ENGL 204
Hollywood Film Fall 2024
Division I

For almost a century, Hollywood films have been the world’s most influential art form, shaping how we dress and talk, how we think about sex, race, and power, and what it means to be American. We’ll examine both the characteristic pleasures provided by Hollywood’s dominant genres–including action films, horror films, thrillers and romantic comedies–and the complex, sometimes unsavory fantasies they mobilize. We will do this by looking carefully at a dozen or so iconic films, probably including Psycho, Casablanca, The Godfather; Schindler’s List, Bridesmaids, Groundhog Day, 12 Years a Slave and Get Out.