You need to watch one of these movies Woodstock &/or Altamont
Topics in American Lit – “The American Mixtape Class” — Informal Reader & Viewer Response Essays
You will write a brief personal and informal response to each of the primary books that we are reading and to some of the films we are screening in class for this semester.
You are not responding to the plot or the author’s biography, and you are not even writing about “the whole book” or movie– but writing about a particular portion or theme or scene or specific idea revealed in the texts/films, with which you have connected, personally and culturally.
For each of the book-or-film-based short essays, you are choosing one specific thing to write about. You can assume readers are familiar with the topic, just not your interpretation or your personal experiences that connect and relate to the larger topic.
Your informal “reader/viewer response” essay should focus on your experience and your ideas as they relate to the text/film. Where does the text/film inspire you? How does the text connect with your everyday life? How is the author/director telling your story in the art and act of telling their story? What does the message say to you about the cultural identity of America and Americans?
To succeed:
–you should have a main point or clear idea of purpose for your essay
–you should engage with the text/film directly (such as including a short direct quote or discussing a specific scene or interaction)
–you should write in your own voice, incorporating your own opinions and personal life experiences
–you should avoid plot summary and plagiarism; use of generative AI is not permitted
“Reader/Viewer Response” suggests that a text or film has no fixed, correct, or proper meaning except as it exists in your mental and emotional experience of it. This is not to say that other tested modes of interpretation or approaches to reading that consider author’s intent or larger context are not valid; instead, I simply want to encourage you to honor your own reactions to what you read and watch, to give power to the validity of your own interpretations by providing an open-ended venue to express, explore, and explain these reactions, especially as you connect them to specific life experiences and to our shared larger cultural context.
