Implementation of digital literacies in secondary literature study can result in increased textual engagement and explorations of identity. The author describes the results of practitioner research at a Midwestern U.S. high school in which senior AP students created short films as a way to analyze literature circle texts. The purpose of the study…

The figure of the vampire has been an important element of popular culture for more than a century. The movies have been a home for vampire stories, and they have presented them as unusually frightening images. A recent explosion of vampire screen works reveals a new emphasis on addressing female issues as opposed to male issues and focusing on…

This essay examines Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film "In This World," which follows the journey of two Afghan migrants from Peshawar to London. Winterbottom's preparation involved travelling from London to Peshawar and then in reverse overland as far as Istanbul; he then returned to Peshawar and filmed the same journey using two…

Presents the text of an interview with Andrew Sarris discussing film criticism and critics and possible futures for the film. (TO)

To understand the dangers of interpreting literary works primarily through the history, social customs, and values of the period portrayed in the work, students should imagine themselves 3 centuries in the future considering a modern work of art. For example, they should try to interpret the movie, "The Graduate," as a reflection of the…

Discusses how the film endings of Hemingway's works differ in both content and intent from the original publications. (TO)

This study investigated whether adolescents' response to film is similar to or different from their response to literature and what these similarities or differences mean. Tenth grade students read two literary selections and viewed two films paired on the basis of similarities in treatment of subject and theme. Students' written responses to…

Discusses and attempts to define literature as an art comprised of more than one medium and film as a medium for more than one art. (TO)

Discusses the differences in the characterization of the hero between James Dickey's novel and screenplay, "Deliverance." (TO)

Film is not often taught for itself and by itself; it is too often viewed as the handmaiden of literature. More often than not it is taught in English departments because: (1) like novels, poems, plays and philosophical arguments, it is a humanistic text; (2) film writers and directors have historically turned to literary texts as their source…

A psychological/ritual model of criticism is used to examine the movie "The Deer Hunter" as a rhetorical event in which males undergo psychological change through their war and postwar experiences. The critical model depends on understanding a Jungian interpretation of the human psyche, the form and function of initiation rituals, and…

This book examines the unique patterns and structure that make cinema a story-telling art form. A comparison of books or plays with films that have been made from them reveals the essence of cinema: its emphasis on movement, fluidity, and pictorial image. Excerpts from shooting scripts demonstrate the ways in which the components of drama…

Discusses the following principles for developing literature and film courses: (1) instructors should have goals for the course and understand and know how to achieve them; (2) works should be chosen for their quality, not popularity; and (3) instructors should be expert in film, literature, or both. (AYC)

Based on the assumption that critical viewing can broaden the range of films one can respond to, increase understanding, and ultimately lead to an intensification of subjective response, this book offers a critical approach to experiencing movies. After explaining the critical method to be used, several films in the context of different aesthetic…