Expert answer:Due in 10 days, 5 page essay. Please read and foll
Expert answer:Due in 10 days, 5 page essay. Please read and follow all instructions and attachmentsYour research essay should be a fully completed work of 5 pages. Your topic may be related to the development of any idea that has already been expressed as part of the course; your thesis should be a synthesis of carefully documented research and critical analysis of this topic. The essay should incorporate the general parts of an academic essay—an introduction and thesis, a body of specific evidence/support/analysis, and a conclusion that emphasizes the answers to questions you may have asked within your research.Your writing should address the Core Learning Outcomes of the course and the Instructor Specific Learning Outcomes, as specified on the syllabus. I have included them here for your convenience:Analyze the disciplinary content in its own context and in relationship to the issues, questions, and positions of other disciplines.Compare and contrast differences and similarities among the disciplines in terms of central concerns, values, methodologies, and relationships to public life.Synthesize diverse perspectives to achieve an interdisciplinary understanding.Analyze the relationships among academic knowledge, professional work, and the responsibilities of local and global citizenship.Interpret and critique the possible “real world” connections or behaviors associated with the viewing or playing of media violence.Instructor Learning OutcomesIdentify, discuss and critique the representations of serial killers as heroes, celebrities, and icons in modern media forms. Explain the characteristics of the media forms, genres, and methods for each subject.Describe and analyze the popular culture forms that encourage audience identification or participation through violence or vicarious experience.Evaluate multiple perspectives, modes of inquiry and expression, and processes for decision-making in the disciplines.SpecificsYour essay should conform to the MLA format for citations within the text and in your works cited. Therefore, your writing should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins, in a 10-12-pitch font. The grading of this essay will be based upon the objective skills we have focused upon in our course lectures and discussions—incorporating your research sources seamlessly within your own writing, building upon your skills as a “close-reading” expert and analysis of your topic, and answering the larger questions about “why” we are studying serial killers as heroes (as well as, “why” your topic is popular? important? significant? worthy of study? definitive of its audience?)ResourcesYou should carefully construct your essay by looking at the examples we have studied within our course—the popular culture essays that have been part of your reading assignments, our in-class examples, and the writing process that has been investigated in our class assignments (Reader Response Essays, Discussion Postings, etc).MLA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.APA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
grading_rubric.docx
3_lectures_from_the_course.docx
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GRADING RUBRIC
The Final Project will be graded according to the following rubric.
Competency
Exceeds
Expectation (3)
Meets Expectation (2)
Core Learning
Outcome #1
Outcomes
Demonstrates a
detailed and
sophisticated
understanding of the
disciplinary content
in relationship to its
contexts.
Demonstrates an accurate
understanding of the
disciplinary content in its
own context.
Core Learning
Outcome #2
Outcomes
Reflects more than a
simple description
of similarities and
differences between
disciplines to
illustrate the
interaction of the
discipline’s
concerns, values,
methodologies, and
relationships to
public life.
Accurately identifies
similarities and differences
between the relevant
disciplines’ central
concerns, values,
methodologies, and
relationships to public life.
Core Learning
Outcome #3
Outcomes
(part of Core
Assessment)
Moves beyond
simple
interdisciplinary
perspectives to
achieve a
sophisticated
synthesis of
perspectives that
offers unique
insights to the
problem/issue.
Generates valid
interdisciplinary
perspectives relevant to the
problem/issue.
Core Learning
Outcome #4
Outcomes
(part of Core
Assessment)
Applies a
sophisticated and
creative
interdisciplinary
understanding to
various academic,
professional, and
civic concerns,
uncovering the
Applies an interdisciplinary
understanding of academic
professional and civic
concerns.
No
Does Not Meet Expectation
Evidence
(1)
(0)
Disciplinary knowledge
represented is incomplete or
contains errors and/or
omission of contextual
factors; or CA guidelines are
not followed.
Fails to address either central
concerns, values,
methodologies, or
relationships to public life
for both disciplines; offers
only a superficial discussion
of all; addresses these issues
for a single discipline; or
addresses only similarities or
differences; or CA
guidelines are not followed.
Illustrates a single
disciplinary perspective or
offers a simplistic view of
the problem/issue; or CA
guidelines are not followed.
Fails to tie the
interdisciplinary
understanding to one or
more of the following:
academic, professional, or
civic concerns; or CA
guidelines are not followed.
interconnectedness
of those concerns.
Core Learning
Outcome #5
Outcomes
Evaluates various
Goes beyond simple disciplinary modes of
understanding to
thinking in pursuit of
achieve a detailed,
holistic understanding.
in-depth analysis
and evaluation,
highlighting
strengths and
weaknesses of the
disciplinary modes.
Overall project
effectiveness
Outcomes
Outcomes 6.1-6.5
Project goes beyond
meeting
expectations to
represent a
creative/innovative
and persuasive
perspective.
Technical Skill in
Communicating
Outcomes
Outcome:
University
Mission
Statement
Employs
conventions of
Standard Written
English with grace
and style in a wellorganized, fully
developed essay.
Exhibits only superficial
evaluation or evaluates a
single mode of disciplinary
thinking; or CA guidelines
are not followed.
Project meets audience and
genre expectations for
coherence, organization,
and
mechanics/documentation.
Project fails to illustrate
effective audience analysis
or fails to meet genre
expectations in one or more
areas: coherence,
organization, and
mechanics/documentation;
or CA guidelines are not
followed.
Employs conventions of
Standard Written English in
a well-organized,
adequately developed
essay.
Illogical statements, lack of
development and
organization, and persistent
problems with use of
Standard Written English
interferes with reader’s
ability to understand the
point of the paper.
LECTURE 1:
Lecture – Dexter
Film Instruction
Watching a television series is a different form of analysis than say, reading a novel. In
this unit, you should concentrate on the differences between the novel and the series, as
a way of forming your own perspective on how these popular forms operate.
First, the series can be quite visually violent, but the novel allows a deeper
understanding of Dexter’s motivations. These different perspectives–visual and mental
require you to analyze the material in different ways. We’ll talk more in the discussion in
this unit about these often oppositional ideas.
For instance, novels are rarely analyzed as “too violent,” but television shows must
participate in a voluntary censorship to appease viewers who feel that such material is
unsuitable for society in general. Why is visual violence different from the mental
violence within the written material?
While our earlier films offered serial killers that had sympathetic motivations–helping
the FBI to solve crimes or protecting one’s family–the serial killer at the heart of Jeff
Lindsay’s novel and the TV series Dexter unashamedly depicts a serial killer as “hero.”
Again, you should use your “close-reading” skills when viewing or reading this unit’s
assignment to discover exactly how this novel/series reverses our perspective on serial
killers. How does the novel/series help us see Dexter in a more complex way than the
previous units’ serial killers? To answer this question, lets look very carefully at the way
the novel/series depicts the violence on the page/screen.
In the novel, Dexter’s ability to kill is passed off–much as we saw in Mr. Brooks–on a
Dark Passenger. In the opening chapter, Dexter kills a priest who murdered young
children. He defines the priest as a monster, but defines himself as a very different kind
of creature–a monster, yes–but a very different kind of killer.
In fact, Dexter is so wrapped up in appeasing his Dark Passenger that his killing is almost
dreamlike. To us, he is a fascinating dark hero, but on the page, Dexter talks often
about the killings as something separate to his nature and consciousness. Near the
climax of the novel, on video, Dexter sees the Ice Truck Killer–and he/we are almost
convinced that it is Dexter himself. As if the killer at the heart of the novel might
actually be Dexter–a good serial killer gone bad.
In the TV series, the editing and camera work show just how carefully the crafting must
be to pull an audience towards “accepting” a serial killer as their hero. In the opening
episodes the violence is almost shown, but never fully. When Dexter stabs his victims,
notice how the camera editing hides the actual murder.
However, at the end of the first season such censorship falls away, and the entire brutal
sequences of carnage and stabbing and murder are on full display for an
audience. Why? Could it be simply that the series has been prepping us, developing
our own blood lust a bit, so that near the end of the series we’re more enwrapped in the
violent episodes–perhaps, even, in a very dark way, enjoying the kill scenes visually as
emotional catharsis?
Specific Material for Consideration of this Unit’s TV Series
Dexter fits into a larger history of television crime procedurals. Think how many are still
on screen today: CSI: Crime Scene Investigations (in multiple forms), Law & Order
(again, in multiple forms), Psych, Grimm, Hawaii Five-O, are all prime examples.
As a rule, these programs link us to characters that are searching for justice and hunting
down evil-doers. In a real world where we rarely get to see crimes solved with any
finality, these programs attract viewers by offering a series of crimes that can easily be
solved in just about 41 minutes. While we cannot take control of the real world, these
shows offer us a fantasy of control and finality in the answers they provide.
Dexter Morgan is clearly a CSI blood spatter expert, who hunts down bad guys in the
same way other television detectives work within their career fields. However, when the
justice system fails, Dexter uses his expert analysis to determine your true level of guilt-and then performs his own ritualistic killing to mete out justice.
Essentially, Dexter does to murderers, what they did to their victims. And the dangerous
and disturbing part about the series is not Dexter’s killing sprees, but the way the series
asks us to condone those killings as enjoyable or valuable. We want Dexter to get away
with his crimes, we want him not to get caught, and we might even enjoy those killings-once we know their level of guilt.
At stake here is the idea that Dexter’s evidence is ironclad. The justice system might fail,
but facts are facts. Is there a problem here with Dexter’s philosophy of evidence always
speaking the truth? Does he really know better than all the judges, lawyers, and police
that have worked on the investigations?
Also at stake, is Dexter’s code: the set of rules laid down by his father, Harry
Morgan. The rules allow Dexter to only kill certain people, in a certain way, always
under controlled circumstances. Is this level of control one way to help us accept the
killings as necessary?
LECTURE 2: FRANKESTEIN
Film Instruction
As you will have the option of choosing your own film in this unit, the film instruction
will be rather brief. The sheer number of films to choose from in this assignment is a bit
staggering. According to www.imdb.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site., just since the 1950s there have been well over 300 feature films with Frankenstein’s
story or character.
One of the questions to consider in this section would be: What is it about this plot in
particular that generates such a powerful number of filmic interpretations?
Also, what genre of film would your choice fit into? Genres are large sections or groups
of films that feature similar plots or characters. A few that might be under consideration
here are: horror, suspense, thrillers, slasher films, dramas, comedies, etc. From the first
moments of silent film, Frankenstein has been one of the staples for directors.
The first silent film interpretation, Frankenstein (1910) was made for Thomas Edison’s
films–and it features a dramatic monster creation with some striking specific effects for
the time period. While only twelve minutes long, the movie concentrates on the
dramatic moral crisis that Dr. Frankenstein contemplates when giving his creature life.
Once the creature is created, Dr. Frankenstein is terrorized from the first moment of the
film until the last–in frantic chase scenes and wide-eyed close-ups.
The most famous of the early films is certainly Frankenstein (1931) directed by James
Whale and starring Boris Karloff as the monster. This film, again, concentrates upon the
scientific creation of the monster and the dramatic possibilities inherent in science. The
film opens with a warning from the director that the film will certainly shock and alarm
us as audience members. The opening shots of a dark graveyard set the tone for the
monster movie that is to follow: a clear moral quandary about reviving the dead.
The 1960s and 1970s offer films that differ in genre–as they tap the love stories
inherent in the plot, rather than the horror. While the horror and drama are still present
throughout the decade in multiple interpretations, these decades use Frankenstein as a
way to discuss and highlight the real world concerns about war, free love, and anarchy.
Notable in this decade, but never representative of other work, is Paul Morrissey’s Flesh
for Frankenstein AKA Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (1973) that creates a tale of sexual
deviance that features love triangles between multiple monsters, Victor Frankenstein
and all of his family and children. Here the moral quandary has shifted away from the
creation of the monster and the scientific possibilities and further towards the ideas of
sexual repression, revenge, and the ability to overcome extreme societal disapproval.
In the 1980s and 1990s two genres overpowered the Frankenstein character–comedy
and historical costume dramas–and used Frankenstein as a prop for larger narratives in
children’s films or intense psychological re-creations of the novel.
The Monster Squad (1987) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) are two of the more
notable interpretations of these films. The first uses the Frankenstein monster as a
member of a gang of re-animated creatures under Dracula’s control, setting out to
destroy or rule the world. As a member of this monster army, only the character of the
monster remains–and all forms of the novel are summarily rejected. In Kenneth
Branagh’s more realistic costume drama, the focus on the monster again overshadows
any direct interpretations of the novel.
No matter what your choice of film, the question remains: Why do so many directors
simply focus on the scientific moral questions from the novel? Those ideas are
prominent only in the opening chapters of the book, yet they seem to drive the film
interpretations entirely: why? What are the differences in the characters of Dr.
Frankenstein, the monster, or Elizabeth in the films vs. the novel?
Specific Material for Consideration of this Unit’s Novel
As this novel will require further attention from us, more deliberate concentration and
focus than the pop culture pieces that we have been reading in previous units–there
will be no reading from Natural Born Celebrities.
Mary Shelley’s creation fits prominently in the height of the Romantic period of
literature along with other writers such as William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and her
husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. While it is not necessary to know other writings from this
period, to enjoy Frankenstein, it certainly does help to have a general understanding of
the genre. Romantic writing, in short, has little to do with romantic love, but instead with
overpowering emotional states, defiance of societal norms, and reconsideration of longheld traditions.
As such, Frankenstein asks much of us as readers. Little of which has anything to do with
science or technology, as the movie versions would have us believe. Unfortunately, 20th
century film too often seeks the horrific or comedic interpretations as a sensational pull
for its audiences. While we all enjoy these genres, for the most part, the novel has an
entirely different focus and set of antitheses (or oppositions).
While there are many ways to discuss and analyze Frankenstein, for the focus of this
class, I would like us to consider a central premise of the novel: Why does Frankenstein
kill? Why does he become a serial killer? A simple answer would be revenge, but there is
something troubling about this response–as it is his reason for seeking revenge that
complicates our reading.
Does Frankenstein kill because he is a blood-thirsty monster, one born out of dark
science, a creature created in pain and misery and evil? Or was he simply neglected,
unloved, and poorly nurtured? For our class, lets save some time in our discussion in this
unit to ask what Shelley may have been arguing in her early creation of a serial killer.
Even more importantly, how does her work still resonate with us today, as a possible
motive for the violence and murder that so thickly surrounds us in the 21st century.
LECTURE 3: Perfume
Film Instruction
Tom Twyker’s film offers a unique cinematic experience, in that he has the difficult task
of using a visual media to define and enhance a novel/screenplay about olfactory
pleasures and our human sense of smell.
To do so, Twyker develops his mise-en-scene with costumes, props, and visual queues
that are tied primarily to olfactory triggers.
These items within the screen image offer both extremely positive and negative options
for the audience–the rotting smells of the slums in eighteenth century France, the rich
perfume bottles in the House of Baldini, the flowers of the farms in the French
countryside, and certainly the very body odors of Grenouille’s female prey. One question
to ask before the viewing of the film is simply: How does the sense of smell translate
into visual media?
If Twyker is unable to use any sense of smell to entice his audience, what other human
senses is he able to harness to enthrall us in Grenouille’s quest? A simple answer beyond
the mise-en-scene is the sound of the film. The soundtrack offers a series of emotional
triggers each time Grenouille smells his next victim.
Listen to the way Twyker (who wrote much of the music and the film composer Reinhold
Heil, queues our emotional responses when another component of the “perfect human
effluvium” (Grenouille’s term for his perfect human scent) is found.
The camera movement also slows, forcing the viewer into a very personal first-person
perspective with Grenouille. The ambient sounds of the streets and slums and farms fall
away, so that only the ethereal sounds on the soundtrack convey whatever it is
Grenouille is smelling.
Further, one must also consider the historical accuracy within the film. Twyker forces us
to confront the very different sense of personal hygiene that would have existed in preModern France. Again, how does this sense of cleanliness, or lack thereof, come through
in the camerawork or mise-en-scene?
Specific Material for Consideration of this Unit’s Film and
Novel:
Both Suskind and Twyker use the sense of smell as a metaphor for Grenouille’s sexual
obsessions–a search for the perfect female essence. To capture the smell, Grenouille
must kill the women whose very scent he steals.
The novel and film both painstakingly construct the method for us, as modern viewers,
in making the perfect perfume. Thus, we know the historical and chemical methods that
Grenouille must use to create his scents out of human components.
At stake here is the idea that, as viewers, we become involved in a quest to find all of the
correct elements for a very powerful creation. The idea of a quest within a novel or film
is ancient–harking back to some of the earliest literature–such as: The Epic of
Gilgamesh, the stories of the Bible, or any number of creation myths. These archetypes
allow us to see familiar elements in even new and modern stories.
For example, the aged and wise guide, the orphaned or abused hero, the princess in
need of rescue, and the villainous antagonist. All of these elements play into our
understanding of Grenouille’s quest–Grenouille’s early childhood history, Baldini’s
guidance, Laure Richis and her protective father.
The interesting reversal in Suskind’s plot is that the villainous antagonist and the hero
are transposed or combined into Grenouille’s person. Suskind enables our collaboration
in Grenouille’s murders because we want to see the fulfillment of his quest.
His use of familiar archetypal characters also develop this transposition–note how Laure
Richis’ controlling father, who in any “real world” sense is simply attempting to keep his
daughter from harm, becomes the antagonist here to Grenouille’s murderous hero.
As most novels would utilize Grenouille as the villain, Suskind upends our familiar
models to show us a world where the serial killer has firmly taken center stage away
from loving fathers, romantic heroes, and innocent virgins.
It is perhaps interesting to note, as well, that Grenouille escapes any punishment or
detection because he never appears dangerous to his victims or the townfolk. Even at
the end of the novel, he appears innocent to the people who arrive to see him executed.
Most of those people believe that there must have been a mistake–even after all of the
evidence is arrayed against Grenouille, while he is in prison. In pre-Modern France, the
villagers wrongly believe, just as we do now, that outward appearance is often a
reflection of inner value–and here the deception gives Grenouille a very innocent edge.
The final moments of the novel are also some of the most controversial, and the
execution scene begs for further analysis. In our discussion in this unit, let’s save a
certain space for your thoughts on Grenouille’s ultimate “human effluvium” and the
reaction that it causes within the crowd.
…
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