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Assignment for critical essay on
Chaplin & Keaton due Monday, July 16, 6 pm |
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| Write a critical essay of at least 1250 words (approximately 5 double-spaced pages with normal margins and type size) on one topic below. Each topic consists of a quotation from either the Mellen book on Chaplin or the Horton book on Keaton. You are to select a quotation, and use it as the basis for your own critical essay comparing Chaplin and Keaton. (In other words, although the quotation originally had reference to one of the two, you are to apply it to both.) Support your essay with specific references to the comedians’ films (each book contains a detailed summary of its film); also, as appropriate, make reference to other statements in the critical books. (See below on documentation.) Topics: A. “He does not resort to self-pity, but remains, always, an indomitable Everyman whose ingenuity, good heart and kindness are their own form of transcendence and must often be his only reward in an inhumane society” (Mellen, p. 8) B. [In a discussion of Chaplin’s political views, after noting Chaplin’s statement that he had never joined a political organization:] “’Charlie is not a Communist at all. He is an anarchist’” (Mellen, quoting Clifford Odets, p. 81). C. “What separated the classic silent comedies from the bulk of slapstick films was not their reflexiveness but their conformity to classical norms, their ability to couple spectacular performance with melodramatic story lines so that each gag had plot consequences and was motivated in terms of the characters, their goals and their conflicts” (Jenkins, in Horton, p. 61). D. “He remains female-identified and feminized, inhabiting a dangerous world in which all adult men are his enemies. This linking of a male hero’s quest in the public sphere with a reward—a woman—in the private sphere is an enduring narrative structure that occurs in most Hollywood films . . . it appears inevitable.” |
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