Please send Directions, Guidelines and Prompt Questions for your Writing Assignment # 1 on William Wyler's film, The Letter in a folder titled, "Writing Assignments" in Files.
Directions and Guidelines
This writing assignment asks you to write a short paper analyzingWilliam Wyler's film, The Letter (1940) by answering ONEof the following sets of prompt questions below. In addition, please draw upon materials from class lectures and in-class discussion.
For this assignment, you must write a three-page (maximum four-page) essay answering of the prompt questions below.
The assignment asks you to analyze Hollywood representations of the "Others" in Wyler's film. Your essay should be neatly typed and doubled spaced (with one-inch margins, and be sure to numberyour pages).
More important, please structure your essay around a thesis statement, and organize your visual analysis and discussion of twospecific scenes from the film into a cohesive argument.
Note:
Please be sure to choosetwo specific scenesthat enable you to compare and contrast how Asians (or "Others") versus the hegemonic ("dominant" or "superior" race) Whites are represented in Wyler's film.
Research
Please read Richard A. Oehling, "The Yellow Menace: Asian Images in American Film," in yourcourse reader (Canvas, under "Readings, week 1"), which provides you with a brief history of how Asians are portrayed in Hollywood films. As I already mentioned, this writing assignment requires no research beyondreadingRichard A.
Oehling's article posted in a folder onCanvas, under "Readings, week 1". However, when appropriate, please reference Oehling's 2article in proper footnotes (or endnotes).
There are many different styles of footnotes and endnotes. Please use the Chicago Style of footnotes and endnotes and you can find instruction and examples atthe Perdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL).
Note : Please DO NOTfill your pages with a summary of the plot of the film. Keep in mind that you are asked to provideyour ownanalysis, not write a synopsis. Rest assured that we have seen this film many times, so just mention the plot when it is relevant to your argument. You will get an automatic "F" on your paper if you hand in a paper that is simply a summary of the story narrated in the film.
Prompt Questions:
1. What specific country (or countries) is (are) referred to in the film? How are Asians represented and portrayed in Wyler's film? How does the black and white format of Wyler's film lend itself to visual representations of this racial/colonial binary?
How do the make up, dress, speech, facial, and physical expressions contribute to the racial contrast between the two main female characters in the film:Mrs. Hammond, "the Eurasian woman" (Gale Sondergaard),and Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis)?
2. Discuss when and how Leslie Crosbiecrochets in the film. In what ways does Crosbie's activity standmetaphorically as avisualnarrative thread that helps to untangle the film's complex narrative plot into a coherent story?
In what situations and circumstances do we see Crosbie crochet in the film? How might weinterpret the lace shawl that Crosbie wore to meet Mrs. Hammond related to this motif of veilingand unveiling ofher trueface andher hidden motive?
3. How does the portrayal of Ong Chi Seng's character (Victor Sen Yung) in the film shed light on European and white American perceptions of "Asian" men? Is he portrayed as masculine? Is he represented as agenerous and frank character?
4. In what ways does the visual depictionof interior space in the film signifyracial differences? How does the lighting of spaces illuminate the contrasting world of the white colonialists (expatriates) versus the "Others"?
Howmight the moonlight (or the lack thereof) and its specific association with the appearance of the "Asians" (or "Others") in the film shed light on Hollywood perceptionsand characterizationsof theOthers"as dark, mysterious and thus not easily legible?