[Students] Planning on seeing Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug this December?

[Kim Jefferies]

ENG 497.01W and ENG 697.01W:  The Second Hobbit Film
Winter 2014 Mini-Mester

English 497 and 697 are the course designations for Literature and
Languages undergraduate and graduate special topics courses. The numbers
exist to provide faculty and students the chance to explore special
topics not part of the regular curriculum. English 497 and English 697
may be taken more than once for credit, as long as the topic changes. 

The topic for this winter mini-mester class is The Hobbit:  The
Desolation of Smaug (2013). The class will focus on the film as the
primary text (previous knowledge of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel is not
required!), with reading and writing assignments designed to teach
students how to understand and apply four critical paradigms of film
adaptation. 


Required Texts

 Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Film
Trilogy. Edited by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny. Print ISBN:
978-0-7864-4636-0. McFarland.

"The Accidental Tourist On Page and on Screen; Interrogating Normative
Theories About Film Adaptation," Karen Kline. Literature Film Quarterly
24.1 (1996): 70-81.

NOTE: This academic article is available in our university's full-text
database; you will not be buying a copy. 

English 497 assignments will consist of:

1. Viewing the film in the theatres at least three times between
December 13 and December 22. There will be online discussion (informal
writing assignments) associated with all three viewings; there will be
assigned film terminology and adaptation questions for two viewings.

2. Posting in the online discussions (which will be a major part of the
class grade because that's the way to get writing into a mini-mester);
and,

3. Writing a 3 page proposal for an essay, with a working bibliography
of 3-5 academic sources. 

We will also do a group review/discussion of the film for posting in my
Tolkien Studies blog. 

English 697 assignments will consist of:

1. Viewing the film in the theatres at least three times between
December 13 and December 22. There will be online discussion (informal
writing assignments) associated with all three viewings; there will be
assigned film terminology and adaptation questions for two viewings.

2. Posting in the online discussions (which will be a major part of the
class grade because that's the way to get writing into a mini-mester);
and,

3. Writing a 5 page formal proposal for an essay, with a working
bibliography of 7-10 academic sources. 

We will also do a group review/discussion of the film for posting in my
Tolkien Studies blog. 




Robin Anne Reid | Professor of English
Department of Literature and Languages
Robin.Reid at tamuc.edu 

Texas A&M University-Commerce
P.O. Box 3011 | Commerce, TX 75429-3011
Tel. 903.886.5268 | Fax: 903.886.5980 | www.tamuc.edu




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