Central Text: Preliminary Notes

Make a preliminary choice of main text: list of options. Read the book or watch the movie. Take some preliminary notes, as follows:

First, make a digest of key characters, memorable lines and focal scenes from your central text.

Then, in a second section:

• If you’re working with a film, create a digest of the movie’s cinematographic touches: memorable use of camera angle, non-diagetic sound, etc.
• If you’re working with a novel, create a digest of the book’s novelistic touches: metaphors, narratorial perspective, etc.
• If you’re working with a TV show, create a digest of show’s classic moves: the camera angles, use of a studio audience, gag timing, etc. which make different episodes all instances of a common style
• If you’re working with a comic book or a musician, contact me for instructions.

Finally, in a third section, discuss a key theme of the work, something which might serve as a starting point for answering the question, “What is this book/film/song about?”

Reading: Scholarly Article on In the Heat of the Night

Counts as bonus HW
Download and read Andrea Levine, “Sidney Poitier’s Civil Rights.”

1. What is Levine’s thesis? Identify one or more places in the essay where she states her main claim.
2. What preliminary understanding does Levine take as her starting point? Note one or more places in the article where she establishes the preliminary understanding that her interpretation will move beyond.