly level.
SCHEDULE
W 9/8: Introduction and Orientation.
M 9/13: Screening of Brigadoon
and I Know Where I’m Going!
W 9/15: Discussion, Introduction to Issues in Scottish Cinema and
Cultural Studies, Early Scottish Cinema, Brigadoon, and I Know Where
I’m Going!
Read for Class, W 9/15:
Screening Scotland, 1-12
(“Introduction: Some Key Issues in the Study of Scottish Cinema”),
15-19 (From “Chapter One: Scotland and the British Cinema”–Opening
Passage and “The Early Development of the Cinema in Scotland“), and
32-42 (From “Chapter Two: The View from the Metropolis”–Opening
Passage, “Scotland and ‘Otherness’,” and “Islands of Desire”); Scottish
Cinema Now, 171-187 (David Stenhouse, “Not Made in Scotland:
Images of
the Nation from Furth of the Forth”); and Scotland as We Know It, 5-9
(From “Chapter One: Scottish Nationality and Tartan Culture”–Untitled
Opening Section) and 22-27 (From “Chapter One: Scottish Nationality and
Tartan Culture”–“Where Is Scotland?”).
M 9/20: Screening of Whisky Galore!
and The Wicker Man.
W 9/22: Discussion, Classic Scottish Cinematic and Cultural Myths,
Scotland and England/Britain, Scottish Religions and Spiritualities,
Scottish Comedy and Horror, Whisky
Galore! and The Wicker Man.
Read for Class, W
9/22: Screening Scotland,
42-52
(From “Chapter Two: The View from the Metropolis”–“The Ealing Spirit,”
“Sentimental Visions,” and “Coda: a Return to the Dark Side”); Modern
Scottish Culture, 1-23 (“Chapter 1: What is Scotland?”) and
91-99
(“Chapter 6: Religion in Scotland”).
M 9/27: Screening of Rob Roy
and Culloden.
W 9/29: Discussion, Scottish History and Scottish Historical Myths and
Legends, Cinema and Scottish History/Cinema and Scottish Historical
Myths and Legends, Cinema and Scottish Nationalisms Past and Present,
Rob Roy, and Culloden.
Read for Class, W
9/29: Screening Scotland,
53-73
(“Chapter Three: the Jacobite Legacy”) and 209-213 (From “Chapter Nine:
The New Scottish Cinema: Themes and Issues”–“History Lessons”); Modern
Scottish Culture, 26-42 (“Chapter 2: Cultural History I: Before
1822");
and Scotland as We Know It,
145-162 (From “Chapter 5: Heroes, Thugs and
Legends: Celluloid Scotland as Century’s End”–Opening Untitled Section,
“Nationalism Shaken not Stirred,” and “Bravehearts and Bedwetters”).
* First Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned, W 9/29 *
M 10/4: Screening of Seaward: the
Great Ships, Just Another
Saturday,
and Just a Boy’s Game.
W 10/6: Discussion, Scottish Cities and Scottish City Life–Past and
Present, Scottish Urban Cinema, Major Developments in Modern Scottish
History, Sectarianism and Scotland, Sport and Scotland, Television and
Scottish Cinema, Seaward: the Great
Ships, Just Another Saturday,
and
Just a Boy’s Game.
Read for Class, W
10/6: Screening Scotland,
74-94
(“Chapter Four: an Urban Alternative”) and 123-140 (From “Chapter Six:
the Role of Television”–“The First Steps Towards a New Scottish
Cinema,” “The Channel Four Effect,” “Scotland the Television Play,” and
“Tales of the West: the Work of Peter McDougall”); Modern Scottish
Culture, 43-64 (“Chapter 3: Cultural History II: After 1822")
and
110-120 (“Sport in Scotland”).
M 10/11: Screening of The Bill
Douglas Trilogy and Select Short Films.
W 10/13: Discussion, Scottish Art Cinema, Scottish Documentary Cinema,
Scottish Short Films, The Bill
Douglas Trilogy, and Select Short Films.
Read for Class, W
10/13: Screening Scotland,
97-122
(“Chapter Five: Scotland and the Documentary”), and 158-165 (From
“Chapter Six: A Scottish Art Cinema”–“Biography, Memory and Cultural
Expression”), and 180-182 (From “Chapter Eight: The New Scottish
Cinema: Institutions”–“The New Significance of Short Films”); Scottish
Cinema Now, 56-71 (Cairns Craig, “Nostophobia”).
*
First Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Due, F 10/15 by 4 pm, in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
M 10/18: Screening of Gregory’s Girl
and Comfort and Joy.
W 10/20: Discussion, Transition toward New Scottish Cinema/toward the
End-of-the-Century Scottish Cinematic Renaissance, The Cinema of Bill
Forsyth, Education in Scotland, Scottish Music, Representing Late 20th
Century Scottish Everyday Life, Gregory’s
Girl, and Comfort and Joy.
Read for Class, W
10/20: Screening Scotland,
148-158
(From “Chapter Six: A Scottish Art Cinema”–“A British Art Cinema?,”
“The Scottish Dimension,” and “The Strange Case of Bill Forsyth”;
Modern Scottish Culture, 82-90
(“Chapter 5: Education in Scotland”) and
192-209 (“Chapter 14: Scottish Music”).
Saturday 10/23: Extra-Credit Mid-Semester Class Scottish Party.
Details to be announced.
M 10/25: Screening of Trainspotting and
Stella Does Tricks.
W 10/27: Discussion, The New Scottish Cinema–Institutions, The New
Scottish Cinema–Themes and Issues, Making Critical Sense of the Global
Commercial and Critical Breakthrough of (New) Scottish Cinema at the
End of the Century, Trainspotting
and ‘the Trainspotting
Effect’, and
Stella Does Tricks.
Read for Class,
W 10/27: Screening Scotland,
172-179
(From “Chapter Eight: The New Scottish Cinema: Institutions”–“A New
Dawn?” and “New Institutions/New Opportunities”), 182-186 (From
“Chapter Eight: The New Scottish Cinema: Institutions”–“Economics
versus Culture” and “Conclusions: a Devolved British Cinema?”), 192-199
(From “Chapter Nine: The New Scottish Cinema: Themes and
Issues”–Opening Passage, “The Commercial and Critical Breakthrough,”
and “The Trainspotting
Effect”), and 204-206 ( (From “Chapter Nine: The
New Scottish Cinema: Themes and Issues”–From Second Paragraph on page
204 through end of the section“Tales of the City”); Scotland as We Know
It, 162-174 (From “Chapter 5: Heroes, Thugs and Legends:
Celluloid
Scotland as Century’s End”–“‘It’s Shite Being Scottish!’”).
* Second
Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned, W 10/27 *
M 11/1: Screening of My Name is Joe and
Small Faces.
W 11/3: Discussion, Cinematic Representations of The Scottish City and
the Urban Working Class at the End of the Century, Ken Loach and
Scotland, Scottish Cinema Since the Emergence of ‘the New Scottish
Cinema’–Achievements and Challenges, My
Name is Joe, and Small Faces.
Read for Class, W 11/3:
Screening Scotland, 199-204
(From “Chapter Nine: New Scottish Cinema: Themes and Issues”–From
“Tales of the City,” Start of the Section through end of 1st paragraph
on page 204), and 222-226 (“Conclusion: Into the Twenty-First
Century”; Scottish Cinema Now,
72-87 (Marilyn Reizbaum, “They
Know Where They’re Going: Landscape and Place”), 88-104 (John Hill,
‘’Bonnie Scotland, Eh? Scottish Cinema, The Working Class, and the
Films of Ken Loach”) and 153-170 (Duncan Petrie, “Screening Scotland: a
Reassessment”).
M 11/8: Screening of Orphans
and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.
W 11/10: Discussion, Innovative and Iconoclastic Visions and
Achievements in the New Scottish Cinema, Mass Media in Scotland,
Opportunities and Difficulties Facing Future Scottish Cinema, Orphans,
and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.
Read for Class, W 11/10:
Screening Scotland, 213-218
(From “Chapter Nine: New Scottish Cinema: Themes and
Issues”–“Iconoclastic Visions”); Modern
Scottish Culture, 178-191
(“Chapter 13: Mass Media”); Scottish
Cinema Now, 222-239 (Robin
MacPherson, “Shape-Shifters: Independent Producers in Scotland and the
Journey from Cultural Entrepreneur to Entrepreneurial Culture”).
* Second Learning and
Contribution Reflection Paper
Due, F 11/12 by 4pm, in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405*
M 11/15: Screening of Gregory’s Two
Girls and Tickets.
W 11/17: Discussion, Contemporary Scottish Cinematic Engagements with
Relations between Global and Local Identities, Cinematic Reflections on
Scotland and Multinational/Transnational Capital, Cinematic Reflections
on Scotland and America/Scotland and Europe, Scottish Cinema and
National/Inter-national/Trans-national Identities, Gregory’s Two Girls,
and Tickets.
Read for Class, W
11/17: Scotland: Global Cinema,
1-66 (“Chapter 1: Comedy: Global/Local Identities” and “Chapter Two:
Road Movie: Scotland in the World”).
M 11/22: Screening of Nina’s
Heavenly Delights and The
Governess.
M 11/29: Screening of Red Road
and Morvern Callar.
W 12/1: Discussion, Cinema and Contemporary Scottish
Ethnic/Racial/Religious/Class/Gender/ Sexual and National Diversity,
Bollywood and Scotland/Scottish Cinema, Revisiting and Refashioning
Cinematic Forms of Heritage/Costume Drama, Cinema and Postmodern
Scottish Travels/Travelers, Revisiting and Refashioning the Kailyard,
Women in Contemporary Scottish Cinema, Nina’s Heavenly Delights, The
Governess, Red Road,
and Morvern Callar.
Read for Class,
W 12/1: Scotland: Global
Cinema,
67-88 (“Chapter 3: Bollywood: Non-Resident Indian-Scotland”), 135-152
(“Chapter 6: Costume Drama: From Men in Kilts to Developing
Diasporas”), and 214-232 (“Chapter 10: Art Cinema: The Global
Limitations of Cinematic Scotland”); Scottish
Cinema Now, 122-152 (Jane
Sillars, “Admitting the Kailyard” and Sarah Street, “New Scottish
Cinema as Trans-national Cinema”).
* Third Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned, W 12/1 *
M 12/6: Screening of Seachd: The
Inaccessible Pinnacle and Stone
of
Destiny.
W 12/8: Cinema and Scottish Regions/Languages/Cultures, Regionality and
Internationality in Scottish Cinema, Scotland Since Devolution and
Scottish Nationalism Today/the Prospects for Scottish Independence,
Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle,
and Stone of Destiny.
Read for Class, W
12/8: Scottish Cinema Now,
105-121
(David Martin-Jones, “Scotland’s Other Kingdoms: Considering Regional
Identities in a Growing National Cinema”); Modern Scottish Culture,
121-143 (“Chapter 9: Scotland’s Languages” and “Chapter 10: The
Scottish Parliament”).
Sunday 12/12: Class Conference–Final Project Presentations and
Discussions, Specific Room and Times to be announced.
* Third Learning and
Contribution Reflection Paper
Due by 4 pm, W 12/15 in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
** THIS SCHEDULE IS
SUBJECT TO CHANGE **
*** THERE WILL BE NO FINAL EXAMINATION IN THIS CLASS
***
ORGANIZATION
AND CONDUCT OF CLASS SESSIONS
Monday
afternoons we will screen films. We
will take a short (five-minutes long maximum) break in between the
screening of each film. You may bring cushions, pillows,
blankets, fold-up chairs, and any other kind of material that you might
find more comfortable to sit on during these screenings than the seats
already available in the classroom. You do not need to do this, but you
may if you wish. You may also bring snacks as long as you try not to
make a mess and as long as you clean up after yourself. PLEASE DO
NOT USE CELL PHONES DURING SCREENING SESSIONS– INCLUDING TO TEXT
MESSAGE–TURN THEM OFF! DOING THIS IS MORE DISTRACTING THAN
YOU
MAY REALIZE AND ALSO TO MY MIND A CLEAR SIGN THAT YOU ARE NOT ENGAGED
AS YOU SHOULD BE WITH THE MATERIAL FOR THE CLASS–AND IT WILL THEREFORE
NEGATIVELY AFFECT YOUR COURSE GRADE TO A SUBSTANTIAL DEGREE IF YOU DO
IT. As you are watching and listening to screenings, taking notes
can prove quite helpful–although it is better not to take too many, or
too detailed notes, such that this interferes with your ability to
watch and listen carefully. Occasionally, screening sessions will
run 5 to 10 minutes past 6:30 pm; you will be expected to stay through
the end even so. This will be more than made up for by the number
of times in which screening sessions will end earlier than 6:30; on
those occasions you will be free to leave as soon as our last film has
concluded.
Wednesday
afternoons we will discuss readings as
well as the screenings from the previous Monday afternoon.
Discussion will proceed according to a variety of formats. I will
usually prepare a packet for you of questions and other materials for
study, discussion, and review that I’ll give to you at the start of
class, right before we begin our screenings, each Monday. I will
design these packets to help you make sense of readings and
screenings, and we will use these to structure our discussions on
Wednesdays. At times I will make relatively short, informal
presentations, but I prefer not to lecture at length; instead I want to
work with you so that we can together come to grips with the issues
this course addresses. I may prepare and post occasional written
texts of extended length on Desire2Learn or the W (the Student-Faculty
Shared Drive) for you to study and review on your own. At times I
may ask students to do some short writing before or during class to
help facilitate discussions, and frequently students will work for
portions of our Wednesday classes in small groups. At times as
well we will watch clips from films previously screened, and we will
also, on occasion, watch clips from additional films as well as DVD
extras from the films we have just previously screened on the preceding
Monday. In short, we’ll aim to do all kinds of things in
class on Wednesday to keep it interesting. I will maintain
ultimate responsibility, authority, and control for the direction of
our class discussions, yet I will do my best to make sure we hear
extensively from everyone else.
UWEC
MISSION STATEMENT AND GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE
The following is the official mission statement of
the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a mission which includes us
all, and which each of us helps realize, bringing to bear our own
distinct talents, abilities, knowledges, skills, backgrounds, and
experiences:
We foster in
one
another creativity, critical
insight, empathy, and intellectual courage, the hallmarks of a
transformative liberal education and the foundation for active
citizenship and lifelong inquiry.
This is a mission to aspire to meet, and each of you has a vitally
important role to play in helping us do so.
The following, in addition, are the five most
important, official goals
all UWEC undergraduate courses are designed
to help you meet, and this
class can help you with all five of these
goals:
1.) Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2.) Creative and Critical Thinking
3.) Effective Communication
4.) Individual and Social Responsibility
5.) Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving
to meet them. Striving means
learning actively and deliberately, completing assignments in a
thorough and timely fashion, participating in class discussion, and
making connections between what we do while meeting in class and what
you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
GENERAL
EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in their pursuit of this learning. I
expect students to strive to bring actively and extensively to bear–in
your essays and contributions to class discussion–insights you gain
through your engagement with the texts and topics addressed as part of
this course, and I expect you to strive at the same time to relate
these texts and topics as closely and as fully as possible to subjects
of genuine interest and concern in your own lives, past and
present. And I expect you to let me know right away when and if
you have any questions or problems about any aspect of how you are
doing in and with the course, so that I can do whatever I possibly can
to help answer these questions and solve these problems.
In addition, you need to be ready to engage
seriously, thoughtfully, and respectfully–at all times–with positions
that you don’t necessarily agree with, and even with ones that you may
find troubling. After all, great works of art–including many
great works of literature and film–are often created with the
deliberate aim of disturbing, even shocking many people who will
encounter these. Often the intent is to provoke strong response,
as well as thought–and action–that goes beyond what has become
familiar, conventional, commonsensical, and, especially, merely
“safe.” You are capable of dealing with these kinds of challenges
in an intellectually serious, mature adult manner–and I will expect you
to do so.
Finally, please keep firmly in mind that you all
have much to offer of value to everyone else in the class, including to
me–we all gain from you sharing with the rest of us and us engaging
with your observations, reflections, interpretations, and other
perspectives. This is a general
education class, which means that
all you absolutely need as prerequisite to do well in it is a sincere
interest in learning about the subject matter, a genuine commitment to
engage diligently in so doing, an openness to new ideas and
perspectives, and some kind of prior experience with college-level
critical and/or creative work. People enter upper level
film
classes at UWEC, like this one, from widely diverse backgrounds, and
with widely diverse kinds of knowledges and experiences. All of
that is to the good. We are here to work together–and to
help
each other learn. I want everyone to do
well with this class and
I want you to join me in approaching this class as an opportunity for
us to join together, collectively, in striving to make this
happen. You shouldn’t ever worry that other students in the class
seem to know more or better than you about X or Y; everyone always
knows more or better about something than everyone else, so be
confident this certainly applies to you. And if it seems some
others do know more or better about something important or valuable,
relax and seek to learn from them; the fact that they come to this
class with this prior knowledge that you don’t already have will not
significantly affect how I evaluate your performance and your
contribution. No prior knowledge
taking college-level film
classes is required to do well in this class, and no prior knowledge
about Scottish history and culture is either.
SPECIFIC
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE GRADE
General Criteria: Evaluation of
Student Performance
In evaluating all work done for this course, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the course and
represented by the texts we read, the films we screen, by me, and by
each other.
Attendance
This course cannot contribute effectively to
students' learning if students do not attend class. What happens
in class is an indispensable part of this course. Therefore, the
following attendance policy will apply for students enrolled in this
class, except for students who must
miss an extended period of the
semester due to an emergency for which they arrange an officially
authorized absence from class (in the latter case, we
will work
together to make arrangements to help you make up for what you miss):
1.) Students who exceed a maximum of three
unexcused
absences will suffer a penalty of a loss of one full letter
grade for
each additional unexcused absence. An unexcused absence is one
where you offer no reasonable excuse for missing, but choose this to be
a day that you miss class.
2.) Students should provide me with verifiable
confirmation of a debilitating injury or illness, or of any other
serious individual or family emergency, for the excusing of any further
absences beyond the maximum of two unexcused absences.
3.) In addition to the maximum of two unexcused
absences, students may miss a maximum of three
excused absences without
suffering a grade penalty. Seven total absences will result in a
loss of two full letter grades. Students who miss more than
seven classes total should withdraw from the course as they otherwise
will most likely receive a grade of F.
* Students are
expected to arrive for class on time and to stay through
the very end of class. If you don’t do so, you won’t be
counted
as attending class. In addition, you need to be awake, alert, and
attentive while in class; this means you can’t expect to sleep or rest
in class. Again, if you do so, this will count as an absence from
class. And the same is true of doing other school work in class
or attending to other–personal– matters irrelevant to
what we are focusing on at that point in time in class (e.g., you
should avoid text-messaging, or web-searching, or facebooking, or
playing games on your cell phone, or checking out youtube while in
class–just to mention a few common temptations). *
** In addition, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IN THIS CLASS THAT YOU COME TO
CLASS ON WEDNESDAYS HAVING DONE THE READING REQUIRED OF YOU PRIOR TO
CLASS. The quality of your own learning, and that of the rest of
your classmates depends upon you taking this seriously and carrying it
out conscientiously. **
Learning
and Contribution/Learning and Contribution Reflection Papers
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you to learn something of significance and value. I will judge
you to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you
strive to learn, and on how–along with how well–you contribute to the
learning for the rest of the class.
Class participation represents an important
opportunity to learn, not just a place in which to demonstrate what you
have learned. By raising questions, testing and trying out ideas,
taking risks and making mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help
others learn a great deal as well. You learn through talking, not
just talk to show what you have learned. At the same time, just
talking a great deal does not necessarily mean that you are making a
quality contribution to the class by aiding the learning that we aim to
accomplish. Quality of participation is much more important than
quantity, although a sufficient quantity is indispensable to insure
quality. Still, I want to emphasize here that I perceive talking
for talking’s sake–especially talking which pulls us off on far-fetched
tangents, which remains disconnected from and disengaged with the
reading and the rest of the class, or which effectively silences
others–to be negative participation. Quality class participation
does not, moreover, involve merely asking questions of me and
responding to my questions; quality class participation requires you to
work to advance a serious and substantial discussion with your peers
about the films, readings, and issues subject to discussion.
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this course. Excellent
writing for class is also a valuable way to contribute to class.
At the same time, listening carefully, respectfully, and thoughtfully
in class discussions is yet another important means of contribution–as
is taking time to meet and talk with me outside of class. In
fact, meeting and talking with me outside of class can be an excellent
way to contribute–as well as to show us me how seriously interested in
and engaged with the course material you are.
Learning and contribution will constitute a
significant proportion of your overall course grade. As part of
this grade, you will write three
short learning and contribution
reflection papers. For these papers I will ask you questions
which will
require you to refer to and reflect on issues raised in screenings,
readings, and discussions. These short papers will show me how
you are doing with course materials, as well as give you a chance to
demonstrate your critical self-reflexivity, the hallmark of a liberal
arts education. I will provide you specific directions in the
assignments I give you for each of these papers. Length will be
quite flexible, but I suggest you can imagine approximately 5-7
double-spaced, typed pages (or approximately 2500 to 3500 words) as a
reasonable target in each case. Learning and contribution part
one will be worth
17.5% of the overall course grade, learning and
contribution part two will be worth 20% of the
overall course grade,
and learning and contribution part three will be worth 22.5% of the
overall course grade.
Interview
Conference
For this assignment, I will ask you to meet in
conference outside of class with me to engage in an extended, serious,
critical discussion of one early Scottish film we will have not yet
previously screened together this semester. I estimate we will
talk together for approximately one hour. You will work on this
assignment as part of a group of students from our class.
Group assignments will take place during week three
of the semester. At that time I will also give each group a copy
of the film it will be working with so that you can screen it
individually, as well as collectively, and review it–as well as any
special features on the DVD–in preparation for the conference. I
will also give you the specific questions ahead of time that I want you
to come to the conference prepared to address. The conference
will happen approximately two weeks later at a mutually convenient time
for all of us, and it will take place in my office. Tentatively,
the films I am thinking of making available for this purpose are as
follows: The Thirty-Nine Steps,
Edge of the World, The Flesh and the
Fiends, The Maggie,
The Ghost Goes West, Battle of the
Sexes, and The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie.
This assignment will be worth 15% of the
overall
course grade. I will give you individual grades for this
assignment (although they most likely will turn out to be the same,
unless different members of the group clearly put in substantially
different amounts of work on this assignment).
Final
Project
Once again, you will work together with a group of
fellow students from our class on this project. I will give each
group three Scottish films we have not screened together as part of the
course. Your task will be to prepare a presentation that uses
these films as a point of departure, reference, and return in order to
help illuminate, as well as stimulate, thinking and discussion, in
relation to a.) a significant issue in Scottish cinema studies,
as well as b.) a significant issue in Scottish history, society,
politics, and/or culture. You yourselves, in your groups and in
consultation with me, will determine, based upon what the films you are
working with suggest, precisely what these specific issues will
be. At the end of the semester you will present what you have
come up with as part of a public class conference; you will have
approximately 45 minutes time to
present, followed by approximately 30
minutes time to engage in–and lead–discussion. This class
conference will take place on Sunday December 12 in a room and at times
to be arranged. It will be open to the public to attend as
interested and able.
I will make more specific suggestions to you for
this project as you proceed to work on it. And I will also later offer
you a more detailed explanation of how I conceive of the goals of this
assignment as well as the criteria for evaluation I will use.
Also, group as well as individual members from groups are welcome–and
indeed encouraged–to meet with me in conference as you are thinking
through and working on the presentation so I can help assist you in
your planning and preparation.
Here are some of the films that I am tentatively
thinking of assigning for use in these final projects: 16 Years of
Alcohol; Aberdeen; The Acid House; Behind the Lines; Braveheart;
Breaking the Waves; Carla’s Song; Festival; A Fond Kiss; Hallam Foe;
The Last Great Wilderness; The Last King of Scotland; Mrs. Brown;
Ratcatcher; A Sense of Freedom; Shallow Grave; Soft Top, Hard Shoulder;
Sweet Sixteen; The Winter Guest; Women Talking Dirty; and Young
Adam.
This assignment will be worth 25% of the
overall
course grade. Once again, I will give you individual
grades
(although they may well turn out all the same), and I will also give
you all copies of a written form after your presentation providing each
of you an opportunity individually to evaluate (in confidence) each
other member’s contribution to the group’s work–as well as to evaluate
yourself. I will take into account these evaluations in
determining your individual
grades.
Finally, each student is required to attend and
participate actively in discussion for one other group’s project
presentation besides your own.
General
Formatting Requirements: Papers
All papers should be typed, double-space, on
standard white letter-sized (8" X 11") typewriter, computer printer, or
photographic paper. You may use any standard font you wish but
your print size must remain between 10 and 12 points. Pages
should be numbered, and your name should be at the top of the first
page. The pages of your paper must be stapled together and you
are responsible for doing so; I do not bring staplers to class.
You are also responsible for proofreading your paper before you turn it
in; if you catch any typographical errors, you should neatly cross
these out and write your corrections on top of these with a pen.
I will expect you, furthermore, to observe the rules and conventions of
Standard Written English to the best of your ability in writing these
papers. In citing readings from class be sure to include page
numbers when you do, and if you cite sources from outside of class be
sure to include bibliographic information for these sources, following
some kind of standard format for documentation.
Plagiarism
and Academic Honesty
Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are serious offenses. They not only undermine the goal
of learning but also are exploitative of the work of others.
Deliberate dishonesty in written work as part of this course will
result in a failing grade. In addition, plagiarism may result in
further disciplinary action on the part of the University
administration, ultimately including expulsion from the
University. Also, if you directly echo someone else’s thoughts as
articulated in the course of class discussion you should add the last
name, followed by the letters CD (for class discussion), followed by
the date, in a parenthetical citation right after the end of the
sentence, viz: (Nowlan, CD, 9/19/10).
Late
Work
Late papers will lose credit unless you have made
arrangements ahead of the time with me to turn in these papers late due
to a serious personal or family problem. Alternately, if you
provide a reasonable explanation why you are late shortly after the
paper is due, you won’t suffer any grade penalty. It is best to
talk with me directly about this, and to make sure to do so within a
week’s time of the due date at the absolute latest. I do
understand that at times real problems come up for all of us, no matter
what we might intend or prefer. If you are having serious
problems in working on a paper, let me know, and we can work together
on a mutually agreeable way of getting it done, as well as a mutually
agreeable deadline for doing so. The interview conferences will
be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time, so once we have done so, of
course, you need to show up on time–and prepared. Likewise, the
final project presentations and discussions will all take place on one
set date (the Sunday right before the start of finals week) and on that
date alone, so you need to be ready by that date, fully prepared to
make your presentation and engage in discussion of it.
EXTRA
CREDIT
On
Saturday October 23 I will host an extra credit
‘Scottish party’ at my house. We will have Scottish food–and
drink, listen to Scottish music, and play Scottish games. What’s
more, I am planning, in the spirit of Halloween (or Samhain), to make
this a costume party, where you can come as any Scottish character,
past and present, including from any of the films we will have screened
and discussed to date. Alternately, you can dress in ‘Scottish
style’ of any one kind or another, and give yourself an appropriate
Scottish name (which need not be a particular historical or fictional
figure). How elaborate you make your costume–or don’t–is entirely
up to you. And because Scottish literature–and film–has
demonstrated a particular penchant for mystery, murder, crime,
detection, and the like (as well as following in the spirit of
Halloween) we will most likely incorporate some kind of variation on
the ‘murder party game’ theme. This mid-semester class party will
give us an opportunity for a relatively relaxed, light-hearted, fun way
of playing off of some of the ideas and issues we will be working with
in class this semester, as well as a chance for you to indulge your
creativity. Just for coming and participating in the class party,
you will earn 10%
extra credit. You are also free to invite
friends from outside of our class to come to this party with you as
well. More details, including times and directions, will follow.
Beyond the aforementioned extra credit opportunity,
students can earn 2.5%
extra credit for each session they attend–and
where they actively participate–at the final class conference, besides
their own session, and besides the one other session everyone must
minimally attend.
Finally, we will have a low-key, end of the semester
party, together with students from my English 284 class, your friends
and their friends, during finals week, for which you will have an
opportunity to earn a yet additional 5% extra credit
just for coming
along and participating in this event.
CONFERENCES/EXTRA
HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern that you develop as a student in this
course and as a member of this class. I recognize the value of
learning that takes place in conferences; I know this can at times be
equally as important, and in fact occasionally even more important,
than what takes place in class. It also provides you an
opportunity to contribute beyond what you say in class and write for
class. So please do not hesitate to meet with me at any time you
think this might be helpful to you–or whenever you’d just like to talk
further with me. I want to help you in your understanding
of issues addressed in screenings, readings, and discussions, as well
as in your writing and participation. I will be glad to consult
with you on rough drafts of papers and in preliminary work for your
interview conference and final project. Besides meeting with me
in my office, you may certainly also feel free to contact me by e-mail
or by (my campus office) phone as well. And, it is possible, if
my office does not work out well for either or both of us as a place to
meet, that we can meet in another mutually convenient place on or near
campus (such as a coffee house).
I really do like to get to know my students;
students at this university continually demonstrate impressive ability,
talent, knowledge, experience, insight, vitality, and good
character. I am lucky to get to know you; it enriches me.
*
Any student who has a disability and is in need of
classroom accommodations, please contact both the instructor and the
Services for Students with Disabilities Office, Old Library 2136; for
more information on the services the latter office provides you, check
out their webpage: http://www.uwec.edu/ssd/index.htm
*
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you weblinks: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm
and 2.) to
my autobiographical profile:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm.
You are also welcome
to check out 3.) my myspace page,
http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy,
site, and to look me up 4.)
on facebook, http://www.facebook.com
[If you are interested in becoming
facebook or myspace friends, feel free to contact me about that.]
In addition, you can find 5.) my professional vita (the academic
equivalent of a resume) at:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/VITA.htm.
I encourage you to check
these sites out; it is useful for you to know who your teacher is, what
he’s about, and where he’s coming from–and I like to be very open,
honest, and forthright with you about all of that. I look forward
to a great semester working together with you!