SCREEN-L Archives

August 2000, Week 3

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Eugene Walz <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 21 Aug 2000 14:33:24 -0600
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (30 lines)
Although this is a discussion among academics, I am, frankly, chagrined
that people have taken such a naively Freudian approach to other people's
genuine emotions and trauma. "If we just talk about things" or
"contextualize them," then everything will be alright. Students should face
up to their fears and prejudices. If they can't, too bad. It's my
enlightening way or the highway.
What bosh!
        It was NOT my place to force a student to watch the rest of
_Psycho_ after she ran out of the theatre nauseous or to impose
_Slaughterhouse Five_ on a person whose parents had died in a plane crash
(to chose just two examples that come readily to mind). No amount of
amateur Film Studies conditioning will make these students better able to
endure their traumas. Force-feeding them dubious canonical films which they
are emotionally unequipped to handle will not make them better students.
        Not many students protest about individual movies at my
conservative, publicly-funded university. (This is, after all, the year
2000, and we all are supposedly unshockable.) One or two per year ask to be
excused, and sometimes it is because of that old bugaboo "political
correctness." It is not terribly difficult to work out mutually-agreeable
alternatives. And I consider student reception of films when I make out all
my syllabi. This is not self-censoring, to my way of thinking. In fact, it
conforms to the latest trends in analysis and can be quite productive.

Gene Walz
Film Studies, University of Manitoba

----
To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2