ENG 255 A OUTLAWS AND OUTSIDERS IN FILM AND LITERATURE

The isolated and beleaguered outsider as rebel, as punk, as misfit intellectual, as criminal, as marginalized minority, as artist, as anti-hero, as villain, and conscientious dissenter has a fascinating history of representation in both film and fiction. Pairing a global sampling of fiction and films with philosophical investigations of outsiderness and theories of criminality this course will examine the effects of portrayals of outlaw and outsider figures, with particular emphasis on issues of justice, on the subversive potential of art, and the ways identity is often constructed around social and legal notions of a divide between insiders and outsiders. Additionally, we will develop approaches and skills for reading both fiction and film that lead to sophisticated analysis and interpretation of the artistic works and the ways they inform and direct our feelings, actions, behaviors, and institutional frameworks. This course will appeal to those especially interested in film and fiction that explores matters of identity and justice. Notable genres, authors, and works might include: film noir, Japanese samurai cinema, French New Wave, Friedrich Nietzsche, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Albert Camus, Umberto Eco, Graham Greene, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Zadie Smith, Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein, The Shining, Edward Scissorhands, Spring Breakers.