AJ27070 The American Road in Film and Fiction

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2013
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Bonita Rhoads (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each odd Tuesday 15:50–17:25 G31
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives (in Czech)
The open road is fundamental to constructions of American identity in literature as well as cinema, functioning as an epic metaphor that affirms but also questions America’s exceptionalism. This course explores the “Road Movie” as a distinctly American film genre while tracking its ideological elasticity, its tendency to careen between sharply divergent visions of the country, portraying the nation as an enduring frontier or “lost highway,” drawing on narratives of the pioneer as well as the fugitive, and staging broad critiques of American society even while romanticizing America’s technological “drive,” its spiritual and social mobility. Screenings include “Westerns” (Stagecoach, The Searchers), Ford’s populist epic (The Grapes of Wrath), the counter-culture classics of the Vietnam era (Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Badlands), and the nihilistic pastiches of 80’s and 90’s revivals (Wild at Heart, Thelma and Louise, Natural Born Killers). In addition to full screenings and clips, we’ll cross-reference films with selected criticism and with literature (Twain, Whitman, Steinbeck, Capote, Kerouac, McCarthy). Close attention will be paid to historical context (Fordism, the Interstate Highway Boom, 60s radicalism, 80s conservatism) and to the film forms characteristic of this hybrid genre (rock soundtracks, tracking shots, mixed-media montage). Literature to be selected from: The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon (selections), John Filson, 1784 Democracy in America (selections), Alexis de Toqueville, 1835-40 The Oregon Trail (selections), Francis Parkman, 1847-49 “Song of the Open Road,” Walt Whitman, 1855 “Walking,” Henry David Thoreau, 1861 Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain, 1883 Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884 “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893 The Road, Jack London, 1907 A Hoosier Holiday, Theodore Dreiser, 1916 “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost, 1916 Light in August, William Faulkner, 1932 Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell, 1932 “Dead Men’s Shoes,” Kate Chopin The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, 1939 “Howl,” Allen Ginsburg, 1955 Lolita (selections), Vladimir Nabokov, 1955 On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957 In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1966 Short Drive, Sweet Chariot, William Saroyan, 1967 Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon, 1982 The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 2006
Literature
    required literature
  • TWAIN, Mark. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Přít.) : The adventures of Tom Sawyer ; The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. info
    not specified
  • STEINBECK, John. The grapes of wrath. Edited by Robert J. DeMott. London: Penguin Books, 2000, 476 s. ISBN 0141185066. info
  • KEROUAC, Jack. On the road. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972, 290 s. ISBN 0-14-003192-8. info
  • CAPOTE, Truman. In cold blood :a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences. London: Penguin Books, 1966, 343 s. ISBN 0-14-002682-7. info
  • GINSBERG, Allen. Howl and other poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959, 57 s. ISBN 0-87286-017-5. info
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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