1. Write an analysis
of a feature that interests you in Time Code. Your discussion should
focus on a single motif, scene, character, or topic in the film and not
attempt to cover the entire work. Be sure to discuss not only the content
of the film but the relevant formal techniques raised by your subject. Bring
in perspectives from the reading wherever possible.
2. Write a paper on
any aspect of Plowing the Dark that interests you. Be sure to have
a strong thesis about a clearly defined element of the novel. As in all
essays, you should bring your own interests to the discussion and not simply
revisit passages or ideas that we discussed in class.
3. Compare the treatment
of Hagia Sophia in Plowing the Dark with the poem by George Bradley,
"An Arrangement of Sunlight at Hagia Sophia" (a copy is available
in the Files section of our course page on Prometheus).
4. Examine the use of
Walter Benjamin's passage on the Angel of History (Thesis IX in "Theses
on the Philosophy of History") and Paul Klee's painting Angelus
Novus in Plowing the Dark.
5. Compare the use of
historical events as a background in Jazz and Damascus Gate.
6.
Discuss the treatment of the journalist in Damascus Gate and one
of the following movies: The
Year of Living Danerously (1982) or Under
Fire (1983).
7.
Compare the attitude toward traumatic violence in Middle Passage
and The Shawl.
8. Use the reading from
Jameson to discuss Middle Passage and Kokura. Consider whether
or not Jameson's conception of postmodernism applies to either or both of
these texts.
9.
Compare the handling of some theme or issue of cinematic technique in Suture
and Memento.
10.
Compare the use of music in Jazz with the use of art in Plowing
the Dark
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