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Sinemadness or An Asylum Striptease SPRING 2006 | SDSU | English 301 | The Psychological Novel with William A. Nericcio & Tricia Almase | T/TH 9:30 to 10:45 |
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January, 2006
THURSDAY First day of class; in-class we screen AN EYE FOR ANNAI--an animated parable that serves as a kind of mascot for our sinemadness this term. |
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24,
January2006
TUESDAY ONLY READ the first 30 or so pages of the FREUD, ON DREAMS volume; DO read the INTRO by Peter Gay, one of the leading Freud authorities on the planet.... |
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26,
January 2006
Thursday Read the next three chapters or so of ON DREAMS to about page 60 or so--as you read try and apply some aspect of Freud's theory to the film by Buñuel and Dali that we screened in class today. More info on UN CHIEN ANDALOU is here and here. Remember, in class TUESDAY, you received an extra-credit assignment: without regard to form or your imagined understanding of what i am looking for, write a page-length reaction to the work of Buñel and Dali. |
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31,
January 2006
TUESDAY Complete your reading of ON DREAMS. In class, we will conclude our discussion of FREUD and begin our screening of our first feature film, Guiseppe Tornatore's NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO |
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2,
February 2006
THURSDAY No scheduled reading--CATCH up on your FREUD! (you slackers know who you are!!!); in class we will complete our screening of Tornatore's masterpiece and begin our discussion of the film |
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7,
February 2006
TUESDAY Read the first 110 pages of Walker Percy's THE MOVIEGOER. |
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 9,
February 2006
THURSDAY Continue reading/screening (can a novel be a facsimile of a movie? does a movie move with the logic of a book?) Percy's novel to page 160. Something to think about as you probe the mind of Binx Bolling--what is the function of cinema in his imagination? in class we will begin to screen SUNSET BOULEVARD and have an in-class writing imagination sinematic challenge fiesta. |
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 14,
February 2006
TUESDAY Finish reading Percy's novel; in class we will continue to screen SUNSET BOULEVARD. |
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 16,
February 2006
THURSDAY REALLY REALLY REALLY finish Percy's novel--in class we will discuss PERCY and Wilder's imaginative festivals of sinemadness. |
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21,
February 2006
TUESDAY Hiatus--enjoy your time; read ahead! |
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23,
February 2006
THURSDAY Hiatus--enjoy your time, read ahead! |
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28,
February 2006
TUESDAY Read to the end of page 93, the end of chapter 13 in NATHANAEL WEST's amazing novel THE DAY OF THE LOCUST. |
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2,
March 2006
THURSDAY Read to the end of page 117, the end of chapter 16 in West's 'LOCUST. |
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7,
March 2006
TUESDAY Change of pace as we put West on hold for a spell. West waits impatiently in the wings as we screen Samuel Alexander Mendes (director) and Alan Ball's (writer) amazing, academy award-winning classic (one part comedy, one part nightmare, one part lurid satire), AMERICAN BEAUTY. |
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9, March 2006 THURSDAY In-class,
we continue to screen an American masterpiece of sinemadness--AMERICAN
BEAUTY (1999). The beauty of this film is the way Brit director,
Sam Mendes, utterly reveals via Asylum Striptease the inner cultural colllective
psyche of American, circa 20th and 21st century. Bring friends and
popcorn if you wish--this is one of the most powerful texts of the semester!
BRING THEM, AS WELL, IF THEY WANT TO WITNESS A PROFESSOR MELTDOWN AS HIS
DVD COPY OF THE FILM CORRUPTS AND BREAKS THE INNARDS OF A PC AND A MACINTOSH
COMPUTER.
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SPRING
BREAK TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2006 AND THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2006, NO CLASS 
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TUESDAY,
MARCH 21, 2006
Rested and not at all inebriated, you return from Spring Break raring to go--enter the room having finished THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by NATHANAEL WEST. In class, we will finish screening AMERICAN BEAUTY (on old school VHS-tape) and begin a discussion on WEST and MENDES/BALL's works. |
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THURSDAY,
MARCH 23, 2006
Crack open the MAN RAY photography volume, Spezial Fotografie Portfolio Number 35; in class, we will have an in-class imagination festival thingie and continue our discussion of WEST, MENDES/BALL, and, now, MAY RAY. |
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TUESDAY,
MARCH 28, 2006
Complete your "reading" of the MAN RAY volume--consider as you read and screen several things: MAN RAY's relationship with his camera and his models; his exploration and exploitation of the material physicality of photography; and, lastly, something we could call MAN RAY's "narrative" philosophy--when his camera tells a story, what kind of story does it tell? |
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THURSDAY,
MARCH 30, 2006
Professor Nericcio is off to sunny, freezing Montreal for an international conference on Literature and the Visual Arts; so that means its "Conference-Day with the GTA"! No class, but Tricia Almase is available during class hours in Cafe Literati to field your questions, fears, anxieties, etc!! |
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TUESDAY,
APRIL 4, 2006
Walk into the room having read the first 100 pages of Junichiro Tanizaki's
THE KEY; this outrageous novel features a fetishistic literary scholar,
a frustrated/clever wife, cases of booze, high-quality 35mm cameras and
instamatic polaroids, amnesia, philandering, and maybe even murder--put
that in your pipe and smoke it! As you read, take care to know whose
diary you are reading as the novel unfolds with you in the position of
reading the diaries of two people who share a life, a home, and a passion
for writing (and lying!).
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THURSDAY,
April 6, 2006
Read the next 25 or so pages of THE KEY. Today you will receive your RESEARCHED IMAGINATION CHALLENGE PAPER ASSIGNMENT--5 to 8 pages long with at least TWO SCHOLARLY bibliographical supplements, and formatted according to the MLA-stylesheet. This work is due FRIDAY, April 28, 2006 at NOON, under the door of my office at AH 4117.
more details on extra-credit chances! ALL AGES
EXTRA-CREDIT assignment for ALAMBRISTA event! http://aztlan.sdsu.edu/alambrista.htm Due April 25th, 2006 in class You are a reporter for the VILLAGEVOICE.COM; you have been sent to cover and report on this cine/sine-related EVENT. In order to receive your extra-credit/quiz absolving points, you must attend the event, attempt to ask a question (if there is a Q & A), photograph the principles (not me!) (this photo angle is optional), and write up a village voice style piece on the evening. in addition, you must staple to your piece the one or two villagevoice.com articles that you used as a guide for your own analysis! DO NOT PICK THREE SENTENCE BLURBS!!!!! http://villagevoice.com here's an example of a film-event review: http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0139,hoberman,28453,20.html there are many others!
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006 Finish THE KEY for today's lecture--super light reading day!!!! Lucky, lucky, lucky sinemaniacs!!!!!! As you read the text, try to imagine points of contact between the imagination of Tanizaki, with that of West; Tanizaki with that of Buñuel/Dali, Tanizaki with that of Man Ray; etc. NOTE: walk into class with a standard piece of typing paper. On this paper, glue a xerox of a print from the MAN RAY collection AND a xeroxed paragraph from Tanizaki's THE KEY. Try as hard as you can to place side by side, an image and a paragraph that work in concert--that conspire to tell the same story; on the back of this page, type or write a paragraph-length justification for your juxtaposition!  We will spend the last 10 minutes of today's class screening a part of GIANT, a film with James Dean and Rock Hudson that is crucial for your reading for Thursday April 13, 2006. |
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Thursday, April 13, 2006 Read SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT by Tino Villanueva for class today. Close reading in-class challenge a TOTAL possibility! |
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006 No class meeting in GMCS 301; instead, Tricia Almase will be available for personal consultation on your semester writing project at CAFE LITERATI, or, if there is rain, in her office in AH 4220; Professor Nericcio will be available for the same 1 to 3, Wednesday April 19, 2006, in AH 4117.  |
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Thursday, April 20, 2006 We will begin to watch the first 33 minutes of Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM--the centerpiece meditation on sinemadness. In-class discussion to follow. Extra-CREDIT assignment for the AMARCORD/Fellini MOPA Event.
April 20, 2006 Due April 25th, 2006 in class You are a film-reviewer for THE NATION, THE NEW YORKER, or FILM COMMENT; find and xerox TWO Film-reviews from any or all of these publications that either focus on films you've seen that you like or that are written in a way you wish you could write, or both. Attend the film screening of AMARCORD; pretend that it is a film premiere and write a review of the film for ONE of the three noted publications: The Nation, The New Yorker, or Film Comment. Your review MUST BE TURNED IN WITH YOUR TWO SELECTED film-review examples. Use them as style-sheet guides to guide the creation of your own review! FEDERICO FELLINI FILM SERIES Thursdays, 7:00 p.m. Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park The Museum of Photographic Arts and theSan Diego Museum of Art are proud to present a 3-part film series in conjunction with SDMA's exhibition In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside of the Roman Elite. April 20 Amarcord (1973) Amarcord, Fellini‚s most popular film, is a carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Fellini satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of rituals, sensations and emotions. Adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political repartee are set to Nina Rota's music in this beautiful, new edition of Amarcord. Tickets for each film are available at the door. Seating is first come, first served. Advance tickets are available for purchase online. Museum of Photographic Arts 1649 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101 619.238.7559 http://www.mopa.org |
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006 Screen the next 35 minutes of Michael Powell's amazing PEEPING TOM. |
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Thursday, April 27, 2006 Brace for incoming--the final moments of Powell's cool meditation on desire, mayhem, cinematography, and psychology. And, of course, our amazing discussion of said film. |
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Tuesday, May 2, 2006 more movie madness! we fall headlong towards the finish line by screening the first half of ATOM EGOYAN's WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. |
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Thursday, May 4, 2006 today we finish with Egoyan, and, sigh, with the class! |
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May 9, 2006 Final Exam at regular classroom at regular class time 9:30-10:45!!! comprehensive exam: fill in the blanks, short paragraphs and an essay. |
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