Texas A&M - Central Texas

ENGK 341 Religion and Film

Fall 2014

Instructor: Dr. Allen H. Redmon

Associate Professor of English

Office:Founder’s Hall, 217-P

Phone:254.519.5750

Email:

Office Hours:By appointment. The best way to contact me is through my TAMUCT email account. Messages sent to my TAMUCT account will usually receive a response within 24 hours if not much sooner. Phone calls will be returned within one week. Emails sent through Blackboard will not normally receive a response.

To access online components of this course,

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2)Enter your user name and password

3)Find our course

This is not an online course; however, some materials and some assignments may be moved to Blackboard. Should some part of our course work best online, we may even move entire class sessions online. Online sessions will be announced at least one class before they occur.

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To access our online components, please visit the following link ( click, “Course Log-In”; enter your username and password; and, find our course.

NOTE: If you are logging in the first time, your username is your university email address () and your password is your university ID (UID). If you do not have login credentials for Blackboard (i.e. a username and password) you must resolve this immediately. No one—including your instructor—can do this for you. You will need to contact the good folks in our IT department.

Course Description

This courseexplores cultural and historical contexts through film. The course utilizes insights from cultural studies, a field that considers the ways in which cultural expressions are constructed, religious studies, a field that studiesthe varied manifestations of religious beliefs and behaviors within human culture, and, lastly, film studies, a field that investigates the formal strategies moving pictures employ to realize a host of meanings. Prerequisite: Freshman Comp I and II.

Learning Objectives of Course

Students who successfully complete this course will have…

  • Listed the particular interests of cultural, religious, and film studies
  • Utilized the central concepts of these fields to investigate film
  • Demonstrated the ways in which cultural artifacts like film remain open for negotiation
  • Differentiated a range of religious functions of film from more general meanings
  • Appraised aparticular set of films according to the arguments introduced in our readings and discussions
  • Written an effective essay equally informed by the priorities of cultural, religious, and film studies

Required Textbooks

Lyden, John C. Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Print.

Technology Requirements

This class will have some online components. As such, you will need reliable and

regular access to a computer and the Internet.

Blackboard supports the most common operating systems:

PC: Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000,

Mac: Mac OS 10.6 “Snow Leopard®”, Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard®”, Mac OS 10.4

“Tiger®”

Check browser and computer compatibility by following the “Browser Check” link on

the TAMU-CTBlackboard logon page. (tamuct.blackboard.com) This is a

CRITICAL step as these settings are important for trying to see online components.

For technological or computer issues, students should contact the TAMU-CT

Blackboard Support Services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:

Support Portal:

Online chat (through the support portal at:

Phone: (855)-661-7965

For issues related to course content and requirements, contact your instructor.

Technology issues are not an excuse for missing a course requirement – make sure your computer is configured correctly and address issues well in advance of deadlines.

Course Calendar

The anticipated activities for each class are as follows:

Aug 25Introductions

Aug 27Noah (2014)

Sept 3Chapter 1 and 2

Sept 8The Lego Movie (2014)

Sept 10Chapter 3

Sept 15Chapter 4

Sept 17Day of Wrath (1943)

Sept 22Chapter 5; Takva: Man’s Fear of God (2006)

Sept 24Chapter 6 and 7

Sept 29Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Oct 1Chapter 8 and 9

Oct 6Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Oct 8Chapter 10: E.T. (1982)

Oct 13Chapter 11: T2 (1991)

Oct 15Chapter 12: The Shining (1980)

The anticipated due dates for the six essay assignments this course will assign are as follows (all essay assignments will be submitted over email and will be due before 6am on the date listed):

Sept 2Opening Response

Sept 10Religious Response

Sept 24Interreligious Response

Oct 1Negotiating Heroism

Oct 8Negotiating Experience

Oct 18Comprehensive Exam

This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the professor. All changes will be announced in class. Students who miss class will need to contact their professor before the next class to see if a schedule revision has occurred. Failure to hear a schedule change does not excuse one from the implications of that change.

Assignments

This course will have three types of essay assignments: response essays, negotiation essays, and a comprehensive essay.

  1. Response Essays:

Response essays will be prompt-based essays that ask you to respond to one particular film (or films in the case of the last response essay). The “opening response” will respond to Noah; the “religious response” will respond to The Lego Movie; the “interreligious response will respond to Day of Wrath and Takva. The prompts and expectations for each response essay will be distributed during the class in which we watch the assigned film. Each response essay is worth 10% of your final grade.

  1. Negotiation Essays:

Negotiation essays will also be prompt-based essays that ask you to respond to one particular film while being mindful of Lyden’s arguments. The “Negotiating Heroism” essay will consider Miller’s Crossing in relation to chapters 6 and 7 most specifically (and chapters 1-5 more generally); The “Negotiating Experience” essay will consider EternalSunshine of the Spotless Mind in relation to chapters 8 and 9 (and, again, more generally, 1-5).The prompts and expectations for each negotiation essay will be distributed during the class in which we watch the assigned film. Each negotiation essay is worth 20% of your final grade.

  1. Comprehensive Exam Essay:

The comprehensive essay will be a prompt-based essay that asks you to apply the insights of the semester to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.The prompts and expectations for this assignment will be distributed during the class in which we watch The Shining. The comprehensive exam is worth 30% of your final grade.

All essays should be formatted according to the expectations of MLA (see this link if you have questions about format—

Grading Rubric and Conversion

Each assignment will be weighed as follows:

Opening Response Essay10%

Religious Response Essay10%

Interreligious Response Essay10%

Negotiating Heroism Essay20%

Negotiating Experience Essay20%

Comprehensive Exam Essay30%

TOTAL100%

Final grades will be computed according to the following scale:

A= 90%

B= 80%

C= 70%

D= 60%

F= 59% or less

Students will earn the letter grade their percentage designates. 89%, for instance, is a B. Please take every assignment seriously to avoid the frustration of just missing a grade.

Late Work

Late work will not be accepted in this class. All assignments are due at 6am on the day they are due. An assignment that arrives at or after 6:01 is late. Late assignments will forfeit all formal credit.

Drop Policy

If you discover that you need to drop this class, you must go to the Records Office and

ask for the necessary paperwork. Professors cannot drop students. The Records Office will provide a deadline by which the form must be returned, completed and signed. Once you return the signed form to the Records Office and wait 24 hours, you must go into Duck Trax and confirm that you are no longer enrolled. Should you still be enrolled, please follow-up with the records office immediately. You are to attend class until the procedure is complete to avoid penalty for absence. Should you miss the deadline or fail to follow the procedure, you will receive an F in the course.

Incomplete Policy

In some instances, life altering events occur after the drop deadline has passed. The majority of the class is complete, but the last assignment or two cannot be completed due to an unexpected occurrence. Should you find yourself in such a situation after the drop date, please see your instructor immediately to see if an incomplete is possible.

Academic Integrity

Texas A&M University - Central Texas expects all students to maintain high standards of personal and scholarly conduct. Students found responsible of academic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary action. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on an examination or other academic work, plagiarism, collusion, and the abuse of resource materials. The faculty member is responsible for initiating action for each case of academic dishonesty and report the incident to the Associate Director of Student Conduct. More information can be found at

Should you compromise your academic integrity in any of the above mentioned ways, you will forfeit all formal credit on that assignment. A second instance of academic dishonesty will result in the automatic failure of the course. All instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the appropriate offices.

Disability Support Services

If you have or believe you have a disability and wish to self-identify, you can do so by providing documentation to the Disability Support Coordinator. Students are encouraged to seek information about accommodations to help assure success in their courses. Please contact Vanessa Snyder at (254) 501-5836 or visit Founder's Hall 114. Additional information at

Tutoring

Tutoring is available to all TAMUCT students, both on-campus and online. Subjects tutored include Accounting, Finance, Statistics, Mathematics, and Writing (APA). Tutors are available at the Tutoring Center in Founder's Hall, Room 204, and also in the Library in the North Building. Visit click "Tutoring Support" for tutor schedules and contact info. If you have questions, need to schedule a tutoring session, or if you're interested in becoming a tutor, contact Academic Support Programs at 254-501-5830 or by .

Chat live with a tutor 24/7 for almost any subject on your computer! Tutor.com is an online tutoring platform that enables TAMU-CT students to log-in and receive FREE online tutoring and writing support. This tool provides tutoring in Mathematics, Writing, Career Writing, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Spanish, Calculus, and Statistics. To access Tutor.com, click on

Library Services

Information literacy focuses on research skills which prepare individuals to live and work in an information-centered society. Librarians will work with students in the development of critical reasoning, ethical use of information, and the appropriate use of secondary research techniques. Help may include, yet is not limited to: exploration of information resources such as library collections and services, identification of subject databases and scholarly journals, and execution of effective search strategies. Library Resources are outlined and accessed at:

Professor reserves the right to amend this syllabus at any time