Hi Class,

This is a friendly reminder to post your 50-words review of a recent favorite story or film before class tomorrow. Directions are the post below.

We will finish watching Read Window. Be prepared to think about how tension is created in both Woolrich’s story and Hitchcock’s version.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

Good reflections on Rear Window. Hope you are digging this classic 1954 film.

Homework: 

1–Post a 50 word mini-review of a recent film or reading that you liked on our “Favorites” menu tab. See my example, which is already up. Make sure to select the Category “Favorites” so that it is posted to the correct place. 

2–How does tension work in “It Had to Be Murder” and Rear Window? For example, through lighting changes, through close ups, through sounds? Be specific. Right down at least two ideas in your notebooks. I will ask you to read your answer in class.

3–Reread the last five pages of Woolrich’s story (27-32) so that we can compare it to the film’s ending.

4–Read the assignment details for the Translation Essay–which you can find in the  “Assignments” menu tab.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

I hope that all those new terms did not overload you.

**I created the “Favorites” category! Feel free to add your recommendations for extra participation points.

Homework:

1–Quiz 1 by Friday at 5pm–on Blackboard!

2–Review or Reread “It Had to Be Murder”

3–In your notebooks, define these terms: Redemption, Sacrifice, Revenge, MacGuffin

Make sure to record the title, director, or author of whatever you are reading/watching!

Best

Prof. Scanlan

New Note:

The City Tech Literary Arts Festival is now accepting submissions. It’s a fun way to get involved in writing for yourself and others.

Check out the advertisement here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/literaryartsfestival/

—

Hi Class,

Thanks so much for keeping the conversation going! With only ten students, you guys have to stay active…and you did!

I really, really appreciate it.

**Make sure to post the Coffeehouse #1 post, if you have not done so yet.

For next Thursday (2/25):

Read “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich (Readings Menu Tab). Then, prepare for Quiz 1 which will cover “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “It Had to Be Murder.”  In addition, I will ask one question drawn from our 12 film terms.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Today, Feb 18, we will discuss our Coffeehouse Posts

Here’s the Homework again: For our first coffeehouse post, read two short stories: Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (both can be found in the Readings menu tab). And then write a 300-word post that focuses on two parts of the Five Part  Tool in particular: #2 Setting and #5 Metaphors, Symbols, and Themes, and Images. Refer to the specific questions on the handout. One paragraph for each short story is fine.

–DUE DATE: before class on February 18.

Best wishes,

Prof. Scanlan

UPDATES FOR FEB 4:

Due to an earlier scheduled City Tech meeting, I won’t be able to hold office hours today. Please email any questions: sscanlan@citytech.cuny.edu

I apologize for the inconvenience.

-Prof. Scanlan

Dear ENG2400 Students:

Greetings, and welcome to ENG2400: Film from Literature. I am your professor, Sean Scanlan, and I look forward to working with you this semester.

The spring 2021 semester begins on Friday, January 29, and so I wanted to let you all know some important information about our online course.

Our class is synchronous. This which means that we have set meeting days and times.

We meet Thursdays from 2:30 to 5:00 pm on Zoom. 

Please note that my email is sscanlan@citytech.cuny.edu (please use your City Tech email to contact me).

*OUR FIRST CLASS WILL MEET ON ZOOM AT 2:30 ON THURSDAY, FEB 4, 2021.

ZOOM INFORMATION: THIS LINK WILL BE USED FOR EVERY CLASS

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89722646101?pwd=N1lkTW03ajlDV2NHQUlXWUlORysrUT09

MEETING ID: 897 2264 6101

PASSCODE: Films-2222

 

If you have trouble getting onto Zoom, please email me: sscanlan@citytech.cuny.edu. If things are really frustrating, you can text/call me: 718-308-7132 (please use my number sparingly).

Getting started: One of the most important questions in our class will be: what is a story and what is a narrative? How can we define it?


Let’s read this short story by Jose Luis Borges:


The Captive

by Jose Luis Borges, published 1960


The story is told in Junín or in Tapalquén. A boy disappeared after an Indian attack. People said the Indians had kidnapped him. His parents searched for him in vain. Then, long years later, a soldier who came from the interior told them about an Indian with blue eyes who might well be their son. At length they found him (the chronicle has lost the circumstances and I will not invent what I do no know) and thought they recognized him. The man, buffeted by the wilderness and by barbaric life, no longer knew how to understand the words of his mother tongue, but indifferent and docile, he let himself be led home. There he stopped, perhaps because the others stopped. He looked at the door as if he did not know what it was for. Then suddenly he lowered his head, let out a shout, ran across the entrance way and the two long patios, and plunged into the kitchen. Without hesitating, he sank his arm into the blackened chimney and pulled out the little horn-handled knife he had hidden there as a boy. His eyes shone with joy and his parents wept because they had found their son.

Perhaps this recollection was followed by others, but the Indian could not live within walls, and one day he went in search of his wilderness. I wonder what he felt in that dizzying moment when past and present became one. I wonder whether the lost son was reborn and died in that instant of ecstasy; and whether he ever managed to recognize, if only as an infant or a dog does, his parents and his home.

 

Source: Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. Translated by Andrew Hurley. Penguin, 1998, p 300.

HOMEWORK: These two tasks are due before class on Thursday, February 11:

1–Please fill out the First Week Questionnaire — see below.

2–Read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” which can be found in the “Readings” menu tab — at the bottom. And in your notes (either a physical notebook or on your digital device) describe the story according to the 5-Part Reading Tool. And finally, did you like the story? Why or why not? We will discuss this story, and I will ask questions in order to get the conversation started. Next week, in class, we will watch and discuss short film versions of these stories.

Best wishes,

Sean Scanlan