AJ27076 Conspiracy and Paranoia in American Fiction and Culture

Filozofická fakulta
podzim 2016
Rozsah
0/2/0. 2 kr. (plus 3 za zk). Doporučované ukončení: zk. Jiná možná ukončení: z.
Vyučující
doc. Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. (přednášející)
Garance
doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.
Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky – Filozofická fakulta
Kontaktní osoba: Tomáš Hanzálek
Dodavatelské pracoviště: Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky – Filozofická fakulta
Rozvrh
Po 17:30–19:05 G24
Omezení zápisu do předmětu
Předmět je nabízen i studentům mimo mateřské obory.
Předmět si smí zapsat nejvýše 20 stud.
Momentální stav registrace a zápisu: zapsáno: 0/20, pouze zareg.: 0/20, pouze zareg. s předností (mateřské obory): 0/20
Mateřské obory/plány
předmět má 12 mateřských oborů, zobrazit
Cíle předmětu
This course will examine ways in which conspiracies, conspiracy theories, and what one leading historian famously called "the paranoid style" have helped shape American culture and have been expressed in American events and cultural products, especially but not only novels and films. Readings, film viewings and class presentations will provide an overview of leading conspiracy theories and of works dealing with these or imagining others. Topics to be discussed include the various uses of conspiracy as an artistic device; how a feeling, mentality or political attitude like paranoia has been and might be artistically expressed; how particular themes and character types recur and are transformed in different periods and for different purposes; and how fictions have responded to and at times anticipated real events.

By successfully completing the course, students will achieve a better understanding of American culture and politics, of certain “classic” and other thematically related works of American fiction and film, and of differences in modes and methods of storytelling in different media. They will gain further experience in analyzing imaginative works and relating them to historical events and contexts, and will become acquainted with an array of topics that could serve as the eventual basis for a bachelor’s thesis.
Osnova
  • This is a new course and the syllabus is under construction. Here are the immediately upcoming assignments; the materials referred to are available in the folders at tiny.cc/conspiracyandparanoia unless otherwise noted. Later weeks will be added here as we go along:
  • WEEK 1 (26 September):
  • Course introduction; popular American conspiracy theories of the past and present
  • WEEK 2 (3 October):
  • Read: Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics"
  • View: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"; "North by Northwest"
  • WEEK 3 (10 October):
  • View: "The Manchurian Candidate"; "Seven Days in May"; "Dr. Strangelove"
  • WEEK 4 (17 October):
  • Read: Thomas Pynchon, "The Crying of Lot 49"
  • WEEK 5 (24 October):
  • View: "Rosemary's Baby"; "The Stepford Wives"
  • WEEK 6 (31 October):
  • View: "The Parallax View"; "Chinatown"
  • WEEK 7 (7 November):
  • View: "Three Days of the Condor"; "Network"
  • WEEK 9 (21 November):
  • Read: Don DeLillo, "Libra," selections posted
  • View: "The Conversation"; "Dick"
  • (for extra credit: "Conspiracy Theory")
  • WEEK 10 (28 November):
  • View: "The Twilight Zone," selected episodes; "The Matrix"
  • WEEK 11 (5 December):
  • View: "Duel"; first episodes of "The X-Files," "24," and "The Americans"
Literatura
    povinná literatura
  • PYNCHON, Thomas. The crying of lot 49. 1st Perenial Fiction Library. New York: Harper & Row, 1986, 183 s. ISBN 006091307X. info
    doporučená literatura
  • A companion to the crying of lot 49. Edited by J. Kerry Grant. 2nd ed. Athens [Ga.]: University of Georgia Press, 2008, xviii, 188. ISBN 9780820340760. info
  • The United States of paranoia : a conspiracy theory. Edited by Jesse Walker. 1st ed. New York: Harper Collins, 2013, 434 s. ISBN 9780062135551. info
  • Conspiracy and paranoia in contemporary American fictionthe works of Don DeLillo and Joseph McElroy. Edited by Steffen Hantke. New York: P. Lang, 1994, 191 p. ISBN 9783653022124. info
  • Film noir and the cinema of paranoia. Edited by Wheeler W. Dixon. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009, viii, 198. ISBN 0748624007. info
  • Enemies withinthe culture of conspiracy in modern America. Edited by Robert Alan Goldberg. New Haven: Yale University, 2001, xiv, 354 p. ISBN 0300090005. info
  • FENSTER, Mark. Conspiracy theories : secrecy and power in American culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, xxii, 282. ISBN 081663243X. info
  • Knowledge goes popfrom conspiracy theory to gossip. Edited by Clare Birchall. English ed. New York: Berg, 2006, xiv, 185 p. ISBN 9781847883162. info
  • Conspiracy theory in America. Edited by Lance DeHaven-Smith. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013, x, 260 p. ISBN 9780292749115. info
  • Conspiracy theories. Edited by Robin Ramsay. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2000, 96 p. ;. ISBN 1903047307. info
  • Even paranoids have enemiesnew perspectives on paranoia and persecution. Edited by Joseph H. Berke. New York: Routledge, 1998, xiii, 233. ISBN 0415155584. info
  • Conspiracy in Camelotthe complete history of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Edited by Jerome A. Kroth. New York: Algora Pub., 2003, xv, 342 p. ISBN 9780875861968. info
  • Terrorism, media, and the ethics of fictiontransatlantic perspectives on Don DeLillo. Edited by Peter Schneck - Philipp Schweighauser. London: Continuum, 2010, viii, 255. ISBN 1441113738. info
  • Technology and postmodern subjectivity in Don DeLillo's novels. Edited by Randy Laist. New York: Peter Lang, 2010, x, 212 p. ISBN 9781453904848. info
Výukové metody
Lecture/discussion, class presentations, readings, film viewings.
Metody hodnocení
100% final exam, with an essay assignment as the "re-sit." The first sitting of the exam will be on Monday, 12 December, at the usual class time and place.
Vyučovací jazyk
Angličtina
Informace učitele
http://tiny.cc/conspiracyandparanoia
See the folders at this site, which are organized by week, for the readings and viewings assigned.
Další komentáře
Studijní materiály
Předmět je vyučován každoročně.
Předmět je zařazen také v obdobích podzim 2019.