ARLT 100g Section 35244: Fall 2011
Occupation: Film, Literature, History
VKC 200
Instructor: David Lloyd
Course #35244
Phone: 213-740-2813
email: davidcll@usc.edu
MW 2:00-3:20pm
Office: 416 THH
Office Hours: M 12.30-1.30
W 9:00-10:00
and by appointment
Course Description
The extended military occupation of defeated or subjugated peoples by a foreign power is a relatively
new phenomenon, distinct from wars between states and from the formal colonialism or expansion and
consolidation of states in former times. The current century has begun with, and already possibly been
shaped by, the phenomenon of occupation in ways that have saturated not only the news media,
economic forecasting and military policy and philosophy, but also the culture of the United States at
large. This course will offer the opportunity to study the phenomenon of occupation from a broad
cultural perspective, through film, literature and history. Commencing with the German occupation of
France in the Second World War, and working through the French occupation of Algeria during the
latter's war of independence, to the current occupations maintained by the US in Iraq and Israel in
Palestine, we will explore the effects of occupation on both the occupied and the occupier. What are the
effects of occupation on the occupied? How does occupation shape the daily life of the occupied? How
do resistance movements take shape among people who have not generally been accustomed to
practicing violence of any kind? How do histories of colonial settlement, racism or anti-semitism, and
military rule contribute to the practice of occupation? How does extended occupation change the
philosophy, ethics and legality of military practices? How does occupation affect conceptions of space
and movement? How is occupation reflected in the cultural productions of both the occupier and the
occupied? How have new media, from documentary video to graphic novels and even blogs and YouTube, affected the representation and contestation of occupation?
Reading Requirements
A number of books are required for this class: Albert Camus, The Plague, Riverbend, Baghdad
Burning, Joe Sacco, Palestine, David Grossman, Writing in the Dark, and Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian
Walks. All are or will be available from the University Bookstore in time for the week in which they are
assigned. You are at liberty to order them order them from another source, such as Powells
[powells.com], Seminary Co-op [http://www.semcoop.com/] or any other online bookstore, as soon as
possible. Many of these books may be available at discounted prices. In addition to these books, a
number of required and some supplementary recommended readings will be made available on USC’s
electronic reserve, ARES. Your password for this class is <occupier>. All students are expected to
come to class having read the assigned texts, both primary and secondary materials, and ready to
discuss them in detail.
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Writing Requirements
You are required to write three brief response papers (3 pages each), due on September 14, October 17,
and November 9. In your response you may focus on a single work read or viewed in the class to date
and discuss what it reveals about the phenomenon of occupation, resistance, or about the literary or
visual forms in which the understanding of or response to occupation may be framed. In the second and
third response paper, you may engage in comparative discussion of two texts we have read or works we
have viewed. At least one of the three response papers should be on an historical, political or journalistic
account; at least one must analyze a creative work—film, novel, memoir, documentary, blog, etc. You
may submit your response papers either in hard copy or as an e-mail attachment by 5pm on the date due.
A longer final paper (10 pages), which should discuss together several works or issues we have
discussed, read or viewed in the class, will be due December 7. It must be submitted by e-mail by 5pm
on that date. A short paragraph describing your intended final paper topic should be turned in by
October 19. You are not bound to this topic if your ideas evolve, but this deadline is designed to focus
your thinking and encourage you to read or view ahead. A draft or detailed outline of the paper will be
due November 16. We will talk about possible topics in class and you should discuss your topic and
approach with me in office hour before commencing. Your final paper may build on any or all of the
response papers previously submitted.
Electronic paper submission: for the final paper, and for any other electronic submission you choose to
do, please attach in word document format. Save your paper using your name, arlt, and paper
number, eg: camus.arlt.paper1.doc. Use the word paper and the number in your subject line: eg,
arlt paper 2. This makes it much easier for me to locate and retrieve your papers.
Late paper policy:
Late papers will be deducted one part of a grade for each day they are late (e.g., a paper graded as B+
will only receive a B if one day late; B- if two days late, etc.).
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged, substantial use of any other person’s work as if it were one’s own.
This includes borrowings from books, copying from others’ essays, and, please note, cutting and pasting
from websites. Such use of others’ work verbatim or even in paraphrase does not constitute “research”.
Like many other instructors, I do make a practice of googling passages from your essays wherever I
suspect the possibility of plagiarism. The penalty for plagiarism may be failing the class and in
especially serious case, academic sanction up to and including expulsion from the university. Academic
dishonesty is regarded as a serious offence. Be warned.
For USC policy on plagiarism and academic dishonesty, see:
http://web-app.usc.edu/scampus/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriatesanctions/
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For an Academic Integrity Overview, see
http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/forms/AcademicIntegrityOverview.pdf
Disability Policy
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with
Disability Services and Program (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved
accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as
early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday
through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Other Requirements:
Film viewing:
As advertised in the course description, I am scheduling a total of six evening viewings during the
semester at 7.00 pm (see dates on syllabus below). All are on Sunday evenings, in THH 102, to avoid
clashes with other classes. These will be required for all students in the class (and are open to anyone
you wish to invite). If you are absolutely unable to make any of these dates, you should see me well in
advance. It will mostly be possible to view the dvds at the Audio-Visual Library to make up for missing
the screenings, but it is not advisable as the screenings will be followed by discussion. Brief popquizzes will be set for each film viewed in the class in which it is to be discussed.
Participation and Presentations
In addition to individual contributions to class discussion, every student will be required to participate in
a research group that will take responsibility for leading discussion of the assigned materials for one
class at intervals throughout the semester. Presenters should prepare a brief commentary on the assigned
work, linking it to previous class discussions and lectures, and conclude with three or four questions to
initiate and focus class discussion. Where relevant, presenters will be responsible for reading any
recommended texts on ARES in addition to the primary assigned materials. All students are strongly
encouraged to make use of this recommended material at any time. You must look ahead in the syllabus
and be ready to choose the topic/assignment on which you will present by the third or fourth week of
class, September 14 at the latest.
Grading
Responses:
Presentations:
Participation:
Quizzes:
Final Paper:
45%
10%
10%
5%
30%
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SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
August
Week 1
8/22: Introduction
8/24: Watch Battlestar Galactica, Disc 3.1, episode 2.
Week 2: France under German Occupation
8/28: 7.00 pm: Watch Melville, Army of Shadows [1969, feature, 145 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064040/]
8/29: Discuss Army of Shadows. Readings: Richard Cobb, French and Germans, Germans and French,
pp. 145-177 [ARES] and Robert Gildea, “Murder” and “Terror”, from Marianne in Chains, chaps. 10
and 11 [ARES]
8/31: Reading: Camus, The Plague [book].
September
Week 3
9/5: Labor Day Holiday
9/7: Camus, The Plague (continued).
Week 4
9/11: 7.00 pm: Watch Malle, Lacombe, Lucien [1974: feature, 138 mins,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071733/]
9/12 Discuss Lacombe, Lucien. First response paper due.
9/14: Algeria under French Occupation
Frantz Fanon, “Algeria Unveiled” [ARES].
Week 5
9/18: 7:00 Watch Pontecorvo, Battle of Algiers [1967, feature, 121 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058946/]
9/19: Discuss Battle of Algiers. Reading: Frantz Fanon, “Concerning Violence” [ARES]
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9/21: Iraq under US Occupation
Readings: Monthly Review, Behind the Invasion of Iraq, 54-107 [ARES]; Stephen Zunes, “US:
Belligerent Hegemon”, pp. 21-36 [ARES]; Robert Kagan and Irving Kristol, “The Right War”, pp. 1835; Francis Fukuyama, “The Neoconservative Moment”, and Charles Krauthammer, “In Defense of
Democratic Realism”, pp. 170-200 [ARES]. Recommended: James Fallows, “Blind Into Baghdad”, pp.
53-106 [ARES].
Week 6
9/25: 7.00 pm, Watch Longley, Iraq in Fragments [2007, documentary, 94 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492466/]
9/26: Discuss Iraq in Fragments. Reading: Haifa Zangana, City of Widows, pp. 25-79 and 107-147
[ARES]. Recommended: Farnaz Farsihi, Waiting for an Ordinary Day, pp. 236-273 [ARES].
9/28: Readings: Nasser Hussain, “Counterinsurgency’s Comeback: Can a colonialist strategy be
reinvented?” http://bostonreview.net/BR35.1/hussain.php; Dominic Caraccilo and Andrea Thompson,
Achieving Victory in Iraq, pp. 29-57 [ARES]; Eric Herring and Glen Rangwala, Iraq in Fragments, pp.
161-209 [ARES]; Recommended: Ahmed Hashim, Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq, pp, 271344 [ARES]; Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar, Perilous Power, pp. 103-115 [ARES]
October
Week 7
10/2: 7:00 pm: Watch Rasheed, Underexposure [2005, feature, 74 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464288/]
10/3: Discuss Underexposure.
10/5: Reading: Riverbend, Baghdad Burning [book].
Week 8
10/10: In class: watch Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo [2010, documentary, 93 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559549/]
10/12: Discussion of Restrepo.
Week 9: Palestine Under Israeli Occupation
10/17: Reading: Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, pp. 1-27 [ARES] and Uri Ram, “The Colonization
Perspective in Israeli Sociology”, in Ilan Pappe, The Israel/Palestine Question, pp. 53-77 [ARES].
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Second response paper due.
10/19: Reading: Bernard Wasserstein, pp. 5-30 and 99-137 [ARES]; Rahid Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp.
182-217. Research Paper topic due.
Week 10
10/24: Readings: Neve Gordon, Israel’s Occupation, pp. 169-222 [ARES] and Saree Makdisi, Palestine
Inside Out, pp. 153-207 [ARES].
10/26: Reading: Joe Sacco, Palestine [graphic novel].
Week 11
10/30: 7:00 pm: Watch Abu-Assad and Beyer, Paradise Now [2005, feature, 90 mins:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445620/]
10/31: Discuss Paradise Now. Reading: Ghassan Hage, “’Comes a Time We Are All Enthusiasm’:
Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers in a Time of Exighophobia”, pp. 65-89 [ARES].
Recommended: Ted Honderich, Right and Wrong, pp. 114-158 [ARES]
November
11/2: Reading: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, pp. 161-201 [ARES]; Alan Dershowitz, The Case
against Israel's Enemies, pp. 98-142 [ARES]; and Marwan Bishara, Palestine/Israel: Peace or
Apartheid, pp. 151-168 [ARES].
Week 12
11/7: Reading: David Grossman, Writing in the Dark [book].
11/9: Reading: David Grossman, Writing in the Dark [book]. Recommended: Jacqueline Rose, The
Question of Zion, pp. 108-155 [ARES] and Steven Salaita, introduction to Israel’s Dead Soul, pp. 1-11.
Third response paper due
Week 13
11/14: Reading: Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks [book].
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11/16: Reading: Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks [book]; Marwan Bishara, Palestine/Israel: Peace or
Apartheid, pp. 132-150 [ARES] and Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land, pp. 111-137 [ARES]. Draft of Final
Paper Due by email.
Week 14
11/21: Discussion and Review
11/23: THANKSGIVING RECESS
11/24: THANKSGIVING RECESS
Week 15 LAST CLASSES: The Future of Occupations
11/28: Readings: Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, pp. 513-559 [ARES] and Eyal Weizman, Cities
without Citizens, pp. 167-199.
11/30: Discussion and Review
December
12/7: Final Paper due by email.
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Student Behavior, Disability, and Integrity
Student Behavior
Behavior that persistently or grossly interferes with classroom activities is considered disruptive
behavior and may be subject to disciplinary action. Such behavior inhibits other students’ ability to learn
and an instructor’s ability to teach. A student responsible for disruptive behavior may be required to
leave class pending discussion and resolution of the problem and may be reported to the Office of
Student Judicial Affairs for disciplinary action. These strictures may extend to behaviors outside the
classroom that are related to the course.
Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with
Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved
accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as
early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.--5:00 p.m., Monday
through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Academic Integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include
the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be
submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one's own
academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another's work as one's own. All
students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. SCampus, the Student Guidebook,
contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in
Appendix A:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/.
Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further
review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at:
http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.
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