CIN 306 The Comedic ImagePaper 2
Over the last two weeks, we have been looking at the work of Buster Keaton and Charlie
Chaplin, two major film comedians (both directors and actors) from the early years of
film. For this essay, you are to write an interpretive essay on a film by Chaplin or
Keatonone that we have not seen in class. That is, you must develop an idea of what
you think that film is about, and show us the evidence from the film that supports your
interpretation. You will need, as such, a clear thesis that has depth and precision. Every
scene you select from the film to support your thesis should show something that is both
consistent across scenes (and in support of the general thesis) and also different from the
others in crucial respects. That is to say, you should assume that each scene in the film
contributes a different piece to a larger idea, and that the filmmaker is not repeating
himself identically from scene to scene.
As major comedians of early cinema, there has been a lot of scholarship devoted to
Keaton and Chaplin. In addition to developing an idea about the filmone that can be
stated in the form of a thesisyou must distinguish your claim about the film from at
least three other key pieces of scholarship on the film you are dealing with. What this
means is that you will have to identify the claim that the writer is making and show how
your own reading shows us something different, even if it is relatable in some way to
what has already been shown. Your sources must come from peer-reviewed scholarly
sources. No exceptions. You can draw on any of the reading from class, but only as an
addition to the three sources that you turned up in the course of your research.
The paper must have a title, and be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style,
with endnotes.