ENG 130a: Representing Poverty
Spring 2016
MWR 12:00-12:50
Dr. Irr
Course Description:
This course asks how celebrated international films have represented
poverty. The course begins with some attention to still photography and
iconic single images of poverty, as well as some classics of cinematic
neorealism. We then trace the continuing influence of the neorealist aesthetic
on contemporary feature-length narrative cinema, focusing the transitions that
have followed the end of the Cold War. The rise of new concepts of poverty
in the context of human rights discourse and the associated contest between
human capabilities and development-oriented approaches to poverty provides
the backdrop for the aesthetic concerns of the course; this intellectual and
political history is firmly established in secondary readings. Throughout the
semester, our central task is the examination of the visual and narrative
techniques these films use to create and cross the "poverty line" that
separates poor and non-poor persons both on the screen and at the threshold
of the screen. We will be specifically concerned throughout the course with
the ethical and/or political appeals these films make to the viewer, and we will
track both the continuity and change in these modes of address since the
1940s.
In short, by asking how visible poor people have been to the camera eye, this
course assesses popular ideas about poverty and explores their
consequences for film narrative.
Learning Goals:
Students should leave the course with
 increased visual literacy
 improved skills in critical analysis
 a working definition of poverty
 ability to compare responses to poverty cross-culturally
 experience engaging concepts from social theory to cultural texts
Films:
Vittorio de Sica, The Bicycle Thieves (1949)
Luis Bunuel, Los olvidados (1950)
Vasili Pichul, Little Vera (1989)
Tran Anh Hung, Cyclo (1996)
Majid Majidi, Children of Heaven (1999)
Dardennes Bros., Rosetta (1999)
Fernando Meirelles, City of God (2003)
Stephen Frears, Dirty Pretty Things (2003)
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
+ one film of student's choice
Assignments:
1) attendance, preparation, and participation. 15%
2) short essay on still photography; 500-750 words. 5%
3) three essays. 1500-2000 words each. 3 @ 20% each = 60%. Students must
write one of each type of essay, but you may choose the order in which you
submit them.
a) choose a poverty position statement from the materials provided for
class and read the full essay from which it is extracted; your essay should explain
and assess this perspective on poverty—outlining the causes, effects, and
solutions to poverty imagined by the author. Ideally your essay will also assess
this point of view and provide examples of its impact on visual culture, drawing
on materials studied in class.
b) choose a film studied for class and closely analyze the techniques it
uses to express or contest a particular idea about poverty
c) choose two films studied for class and compare their treatments of a
common subject matter (e.g., lives of the urban poor, children's perspectives,
migration, etc.)
4) final project: 20%. Each student will choose a film (preferably from the
suggested archive) and create an annotated video clip explaining how and why
that film represents poverty. Clips will be accompanied by a 500-750 word
introduction to the film. Clips will, with student's permission, be uploaded to the
public website associated with the course.