Department of English

This is primarily a writing course. We shall be seeing a film a week (on video cassette) and writing short papers every week. Students will find their own solutions to the practical problems of writing regularly to length and to deadline. We shall spend most of the class time in discussing these papers, but, inevitably, we shall consider also the paradoxical nature of the movies -- a sophisticated and subtle art form that depends for its survival on appeal to a very broad audience. All the large philosophical questions can and do arise. Where does critical authority come from? What is the purpose of criticism? Can there be a place for excellence in a democratic society?