INTRODUCTION

“Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.”

This course in literature and film explores Woody Allen's life and work--the films, stand-up, essays, plays, music, and neuroses that launched Allen Stewart Konigsberg from card tricks on Avenue K to auteur status at Cannes. We'll consider Allen's appropriation of Dostoevsky, Freud, Porter, Chaplin, Fitzgerald, Marx, Bechet, Hope, Gershwin, and Bergman as well as his self-conscious engagement with the New York intellectual scene. By the semester's end we'll have a better understanding of Allen's oeuvre and why he was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys.

REQUIREMENTS

“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.”

You are asked to respond to the books and films listed above as well as to supplementary readings distributed throughout the semester.  Your main projects include your participation in weekly discussions and class activities, a blog devoted to our course theme, short response papers, a midterm and final paper, and participating in a group-led discussion.

Here is a summary of our work:

• Blog. During the first week of class, create a blog (e.g., www.blogger.com) devoted to our course theme. Post weekly reflections to your blog (250 words) and incorporate other new media (e.g., YouTube clips, Web images) . Be prepared to present your blog to the class at various times throughout the semester. NOTE: All writing projects will be posted on blogs.
  
  
• Response Papers.  You will be reading a great deal this semester and often asked to respond to these readings with short analyses. These analyses will vary in style and content, and many will figure into our discussions and larger papers.
  
  
• Group Presentation.  Early on, form discussion groups of six or seven, and choose one of our primary texts (This Side of Paradise, Crime and Punishment, Portnoy's Complaint, or Fahrenheit 451 ). When it is your turn to lead a discussion (not lecture), you’ll be responsible for the following:
  
  1. Analysis of one primary text and class activity
  2. Any “outside” text for the class to examine critically in light of our readings.  Choose any text, e.g., film, novel, poem, magazine or journal article, political speech, YouTube clip, Website, television or radio program, student essay, comedy routine, or song that might help us better understand the larger implications and subtle nuances of our readings
  3. Suggest how your primary text informs one or more of Woody Allen's major works
  4. 250-word reflection on blog that states in explicit terms how you contributed to your group's presentation. Note: Although you will each be contributing to the discussion as individuals, your presentation should represent group work; that is, don't take turns in front of your classmates, speaking individually.

NOTE: Please provide the class with your outside text at least one class prior to your discussion date.  Also, if possible, please come by my office before the discussion date to let me know your thoughts and strategies for a good talk.  Please don't lecture! Find interesting and creative ways to get your classmates to situate our texts historically, biographically, politically, pedagogically, and so on.  The goal is for everyone to rehearse important approaches to these texts as well as to shed new light on the subject matter, relevance, and implications for the field.

• Midterm Paper.  This five-page paper (plus Works Cited) is a critical extension of an idea that we’ve examined during the semester. You’ll develop and defend your own thesis based on what we’ve read and discussed. 
  
  
• Final Paper. Much like your midterm paper, this final, ten-page paper (plus Works Cited), asks that you look closely at any Woody Allen text(s) as well as the other writings we've discussed during the semester.

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

When you enroll in our class you make a commitment to your classmates. This is a participatory, collaborative workshop-style class and attendance is absolutely essential to our success. Class participation includes discussions, student-instructor conferences, and workshop activities.  Everyone has something to contribute to the class, and there is always an opportunity to learn from each other.  If you do not feel comfortable speaking in class you may participate in other ways.  Although participation grades will not be distributed, I will be happy to discuss any questions you have about your progress.

NOTE: Late work will not be accepted unless you have obtained an extension from me ahead of time. You must submit your work even if you miss class on its due date. 

Since we meet only twice per week, grades are dropped a letter after three absences and an F is given after six.  All work is due on the date specified in our syllabus. You are responsible for completing and submitting any work due for a day that you miss and you must come prepared with any work required for the following class.  Please feel free to contact me or see me during my office hours to learn what you missed and how to prepare for the next session. 
 
EVALUATION

“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.”

I grade holistically: you'll receive an email midterm assessment of your work with comments and grade range, e.g., "A-/B+", and then a final grade at the semester's end, once your work is assessed in its entirety.  Please feel free to come by my office, email, or phone me if you have concerns at any time during the semester.  

NOTE: it is most important that I have your preferred email (please post your email on your blog) and that you check your email regularly throughout the semester.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

You must be scrupulously honest in documenting the work that you have drawn from others.  Like other institutions, CSUN Primarytains a strict academic honesty policy.  Plagiarism is illegal and dishonest.  All cases of academic dishonesty must be reported to the Dean, who may suspend or permanently dismiss you from CSUN.  You will receive a course grade of F if you plagiarize in E313.
 

SYLLABUS

“Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?”

Please note that all course requirements and policies are subject to change. Not all class readings are included below. All work is due on the date that it appears.  

1/20
Introduction
        "Bananas and You"
         Syllabus Review

         Homework: Create a blog for next week (e.g., www.blogger.com). Title your blog and include your preferred email address.
         Write your first blog post: introduce your blog as a site devoted to Woody Allen and the works that figure into Allen's major          works. Locate your favorite Woody Allen YouTube clip and post (copy embedded code to the right of the YouTube clip and paste          directly in blog post)
         NOTE: You are responsible for one weekly blog reflection on week's readings, viewings, and class discussions,
         250 words each

1/25
Oedipal Allen
         Take the Money and Run
         Freud JRU: "The Purpose of Jokes" 106-39
         Chaplin, George S. Kaufman, S.J. Perelman, Marx Brothers, Bob Hope
         Form Group Presentation Groups

1/27
Oedipal Allen (cont'd)
         Play it Again, Sam
         Roth            

2/1
Oedipal Allen (cont'd)
         Roth (cont'd)
         Freud JRU: "The Relation of Jokes to Dreams and to the Unconscious" 197-223 
         Marx Brothers
         Gilman. Jewish Self-Hatred (excerpt)          

2/3
Oedipal Allen (cont'd)
         Annie Hall
         Ravits. “The Jewish Mother: Comedy and Controversy in American Popular Culture”
         Group Presentation (Roth)         

2/8
No Class
        

2/10
Intellectual Allen (i.e., reverential) Allen
         Adorno
         Benjamin
         I.D.:  “The Whore of Mensa” 141-53
         Monet, Cezanne, Ben Shahn, Pollock
         Response Paper Due: Write a two-page analysis of a non-Woody Allen comedic film using for your critical lens *only* the texts          discussed thus far in class, e.g., Freud, Kaufman, Perelman, Roth, Ravits, and/or Gilman. 

2/15
Intellectual Allen (cont'd)
         Greenberg's "Avant-Garde and Kitsch"
         Rosenberg's "The American Action Painters"    
         Due: Write a blog post (250-500 words) where you use Benjamin, Adorno, Greenberg, and/or Rosenberg to analyze any work          of art from any one of the following artists: Monet, Cezanne, Ben Shahn, Jackson Pollock.  Include a graphic image of the          work of art under consideration.

2/17
Intellectual Allen (cont'd)
          Manhattan

2/22
Existential Allen
         Dostoevsky        

2/24
Existential Allen (cont'd)
        Dostoevsky (cont'd)
        Bergman's The Seventh Seal

3/1
Existential Allen (cont'd)
        Dostoevsky (cont'd)
        Group Presentation (Dostoevsky)
        I.D.: “Notes from the Overfed” 57-62
        Love and Death      
     
3/3
Existential Allen (cont'd)
        Crimes and Misdemeanors         

3/8
Egotist Allen
       Fitzgerald       

3/10
Egotist Allen (cont'd)
       Fitzgerald (cont'd)
       I.D.: “A Twenties Memory” 63-67
       Group Presentation (Fitzgerald)  

3/15
Egotist Allen (cont'd)
       Zelig       

3/17
No Class

3/22
Egotist Allen (cont'd)
       Bechet, Gershwin, Porter, Reinhardt
       Sweet and Lowdown              

3/24
       MIDTERM PAPER DUE
       Bergman's Wild Strawberries

3/29
No Class

3/31 
Cesar Chavez Day – Campus closed

4/5 
Spring Recess

4/7 
Spring Recess

4/12
Chekhovian Allen
      Hannah and Her Sisters
      Vicky Cristina Barcelona         

4/14
Chekhovian Allen (cont'd)
      Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy
      Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night      

4/19
Dystopian Allen
        Foucault's "Panopticism"        

4/21
Dystopian Allen (cont'd)
        Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto"
        I. D.: "Yes, but Can the Steam Engine do This?" 30-35

4/26
Dystopian Allen (cont'd)
        Bradbury                 

4/28
Dystopian Allen (cont'd)
        Sleeper
        Bradbury (cont'd)
        Group Presentation (Bradbury)        

5/3
Autobiographical Allen
        Stardust Memories        
        Fellini's 8 1/2

5/5
Blog Presentations

5/17  FINAL PAPERS AND WEB PROJECTS DUE