Film and Literature

While film seems like a relatively new technology compared to books, the thematic elements shared between the two mediums are so intertwined that often both are talked about in very similar terms. With that in mind, while this class is technically called “Literature and Film,” we will primarily focus on watching films and discussing them as those they were pieces of literature. That is to say, we will say more than simply our opinion of a film; we will consider its value as a piece of art and as a piece of cultural production.

SELECT VIEWINGS

Birth of a Nation (1919)

Within Our Gates (1920)

Get Out (2017)

Salt of the Earth (1954)

Watermelon Man (1970)

Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song (1971) & Michael B. Gillespie's incisive essay on that film

Losing Ground (1982)

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

Daughters of Dust (1991)

Training Day (2001)

Hunger (2008)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Mudbound (2017)

Black Panther (2018)

Queen & Slim (2019)