CTCS 411: Weekly Reading Responses: Guidelines + Prompts

CTCS 411: Women + Media

Weekly Reading Responses:
Guidelines and Prompts

Spring 2001
Professor Tara McPherson

Weekly Reading Responses:

Throughout the term, you'll be required to turn in 1-2 page responses to the readings and other class materials. These responses should engage critically with the course readings, screenings and discussions and should demonstrate both a grasp of the material and your own considered response to the same. Simply saying you liked or didn't like something is not sufficient; you should demonstrate careful, analytical thinking. Feel free to draw on materials outside of the course as well, integrating them into our discussions and analyses. During the semester you'll be expected to turn in EIGHT of these responses. Only one response will be accepted each week, addressing that week's material, and late responses will not be accepted. These responses will not always be returned, though I will often include selections from them during class. For those of you would like help getting started, I will post 'weekly prompts' by the Monday before each class. These are strictly offered as guidelines; feel free to write your response on other topics.

PART I: Hollywood Women

1/16: A Strong Woman: An Introduction to Feminism and Film

1/23: Femininity, Fascination and Classical Hollywood Cinema

1/30: Sacrifice and Tears: The "Woman's Film"

2/6: Can Girls Have Fun?: The Female Spectator(s)

2/13: Sizzle and Spice: Latinas and Hollywood Cinema

2/20: Detecting Women in the Nineties

Part II: Primetime and Beyond

2/27: Family Feuds: TV and the Domestic Sphere

3/6: Search for Tomorrow: the Television Soap Opera

3/20: Seeing in Black and White: Race, Gender and TV

3/27: Girls Kick Butt: Gender and the Body on TV