hu 3900 : literature, film, place
c term 2012



jim cocola

assistant professor of
literature, film, and media

department of
humanities and arts

worcester polytechnic institute

Terrence Malick, Film Still from
Days of Heaven (1978)

course description

• this seminar will explore works of literature and film that highlight that ineffable quality known as "the sense of place," evoking connections between the local, regional, national, and planetary frames, and speaking simultaneously to environmental and social concerns. whether by essayists, fiction writers, filmmakers, performance artists, playwrights, poets, or visual artists, these works will share in common an abiding concern for that "first ground" that gary snyder describes as "the 'where' of our 'who are we.'" project options may include creative writing projects, digital humanities pursuits, interpretative essays, and research reports.

course objectives

• to gain a better understanding of the complex cultural trope of "place"
• to learn how to ask questions of literary and filmic texts
• to design and build arguments or resources pertaining to these texts

literary texts that we might read collectively or individually:

• william faulkner, go down, moses (1942)
• wendell berry, the long-legged house (1969)
• jimmy santiago baca, black mesa poems (1989)
• natasha trethewey, native guard (2006)
• william t. vollmann, imperial (2009)

films that we might watch collectivelly or individually:

• yasujiro ozu, tokyo story (1953)
• roman polanski, chinatown (1974)
• terrence malick, days of heaven (1978)
• ranier werner fassbinder, the marriage of maria braun (1979)
• walter salles, central station (1998)

last modified : jim cocola : 2009.12.08 17.00
[jcocola at wpi dot edu]