English 190

Research Seminar: Alfred Hitchcock

Section	Semester	Instructor	Time	Location	Course Areas
3	Fall 2010	Miller, D.A.	MW 12:30-2 + film screenings Th 6-9 P.M.	300 Wheeler	Research Seminars



Book List

Spoto, D.: The Art of Alfred Hitchcock; Truffaut, F.: Hitchcock; a course reader.

Description

Unique among Hollywood directors, Hitchcock played on two boards. As a master of entertainment who had nothing to say, he produced work as thoroughly trivial as it was utterly compelling. But thanks to the French reception of his work in the 1950s, Hitchcock also came to be considered a master of art, the Auteur par excellence. If his films had nothing to say, they hardly needed to; in their unparalleled formal originality, they distilled the pure essence of cinema itself. The course will focus on this dialectic between entertainment and art, between saying nothing and being everything. We shall pay particular attention to a Style that is, on the one hand, commodified as a “touch” that all can recognize, and, on the other, recessed in strange, inconsequential, gibberish-making details that, far from courting recognition, seem to defy it.

Please note that students will be expected to attend weekly film screenings, Thursdays 6-9 P.M., in 300 Wheeler.

English 190 replaced English 100 and 150 as of Fall '09. English majors may fulfill the seminar requirement for the major by taking one section of English 190 (or by having taken either English 100 or English 150 before Fall '09). Please read the paragraph on page 2 of this Announcement of Classes for more details about enrolling in, or wait-listing for, this course.

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