Film

First, we welcome you to the study of film within the English Department at Oklahoma State. The film option has been available to students as a primary or secondary field for more than twenty years. Along the way, we have had a number of students produce provocative work in the form of course papers, exam responses, and, finally, publishable theses and dissertations. At each step of the way, through our courses and (via personal conferences) our guidance regarding study for the MA Qualifying Exam, we are eager to help all serious students in any way we can.

The most reliable maps for you as you sketch out your strategy are the suggested reading list and previous exam questions. The reading list generally names secondary rather than primary texts, that is, critical works rather than films; it also includes prominent journals where you can become conversant with new issues and ideas in film studies. Needless to say, you should closely view and study key representative films since the works on the reading list make sense only when complemented by relevant screenings. If possible, you should acquire a VCR and put it to good use by renting videos from shops in Stillwater or seeing the tapes available in the English Department's own collection or in the Microform Media Room on the library's first floor.

The OSU library has many additional resources that can intensify your understanding of the topics suggested by works on the reading list. Go beyond the minimum effort to refine your understanding of film as an art form and a historical document.

(More information about the MA Qualifying Exam can be found in the Guidelines.)

Representative Films as Cultural or Historical Documents

Representative Films by International Filmmakers

Representative Film Adaptations of Fiction and Drama

(Austen, Dickens, Forster, Lawrence, Mamet, Shakespeare, or Tennessee Williams)

Representative Theoretical or Critical Approaches

(auteurism, ethnicity studies, feminism, formalism, genre criticism, historiography, Marxism)

Representative Documentary Filmmakers

(Koppel, Lorentz, Grierson, Ivens, Flaherty, Vertov, or Wiseman)

Return to Area Reading Lists Page

English Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-9474
For Information about English Programs: english.information@okstate.edu
Webmaster: engweb@okstate.edu

Statement of
"Organic Knowledge"
for Literature and Film

A student with "organic knowledge" of the reading lists will

1. understand the way individual texts reflect the material and intellectual conditions of the time of their production; this means that the student can perceive an author's work in reference to history, including literary or film history, and to contemporary social and philosophical issues;

2. consider the way texts exemplify the major concerns and formal features that critics have associated with literary or film periods, movements, and genres; further, the student will be aware of the ways that texts change, depart from, or undermine the conventions of movements or periods to which they belong;

3. in summary, be able, on request, to forge links between author or filmmakers, their individual works, and various intellectual, social, and aesthetic traditions, when applicable.