DREAMS IN LITERATURE AND CINEMA
MTWRF 9:45-11:15, Bate 2021
Summer II 2008
Instructor: Dr. Anna Froula
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Description
Required Texts
Film Viewing Requirements
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Grading Scale
Course Calendar
Class Standards
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Instructor Specifics
Professor: Anna Froula
Department of English
Office: Bate 2149
Office Hours: MT 2-4, W 2-3
Office Phone: 328-6663
E-mail Address: froulaaATecuDOTedu
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Description:
Dreams encompass all human experience and exist as enigmas that require analysis and explanation. Throughout history, dreams have mystified humankind. Ancient cultures developed complex mythical worlds from their people's dreams and designated holy figures to interpret them. Similarly, the Western canon of the Old Testament presents dreams as symbolic or literal messages from God. Virtually no culture exists that does not have a fascination with dreams.
Cultural traditions place great importance on them, and even today dreams bear great significance in our own cultural identity. A dream may consist of sleep narratives, nightmares, visions, social constructions, e.g., the "American Dream," or desires for personal or social action, e.g., "I have a dream . . . ." In this course, we will explore dreams and their function in culture as they appear in mythology, fairy tale, poetry, fiction, film, and other forms of storytelling. We will also examine theories on the meaning of dreams--as divine message, bodily and mental dysfunction, and voice of the unconscious--from ancient, early modern, and modern times.
Examining selections across several genres--novels, poetry, drama, short stories, and films--we will structure our textual analysis around the following issues: as readers, how do we approach literary representations of dreams? How do we recognize and react to elements in the dream as text, i.e., "read" dreams? How do dreams intersect with memory, autobiography, prophecy, and creativity? How do concepts of dreaming shape our perceptions of text, self, and world? How do we use dreams as entry points through which to effectively analyze a text? We will consider these questions as the basis to fulfill our course objectives:
1. to analyze literary and film texts while interrogating the definitions and functions of "dream" and "dreaming";
2. to investigate what narrative significance dreams carry;
3. to examine how authors use dreams to draw upon cultural ideas to affect the reader/viewer;
4. to move from the personal to the abstract, developing new ways of seeing and understanding our own and the texts' relationships to fundamental social issues and universal human concerns;
5. to understand the representation of dreams within cultural contexts and theoretical paradigms;
6. to study images from mass media to interpret how culture "canonizes" certain representations or images as meaningful dreams.
Required Texts
Freud, Sigmund. On Dreams. 1900. New York: Norton, 1976.
O'Brien, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods. New York: Penguin, 1994.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Wolfgang Clemen. New York: Signet, 1998.
You will find links to additional required reading in the schedule as well as on Blackboard. You are responsible for completing all reading assignments before class meetings.
Course Conduct and Expectations
If you have a question about what is permissible, please ask. But if I perceive a problem, I will let you know. As this is a discussion-based course, I expect prepared and courteous participation.
All beepers and cell phones must be turned off in class. Class meetings will consist of a combination of lecture, discussion, and analysis of readings and films. Lectures will represent a wide range of supplemental materials and class readings. Thus some of the material addressed in class will not be covered in your textbook. Because much of the class is interactive, it is essential that you come to class having carefully read the assigned readings and prepared to discuss them. I seek to provide a classroom in which all individuals are comfortable contributing their thoughts, questions, viewpoints, and ideas. To that end, it is important to respect the diverse backgrounds of other classmates.
Attendance and Tardiness Policy
You are expected to arrive at class ON TIME, stay the duration of the class, and actively participate in class discussions. It is of the utmost importance that you attend EVERY CLASS. You must provide official, documentation for university-excused absences and make up any work. Failure to provide documentation will result in a 0 participation grade for the day. Likewise, arriving to class more than 10 minutes late or leaving more than 10 minutes early will counted as a “late” (yes I do keep track of this). After 4 “lates” your final grade will drop 5% for every additional “late” you accrue.
LATE WORK PENALTIES: The standard penalty for late work is one full letter grade for each class day it is late, 1/4 letter if you submit it later than the day it was due but before the next scheduled class meeting. (Excused absences, of course, negate such penalties.)
Since this class required internet access, it is up to you to access and complete the assignments on time. Home access problems do not excuse late or missing work.
MAKE-UP EXAMS: You may only make up an exam in the case of an excused absence.
CELL PHONES AND BEEPERS: In class, keep them turned off and in your bag. No exceptions. Each time yours rings, you will receive one letter grade off your final grade.
Assignments
The entries below briefly describe the assignments you will be responsible for in this class and indicate the percentage value of the final course grade.
BLACKBOARD ENTRIES (50 points) You will need to regularly access, read and post entries ranging from your reading observations to impromptu research assignments on blackboard. You are required to complete 2 entries/week in discussion threads that detail (1) your initial impressions of the readings, (2) your assessment of what issues the text(s) raise and how, and (3) a brief summary of how you are interpreting the text(s), i.e., your "read." You have the option of responding to another student's entry, but you must situate your own thoughts in dialogue with it rather than allow someone else's voice to speak for you.
SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENTS (50 points each, 200 points total)
This category includes the three close-reading writing assignments and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer assignment. More details will be provided throughout the term.
Click here for a list of easily avoidable writing mistakes.
MID-TERM and FINAL EXAMS (100 points each)
These in-class examinations will be combinations of identification, image analysis, and short answer questions.
CLASS PARTICIPATION (50 points) Homework, quizzes, class participation, in-class writing assignments, and everything else all figure into this last category.
GRADING SCALE
A = 448-500
B = 398-447
C = 348-397
D = 298-347
F = 0-346
Course Calendar
Week 1 To Sleep Perchance...
R (6/26) -- Course Introduction, begin Waking Life
F (6/27) -- Waking Life, Artemidorus, Campbell. (Adobe Acrobat reader required to view this file. Click icon to download.)
Week 2 The Renaissance and Nature's Dreamscape
M (6/30)--Sherlock, Jr., Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I, Introduction to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Click here for plot summary.
T (7/1)--Midsummer, Acts II-III
W (7/2)--Midsummer, Act IV
R (7/3)--Midsummer, Act V, Close Reading Exercise #1 due
F (7/4)--NO CLASS--UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY
Week 3 A Dreamer Reformed, Romantic Dreams and Liminal Spaces
M (7/7) -- "On Dreams," Sir Thomas Browne, Paradise Lost, John Milton, selections: Click here for Book 4:589-end; Click here for Book 5:1-135,
T (7/8)
--"Neither Here Nor There," Thomas Moore, "The Little Girl Lost," William Blake - Click here for text, "Christabel," Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Click here for text
W (7/9)--MIDTERM EXAM
R (7/10)--NO CLASS
F (7/11)--NO CLASS
Week 4 Victorian Obsessions and the Modern Dreams
M (7/14) --"An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Bierce, Close Reading Exercise #2 due
T (7/15) -- "Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case" from The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson, begin Fight Club
W (7/16)--Fight Club
R (7/17)--On Dreams, Sigmund Freud, chs. I-IV, Manning
F (7/18) -- On Dreams, chs. V-end, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Nightmares"
Week 5 The Language of Desire and Nightmares
M (7/21) -- Repulsion, Freudian Read of "Nightmares" due - click here for assignment
T (7/22)--Stephen King, "The Symbolic Language of Dreams," Begin Mulholland Drive
W (7/23)--Mulholland Drive
R (7/24)-- "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams," Sylvia Plath,
excerpt from Jung, "On Dreams"
F (7/25)-- In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O'Brien,
Week 6 Collective Unconscious and Cultural Amnesia
M (7/28) --In the Lake of the Woods, Close Reading Exercise #4 due
T (7/29)--In the Lake of the Woods
W (7/30)--In the Lake of the Woods
R (7/31)--catch up, exam prep
F (8/1)--Final Exam
General Web Resources:
Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style
Purdue's Online Writing Lab
Anatomy of A Dream
Dreams in Literature - quotes
Guide to online MLA citation
The Oxford English Dictionary
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