SEMINAR—HST 485P1 SPRING, 2015
The Automobile and Film
Class Meeting: Wednesday, 3:00-5:50 p.m.
HM 468
Instructors: Dr. John A. Heitmann, Dr.
James Todd Uhlman
Office: Heitmann-HM 435, Uhlman-HM 448
Telephone: Heitmann-x92803
Office Hours:
Heitmann: MW10-10:50 a.m., W
2-2:50 p.m., or by appointment
Uhlman: TR 1:00-2:45 p.m.,
or by appointment
This
Syllabus is Incomplete and will be Altered
Dr.
Heitmann and Uhlman Reserve the Right to Change this Syllabus
It has been
said that the automobile is the perfect technological symbol of American
culture, a tangible expression of our quest to level space, time and class, and
a reflection of our restless mobility, social and otherwise. Film, a
technology that emerged at the same time as the automobile, has today become
the dominant medium of communication in the world. In this seminar we will
explore together the place of the automobile in film. This story is most
complex, demanding insights and expertise from a host of disciplines. We
have to understand the cultural and social history of the 20th
Century. We also have to know the history of technology and business.
Both of these technologies have influenced the foods we eat; music we
listen to; risks we take; places we visit; errands we run; emotions we feel;
stress we endure; the air we breathe; and the stories we tell ourselves.
Required Texts:
John Heitmann, The Automobile and
American Life (McFarland, 2009).
Heitmann’s book The Automobile
and American Life is our key common reading in this class and the
touchstone for our discussions. While you will not be tested on this
reading, you will be responsible for reading this book and critically
commenting on it in class.
The remaining readings will be in the
form of PDF files located at the course’s Isidore website. The readings
can be found under the “Content Section” and under the button for each of the
numbered weeks of the class.
Grades:
Leading Class
Discussions
100 points
Discussion Participation
100 points
Annotated Bibliography
100 points
Draft #1 of Paper (due before April 8)
100 points
Review of Classmates Paper
50 points
Film Review
Essay
100
points
Film History and Editing Quiz
50 points
Standard Symposium
Presentation
100 points
Final Paper
300 points
Total
1000
In this class we will define the seminar
as a shared learning experience in which one of its purposes is to create new
knowledge. Therefore, the research paper is the most significant assignment of
this course. It should critically explore an area of knowledge related to the
automobile and American life, and ideally should be 10 to 15 pages double
spaced in length, with additional footnotes and bibliography, and furthermore
draw on minimally 15 sources, primary and secondary. We plan to meet with you
individually and collectively during the semester to ensure that your topic has
a proper focus and that sources are readily available for your project. A late
paper will be penalized one-half letter grade per day.
Schedule of Assignments and Class
Meetings
Week 1 — January 12
Topic:
Introduction: The Advent of the 20th
Century and New Technologies of the Car and Film
Films:
“Horatio’s Drive”
Assignment: Signup
for Leading Class Discussion
Week 2 — January 21
Topic:
The Promise of Mobility in American History
Period:
1890s-2000s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
Intro. and ch. 1-2.
Julian Smith, “A Runaway Match:
The Automobile in the American Film, 1900-1920” in Lewis, ed., The
Automobile and American Culture
Kenneth Hey, “Cars and Films in American
Culture, 1929-1959” in Lewis, ed., The Automobile and American Culture
James J. Flink, "Three Stages of
American Automobile Consciousness," American Quarterly, 24
(October, 1972), 451-473.
Todd Uhlman, “Using Film to Understand
the Past”
Films:
“Wild Wheels” (1992) [don’t need to
watch all of this film if you don’t want]
“Henry Ford’s Mirror of America”
(1915-1930)
“Roger
and Me” (1989)
Week 3 — January 28
Topic: The
Silent Era
Period:
1910s-1920s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 3-4
Jennifer Parchesky, “Women in the
Driver’s Seat: The Auto-Erotics of Early Women’s Films,” Film History,
18, no. 2, (2006): 174-184.
Melissa E. Weinbrenner, “Movies, Model
Ts, and Morality: The Impact of Technology on Standards of Behavior in
the Early Twentieth Century,” The Journal of Popular Culture, 44, no. 3
(2011): 647-659.
Todd
Uhlman, “A Short History of the Film Industry”
Films:
“Mabel at the Wheel” (1914)
“The
Wife and Auto Trouble” (1916)
Assignment:
Term Paper Proposal is Due
Week 4 — February 4
Topic:
Mobility and the Great Depression
Period:
1930s-1940s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 4, 6
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
1: “Paving the Way: Sources and Features of the Road Movie”
Douglas
Kellner, “Hollywood Film and Society,” in Hill and Gibson, eds., Oxford
Guide to Film Studies.
Todd
Uhlman, “Learning to Read Movies”
Films:
“It Happened One Night” (1934)
“Grapes
of Wrath” (1940) [not available through the UD service]
Assignment:
Library Research Tutorial
Week 5 — February 11
Topic:
The Reconversion Economy and Film Noir
Period:
1940s and 1950s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 7
Paul Mason Fotsch, “Film Noir and
Automotive Isolation in Los Angeles,” Cultural Studies and Critical
Methodologies, 5, no. 1 (2005): 103-125.
Geraint Bryan, “Nowwhere to Run:
Pulp Noir on the Road,” in Jack Sergeant and Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost
Highways: Illustrated History of Road Movies.
Jack Sargeant and Stephanie Watson,
“Looking for Maps: Notes on the Road Movie as a Genre,” in Jack Sergeant
and Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost Highways: Illustrated History of Road
Movies.
Films:
“They
Drive by Night” (1940)
“Detour”
(1945)
Assignment:
Film History and Editing Quiz
Week 6 — February 18
Topic:
Chrome Dreams of the 1950s and the Tarnished Underside
Period:
1950s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 8
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
2: “Blazing the Trail: Visionary Rebellion and the Late-1960s Road
Movie”: pages 43-50.
Karal
Ann Marling, "America's Love Affair with the Automobile in the Television
Age," Design Quarterly, 46 (1989), 5-20.
Nicholas
Ray, “Story into Script”, in J. David Slocum, ed., Rebel Without a
Cause: Approaches to a Maverick Masterwork
George
M. Wilson, “Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause”, in J. David Slocum, ed., Rebel
Without a Cause: Approaches to a Maverick Masterwork
“Rebel
Without a Cause-Primary Documents Set”
Films:
“Rebel Without a Cause” (1955)
“Thunder
Road” (1958)
TBD
Week 7 — February 25
Topic:
Consensus and Counter Culture
Period:
1960s
Readings:
Cotton Seiler, "Statist means to
Individualist Ends: Subjectivity, Automobility, and the Cold War State," American
Studies, 44 (Fall, 2003), 5-36.
Mark Alvey, “Wanderlust and Wire
Wheels: The Existential search of Route 66,” in Cohen and Hark, eds., The
Road Movie Book.
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
2: “Blazing the Trail: Visionary Rebellion and the Late-1960s Road
Movie”: pages 50-81.
Katie
Mills, The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through, Film, Fiction
& TV
Ch. 3: “TV Gets Hip on Route 66”
Ch. 4: “Kesey’s Quixotic Acid Road Film”
Films:
“Magic Trip” (2011)
Episode
from “Route 66”: “Goodnight Sweet Blues”
Week 8 — March 4
Topic:
Chase Movies and the Racing of Automobility
Period:
1900-2000
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 9
Donald W. McCaffey, “The Evolution of
the Chase in Silent Screen Comedy,” Journal of the Society of
Cinematologists, 4 (1964-65): 1-8.
Jeremy Packer, Mobility Without Mayhem:
Safety, Cars, and Citizenship
Ch. 5: “Of Cadillacs and ‘Coon Cages’: The Racing of Automobility”
Thomas J. Sugrue, “Driving While Black:
The Car and Race Relations in Modern America”
Cotton Seiler, “‘So That We as a Race
Might Have Something Authentic to Travel By,’ African American Automobility and
Cold-War Liberalism,” American Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 4 (Dec. 2006).
Todd Uhlman and John Heitmann, "
Stealing Freedom: Auto-Theft and the Rebellious Revitalization of the
Masculine American Self in Visual Culture" Journal of Popular Culture,
forthcoming.
Films:
“Bullitt” (1968)
“New
Jersey Drive” (1995)
TBD
Week 9 — March 11
Topic: Special
Emeriti Lecture Visit—Biker Films
Period:
1960s-1970s
Readings:
Katie Mills, The Road Story and the
Rebel: Moving Through, Film, Fiction & TV
Ch. 5: “Road Film Rising: Hells Angels, Merry Pranksters, and Easy
Rider”
Carmen Indurain Eraso, “Thelma and Louise:
‘Easy Rider’ in a Male Genre,” Atlantis, 23, no. 1 (2001): 63-73.
Jim Morton, “Rebels of the Road:
The Biker Film,” in Jack Sergeant and Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost
Highways: Illustrated History of Road Movies.
Alistair Daniel, “Get Your Kicks:
‘Easy Rider’ and the Counter-Culture,” in Jack Sergeant and Stephanie Watson,
eds., Lost Highways: Illustrated History of Road Movies.
Barbara Klinger, “The Road to
Dystopia: Landscaping the Nation in Easy Rider,” in Cohen and Hark, eds.,
The Road Movie Book.
Films:
“Easy Rider” (1969)
“Vanishing
Point” (1997)
Assignment:
The Completion of a Working Bibliography of no less than 15 Sources, 5 of which
are articles.
Week 10 — March 18
Topic:
Nostalgia and the Existential Highway of the 1970s
Period:
1970s
Readings:
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
3: “Drifting on Empty: Existential Irony and the Early-1970s Road Movie.”
David
R. Shumway, “Rock’n’Roll Sound Tracks and the Production of Nostalgia,” Cinema
Journal, 38, no. 2 (Winter 1999): 36-51.
Jack
DeWitt, “Cars and Culture: Song of the Open Road,’” The American
Poetry Review, 39, no. 2 (March.-April. 2010): 38-40.
Jack
DeWitt, “Cars and Culture: The Cars of ‘American Graffiti,’” The American
Poetry Review, 39, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct. 2010): 47-50.
Andreas
Killen, 1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of
Post-Sixties America, “Reinventing the Fifties”: 163-194.
Adam
Webb, “No Beginning. No End. No Speed Limit: ‘Two-Lane
Blacktop’”, in Jack Sergeant and Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost
Highways: Illustrated History of Road Movies.
Jack
Sargeant, “‘Vanishing Point’: Speed Kills”, in Jack Sergeant and Stephanie
Watson, eds., Lost Highways: Illustrated History of Road Movies.
Films:
“Vanishing
Point.” (1971)
“American
Graffiti” (1973)
“Badlands”
(1973)
Week 11 — March 25
Topic:
Steel Cowboys and the Apocalyptic Highway
Period:
1970s-1980s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 10
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
4: “Blurring the Boundaries: The 1980s Postmodern Road Movie.”
Todd
Uhlman, “Delivering Manhood” [draft of article]
“The
Trucker Craze-Primary Documents Set”
Jim
Morton, “Road Kill: Horror on the Highway,” in Jack Sergeant and
Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost Highways: Illustrated History of Road
Movies.
Jack
Sergeant, “Killer Couples: From Nebraska to Route 666,” in Jack Sergeant
and Stephanie Watson, eds., Lost Highways: Illustrated History of Road
Movies.
Films:
“Smokey and the Bandit” (1977)
“Death
Race 2000” (1977)
Assignment: Draft
#1 of Paper is Due
Exchange of papers with
Classmates—review will be due next week
Week 12 — April 1 (Guest Instructor)
Topic: The
Feminist Road
Period:
1980s-1990s
Readings:
John Heitmann, The Automobile,
ch. 5
Harvey R. Greenberg, Carol J. Clover, et
al., “The Many Faces of ‘Thelma and Louise,’” Film Quarterly 45, no. 2
(Winter 1991-1992): 20-31.
“Thelma and Louise and the Cultural
Generation of the New Butch-Femme,” in Jim Collins, et al, Film Theory Goes
to the Movies (1991), 129-141.
Jim Healey, “’All This for Us’: The
Songs in Thelma & Louise,” The Journal of Popular Culture, ???:
103-119.
Aspasia Kotsopoulos, “Gendering
Expectations: Genre and Allegory,” in Left History [Readings of
Thelma and Louise] 8 (2003): 10-33.
Films:
“Thelma and Louise” (1991)
“Natural
Born Killers” (1994)
Assignment:
Return of Reviewed Papers
Week 13 — April 8
Topic: The Post-Modern Road to
Uncertainty
Period: 1990s-2000s
Readings:
David
Laderman, Driving Vision: Exploring the Road Movie
Ch.
5: “Rebuilding the Engine: The 1990s Multicultural Road Movie.”
Katie
Mills, The Road Story and the Rebel: Moving Through, Film, Fiction
& TV
Ch. 9: “First-Person Players: The Digital, ‘Tranmedia’ Road Story”
Jeremy
Packer, Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, and Citizenship
Ch. 6: “Raging with a Machine: Neoliberalism Meet the Automobile”
“Debating
Crash-Primary Document Set”
Rae
Hark, “Fear of Flying: Yuppie Critique and the Buddy-Road Movie in the
1980s,” in Cohen and Hark, eds., The Road Movie Book.
Films:
“Crash”
(1996)
“Crash”
(2004)
Week 14 — April 15
NO CLASS: STANDER SYMPOSIUM
Assignment:
Presentations at the Symposium
Week 15 — April 22
Topic: NASCAR Culture and The Fast
and Furious
Period: 2000-2014
Readings
Lawrence W. Hugenberg and Barbara S.
Hugenberg, “It it Ain’t rubbin’, It Ain’t Racing: NASCAR, American
Values, and Fandom,” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 41, no. 4,
2008.
M. Graham Spann, “NASCAR Racing
Fans: Cranking Up an Empirical Approach,” The Journal of Popular
Culture, ???, 2003
Don Cusic, “NASCAR and Country Music, Studies
in Popular Culture, vol. 21, no. 1 (October 1998).
“Talladega
Nights: The Ballads of Ricky Bobby” (2006)
Assignment:
Final Papers are Due
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