Articles on e-reserve can be accessed
as PDF files at
http://queens.docutek.com
9/3: Introduction: What is a
genre? What is a musical?
*Review syllabus, key terminology,
and first paper assignment.
Screening: Moulin Rouge!
(Luhrmann, 2001).
9/10: Musical Structures
* Steven Cohan, “Introduction:
Musicals of the Studio Era”
(Cohan, intro)
* Rick Altman, “The American
Film Musical as Dual Narrative”
(Cohan, chp 3)
* Jane Feuer “Celebration of
Song” (packet and e-reserve)
* Corrigan, chapter 2 and “Glossary
of Film Terms.”
Recommended:
* Claudia Gorbman, “Why Music,”
on e-reserve.
Screening: Singin’ in the
Rain (Kelly/Donen, 1952), excerpts
from The Jazz Singer (Crosland,
1927), Rose-Marie (Van Dyke,
1936), Grease (Kleiser, 1978).
9/17:
NO CLASS (Monday course schedule).
Paper 1: Scene
Description and first draft due.
* Corrigan, chapter 1 and chapter
3.
Place paper in my mailbox by 1pm
Tuesday.
9/24: Backstage Musicals
* Martin Rubin, “Busby Berkeley
and the Backstage Musical”
(Cohan, chp 4)
* Jane Feuer, “The Self-Reflective
Musical and the Myth of Entertainment”
(Cohan, chp 2)
* Patricia Mellencamp, “Sexual
Economics: Gold Diggers of 1933”
(Cohan, chp 5)
* Mark Roth, “Some Warners
Musicals and the Spirit of the New
Deal” (packet and e-reserve)
Screening: The Boy Friend
(Russell, 1971), excerpts from Dames
(Enright, 1935), Footlight Parade
(Bacon, 1933), Gold Diggers of
1933 (LeRoy, 1933), Neptune’s
Daughter (Buzzell, 1949).
10/1:
Integrated Musicals
Revision 1
due.
* Martin Sutton, “Patterns
of Meaning in the Musical”
(packet)
* Heather Lang, “Emotion by
Numbers: Music, Song and the Musical”
(packet)
* Jane Feuer, “Dream Worlds
and Dream Stages” from The
Hollywood Musical (packet and e-reserve)
Recommended:
* Corrigan, chapter 5
Screening: Everyone Says I Love
You (Allen, 1996), excerpts
from The Band Wagon (Minnelli,
1953), Yolanda and the Thief
(Minnelli, 1945), Oklahoma!
(Zinnemann, 1955).
10/8: Disembodied voices and
Borrowed Steps: The Politics of
Appropriation
* Carol J. Clover, “Dancin’
in the Rain” (Cohan chp. 12)
* Michael Rogin, “New Deal
Blackface,” (Cohan chp. 13)
* Susan McClary, excerpt from “Carmen
on Film,” (packet)
* Marsha Siefert, “Image/Music/Voice:
Song Dubbing in Hollywood Musicals,”
(packet)
Screening: excerpts from Illusions
(Dash, 1983), Mulholland Dr.
(Lynch, 2001), Swing Time
(Stevens, 1936), Sun Valley Serenade
(Humberstone, 1941), Carmen Jones
(Preminger, 1954), MTV’s
Carmen: A Hip-Hopera (Townsend,
2001)
Brainstorm
topics—come with ideas and
questions.
10/15:
Musical Utopias and Social Critique
* Richard Dyer, “Entertainment
and Utopia,” (Cohan chp. 1)
* Richard Dyer, “The Colour
of Entertainment,” from Musicals:
Hollywood & Beyond (packet and
e-reserve)
* Kenneth MacKinnon, “‘I
Keep Wishing I Were Somewhere Else’:
Space and Fantasies of Freedom in
the Hollywood Musical,” (packet
and e-reserve)
* Linda Mizejewski, “Beautiful
White Bodies,” (Cohan chp.
14)
Screening: Meet Me in St. Louis
(Minnelli, 1944), On the Town
(Donen/Kelly, 1949), Stormy Weather
(Stone, 1943), Cabin in the Sky
(Minnelli, 1943)
Research trip to library
10/22:
Visions of “Latin-ness”
in Hollywood Musicals
* Frances Negrón-Muntaner,
“Feeling Pretty:West Side
Story and Puerto Rican Identity
Discourses,” (packet and e-reserve)
* Shari Roberts, “The Lady
in the Tutti-Frutti Hat: Carmen
Miranda, a Spectacle of Ethnicity,”
(Cohan, chp. 11)
* Marta Savigliano, “Evita:
The Globalization of a National
Myth,” (packet and e-reserve)
* Corrigan, chapter 6
Screening: excerpts from Evita
(Parker, 1996), West Side Story
(Robbins/Wise, 1961), The Gang’s
All Here (Berkeley, 1943), Yolanda
and the Thief (Minnelli, 1945),
Holiday in Mexico (Sidney,
1946)
Research Exercise
due.
Final Project Topic due via email
by Friday.
10/29:
Gender and Camp within the Musical:
Images of Femininity
* Lucie Arbuthnot and Gail Seneca,
“Pre-Text and Text in Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes,” (Cohan
chp. 6)
* Lucy Fischer, “The Image
of Woman as Image: The Optical Politics
of Dames” (packet)
* Richard Dyer, “Judy Garland
and Camp,” (Cohan, chp. 7)
* Pamela Robertson, “Feminist
Camp in Gold Diggers of 1933,”
(Cohan, chp. 10)
Screening: excerpts from Calamity
Jane (Butler, 1953), Viva
Las Vegas (Sidney, 1964), Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes (Hawks, 1953),
Gold Diggers of 1933 (LeRoy,
1933), Dames (Enright, 1935),
The Pirate (Minnelli, 1948).
Midterm reviews: last week to withdraw
from class.
11/5:
Gender and Camp within the Musical:
Images of Masculinity
* Steven Cohan, “‘Feminizing’
the Song-and-Dance Man: Fred Astaire
and the Spectacle of Masculinity
in the Hollywood Musical,”
(Cohan chp. 7)
* Leonard Leff, “‘Come
Home with Me’: 42nd Street
and the Gay Male World of the 1930s,”
(packet)
* Matthew Tinkcom, “Working
Like a Homosexual’: Camp Visual
Codes and the Labor of Gay Subjects
in the MGM Freed Unit,” (Cohan,
chp. 9)
* Christopher Gittings, “Zero
Patience, Genre, Difference,
and Ideology: Singing and Dancing
Queer Nation,” (packet)
Screening: Hedwig and the Angry
Inch (Mitchell, 2001), excerpts
from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
(Donen, 1954), Zero Patience
(Greyson, 1993), 42nd Street
(Bacon, 1933), Paint Your Wagon
(Logan, 1969), The Band Wagon
(Minnelli, 1953).
Outline/abstract
due (make 2 copies).
11/12:
History, Memory, and Place in the
Musical: The Musical from 1955 -
1990
* Edward Reccia, “There’s
No Place Like Home: the Midwest
in American Film,” (packet)
* Jane Feuer “A Postscript
for the Nineties,” (packet)
* Rebecca Ann Rugg, “What It
Used to Be: Nostalgia and the State
of the Broadway Musical,” (packet
and e-reserve)
* Corrigan, chapter 4 (esp. sections
on genre and ideology)
Screenings: excerpts from Meet
Me in St Louis (Minnelli, 1944),
Jailhouse Rock (Thorpe, 1957),
Hair (Forman, 1979), Nashville
(Altman, 1975), Rock ‘n’
Roll High School (Arkush, 1979),
Xanadu (Greenwald, 1980), Dirty
Dancing (Ardolino, 1987).
Peer feedback
on outlines and abstracts due
(make 2 copies).
11/19:
Musical Traditions outside the US
* Richard Taylor, “The Illusion
of Happiness and the Happiness of
Illusion: Grigori Aleksandrov’s
The Circus,” (packet)
* Maithili Rao, “How to Read
a Hindi Film (and Why)” (packet)
* Nasreen Munni Kabir, “Playback
Time: A Brief History of Bollywood
‘Film Songs,’” (packet)
* Sylvie Lindeperg and Bill Marshall,
“Time, History and Memory in
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg,”
(packet)
Screening: Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(Demy, 1964) , Circus (Aleksandrov,
1936), Kaagaz Ke Phool (Dutt,
1959), Apna Desh (Jambu,
1972).
11/26:
The Movie Musical from 1990 –
2003
* Corrigan, chapter 5 (review if
read previously)
Screening: Dancer in the Dark
(VonTrier, 2000)
Draft of final
paper due.
12/2:
Musicals on Television
* Corrigan, chapter 7.
Screening: Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, “Once More With
Feeling,” CopRock, musical
episode of The Simpsons.
Final Project presentations
12/9:
Final Project presentations
Final Papers
due December 16th.
Papers turned in without having
previously submitted topic, outline,
or first draft will not be accepted.
Absolutely no exceptions.
