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Graduate Course Proposal Form Submission Detail - ENG6145
Tracking Number - 4845

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Current Status: Approved by SCNS - 2014-12-01
Campus: Tampa
Submission Type: New
Course Change Information (for course changes only):
Comments: To GC 4/7/14. Elective for English MA/PhD. Concurrence noted from Humanities. To Chair. Appd 5/19/14. to USF sys 5/20/14. to SCNS 5/28/14. Apprd eff 11/1/14. Nmbr 6163 apprd as 6145


Detail Information

  1. Date & Time Submitted: 2013-11-12
  2. Department: English
  3. College: AS
  4. Budget Account Number: 122300
  5. Contact Person: Nicole Guenther Discenza
  6. Phone: 41887
  7. Email: ndiscenza@usf.edu
  8. Prefix: ENG
  9. Number: 6145
  10. Full Title: Rogue Cinema
  11. Credit Hours: 3
  12. Section Type: C - Class Lecture (Primarily)
  13. Is the course title variable?: N
  14. Is a permit required for registration?: N
  15. Are the credit hours variable?: N
  16. Is this course repeatable?: N
  17. If repeatable, how many times?: 0
  18. Abbreviated Title (30 characters maximum): Rogue Cinema
  19. Course Online?: C - Face-to-face (0% online)
  20. Percentage Online: 0
  21. Grading Option: -
  22. Prerequisites: none
  23. Corequisites: none
  24. Course Description: Examine films by revolutionary filmmakers who have deviated significantly and strategically from earlier traditions, considering how these filmmakers challenged cinematic, intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural codes beginning in 1915.

  25. Please briefly explain why it is necessary and/or desirable to add this course: Needed to compete with national trends
  26. What is the need or demand for this course? (Indicate if this course is part of a required sequence in the major.) What other programs would this course service? There is significant demand for this course. It has been offered several times under a special topics title and always reaches full enrollment. If the cap were raised to 25, it would still fill. This course has generated several dissertation topics.
  27. Has this course been offered as Selected Topics/Experimental Topics course? If yes, how many times?
  28. What qualifications for training and/or experience are necessary to teach this course? (List minimum qualifications for the instructor.) Doctorate in English, Film Studies, or a related field.
  29. Objectives: Students will

    1) learn historical and theoretical approaches to cinema;

    2) identify cinematic experimental expressions as they relate to the historical modes of interpretation as well as illustrate contemporary examples of cinematic experimentation;

    3) gain knowledge of the relationship between components of cinema (lighting, camera angles, chronology, sequence) as they comprise the totality of the overall composition of a film and consider the presence and function of other elements (plots and sub-plots) within films.

  30. Learning Outcomes: At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:

    1) integrate film theory in successfully interpreting cinema that is not mainstream;

    2) articulate, specifically, how alternative cinema differs from traditional mainstream cinema;

    3) place alternative cinema in the long tradition of American and Continental cinema and identify alternative expressions of film, especially as film relates to the representation of experimental practices and experiences.

  31. Major Topics: Perspectives of popular culture and art according to shifts in cultural and intellectual assumptions over time; ways of "reading" films, in particular those films that might be considered experimental, oppositional, or interrogative.; irony--as cinematic motif, explicit and implicit metaphor, and epistemological mode.
  32. Textbooks: course packet
  33. Course Readings, Online Resources, and Other Purchases: Jean Baudrillard. Simulacra and Simulation. Course packet.

    Jacques Derrida. “The Law of Genre” (Trans. Avital Ronell). Critical Inquiry 7.1, On Narrative (Autumn, 1980): 55-81. Through JSTOR.

    Mary Ann Doan, “The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space.” Course packet.

    Paul de Man. “The Epistemology of Metaphor.” Through JSTOR

    Martin Heidigger. Selections from Being and Time/Sein und Zeit. Course packet.

    Vivian Sobcheck. “Film's Body.” Course packet.

    Wesley Trimpi. “The Ancient Hypothesis of Fiction: An Essay on the Origins of Literary Theory.” Through JSTOR

  34. Student Expectations/Requirements and Grading Policy: Presentation: You are required to present to the class a 15-20 minute reading of a scene from the film that is being discussed on the day of your presentation. The scene can be very short or of longer duration. There is a range of elements upon which you may focus: image(s), metaphor(s), characterization, narrative development, theme, motif, etc. Be focused in your presentation and try not to move beyond a single scene and its strategic significance to the film. I will be pleased to work with you in selecting a scene and/or developing an approach to that scene.

    Term Essay: Your essay (12-15 pages) should focus on a rogue film in consultation with your professor (not a film viewed as part of the course). You are encouraged to view other films by the directors viewed in class as many of their experimental visions and techniques appear in the corpus of their works, especially early films. Your essay should articulately identify (1) a filmmaker’s “sensibility” and (2) elements of a specific film that warrant its classification as rogue. (The film should reveal motifs and/or techniques that are not common to “mainstream” cinema.) Most important, the filmmaker should demonstrate an explicit concern for innovation and risk-taking. Such are the characteristics of the films in the class, and they should be the primary criteria in the selection of your subject for your term essay, which should include substantial research. Selected optional films for term essay are listed at the end of the syllabus.

    Presentation: 20%

    Term essay, 12-15 pages: 40%

    Final examination: 40%

  35. Assignments, Exams and Tests: Presentation: 20%

    Term essay, 12-15 pages: 40%

    Final examination: 40%

  36. Attendance Policy: Course Attendance at First Class Meeting – Policy for Graduate Students: For structured courses, 6000 and above, the College/Campus Dean will set the first-day class attendance requirement. Check with the College for specific information. This policy is not applicable to courses in the following categories: Educational Outreach, Open University (TV), FEEDS Program, Community Experiential Learning (CEL), Cooperative Education Training, and courses that do not have regularly scheduled meeting days/times (such as, directed reading/research or study, individual research, thesis, dissertation, internship, practica, etc.). Students are responsible for dropping undesired courses in these categories by the 5th day of classes to avoid fee liability and academic penalty. (See USF Regulation – Registration - 4.0101,

    http://usfweb2.usf.edu/usfgc/ogc%20web/currentreg.htm)

    Attendance Policy for the Observance of Religious Days by Students: In accordance with Sections 1006.53 and 1001.74(10)(g) Florida Statutes and Board of Governors Regulation 6C-6.0115, the University of South Florida (University/USF) has established the following policy regarding religious observances: (http://usfweb2.usf.edu/usfgc/gc_pp/acadaf/gc10-045.htm)

    In the event of an emergency, it may be necessary for USF to suspend normal operations. During this time, USF may opt to continue delivery of instruction through methods that include but are not limited to: Blackboard, Elluminate, Skype, and email messaging and/or an alternate schedule. It’s the responsibility of the student to monitor Blackboard site for each class for course specific communication, and the main USF, College, and department websites, emails, and MoBull messages for important general information.

  37. Policy on Make-up Work: Late work is accepted without penalty if there is a justified reason for the tardiness (medical situation, court appearance, death in family, etc.). Late work that is NOT justified is accepted with a 10% penalty in grade for each day that it is late.

    CHEATING/ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: The University considers any form of plagiarism or cheating on exams, projects, or papers to be unacceptable behavior. Please be sure to review the university’s policy in the catalog (http://www.ugs.usf.edu/pdf/cat1213/08ACADEMICPOL.pdf at 53; consult 52–56 for full statements of policy).

    Plagiarizing and/or cheating on essays and/or exams are very serious offenses and will be dealt with accordingly. You are strongly encouraged to consult the USF policy on plagiarism. If you use the words and/or the ideas of others, we will pursue all possible remedies, including writing a letter of intention to assign a grade of F or FF, with a letter of notification sent to the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Anyone caught cheating will fail the course, and we will pursue any and all further penalties.

    The university has an account with an automated plagiarism detection service which allows instructors to submit student assignments to be checked for plagiarism. The instructor reserves the right to submit assignments to this detection system.

  38. Program This Course Supports: MA and PhD in English Literature and MA in Film Studies (HCS)
  39. Course Concurrence Information: Humanities


- if you have questions about any of these fields, please contact chinescobb@grad.usf.edu or joe@grad.usf.edu.