English R1A

Other Readings and Media

"Austen, J: Persuasion Crews, F.: The Random House Handbook Shakespeare, W: Twelfth Night Trollope, A: Ayala?s Angel



Film List:

Clueless (Heckerling, 1995)

Holiday (Cukor, 1938)

Persuasion (Michell, 1995)

Some Kind of Wonderful (Deutch, 1987)

Sylvia Scarlett (Cukor, 1936)

Twelfth Night (Nunn, 1996) "

Description

"This course will investigate a certain strain of romantic comedy predicated on the hero?s (or heroine?s) inability to recognize his (or her) ideal partner. In addition to considering the history of romantic comedy more broadly, we?ll study how these particular comedies describe objects of desire, and how sometimes the most desirable partners are rendered romantically and erotically ?illegible? (through processes as diverse as gender confusion, the incest taboo, and the failure to conform to ideals of beauty).



Students will write a series of progressively longer essays, beginning with a diagnostic essay and culminating in a five-page paper. All essays, save the diagnostic, will involve the writing of drafts; three papers will require graded revisions. Though our primary foci (in addition to the course?s thematic concerns) will be argumentation, critical thinking, and essay organization, we will also undergo a semester long grammar and style review, conducted through in-class lessons and quizzes. "