For each section of the course you must write a five- to six-page (no shorter than five full pages, no longer than six full pages) analysis of your film using one of the theoretical models discussed in class for that section. At no time should you review the film you write about; your personal opinions about the quality of the film is irrelevant in this course. Instead you will be called upon to apply the theoretical concepts presented in lectures and readings to your film in order to illuminate how those concepts can be used to understand cinema as an art form. Even if the theorists you employ in your paper write about the quality of a film—whether it is good or bad—you must not do so yourself. Your goal in these papers is to demonstrate an understanding of the theories and how they can contribute to your understanding of the communicative power of cinema.

To facilitate your grasp of these theories, and to gain a better grasp of the range of theoretical applications available, you will need to do additional research for the written assignments. For each paper, you will need to find at least two scholarly sources that in some way relate to the theory you employ. The sources could be either academic books (written by a film scholar and/or published by an academic press) or essays from academic journals such as Cinema Journal, Velvet Light Trap, Screen, Quarterly Review of Film & Video, et al. To ensure that you proper sources for this assignment, you must e-mail me the two sources you plan to use no less than three days before each essay is due. You may also consult with me or the reference librarian for Communication to determine appropriate sources.

Each paper should begin with a summary of the theory you are addressing, presenting its main arguments about cinema; this section of your paper should take up no more than two pages of your essay. Use your outside research here to help explain both the theory and how it has been applied to films in the past. The remainder of your essay should apply the theory’s main arguments to your film in order to illuminate the applicability (or inapplicability) of the theory. Your research will be essential here as well, as it can guide you in how others have employed a theory. It is very possible that you will determine that the theory does not hold true; indeed, we will read theorists who critique one another’s arguments, and you may choose to do the same. However, you will always need to first demonstrate that you understand the theory; simply disagreeing with it will not be sufficient. Furthermore, you must use specific scenes from your film to illustrate whatever points you make about the theory and its broader applicability, and directly and properly quote from your research at least twice.

One of the goals of this course is to help students hone their analytical and writing skills. Papers must therefore use proper academic English (correct grammar, punctuation and syntax, avoidance of slang and personal interjections) and employ University of Chicago style guidelines (see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/02/ (Links to an external site.) for the up-to-date specifications; endnote-citation style is strongly preferred in the humanities). I encourage you to speak to me during office hours to clear up any questions or confusion you might have about the theories and to discuss your papers. You should also work with tutors in the student writing centers to develop these essays.
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Only use one theory for the paper. The theories you may use are mostly found in Writing in the Dark with these chapters: 1- Gunning; Lindsay. 2-Rybin; Metz. 3- Brown; Barthes. or you can use the readings in the files I attached.
Please note that opinions should be excluded from the paper, and it’s not a review of the film. It is to simply find a connection between one of these theories, and connecting it to the film Pulp Fiction.
Also, my professor requires that I email him the two sources that will be used in the paper prior to delivering the paper in so he can tell me if I may or may not use the sources. Note that the sources need to be academic.