The White Messiah fable is a narrative genre that has been played out countless times: Whether in books like Pocahontas and the Jungle Books, or in films such as Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai and Avatar. All of these texts portray the white man as saviour to the oppressed people of colour.
In this Proseminar we will investigate two key texts and their film adaptations by using current literary and cultural theory.
Texts:
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. Dir. Lew Landers. Perf. Anthony Dexter, Jody
Lawrance and Alan Hale Jr. MGM, 1953. DVD.
Davis, John: Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas: An Indian Tale. Theoklesia,
2012. Print.
The Jungle Book. Dir. Zoltan Korda. Perf. Sabu, Joseph Calleai, John Qualen, Frank
Puglia and Rosemary DeCamp. Alpha Video, 1942. DVD.
Kipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Books. London: Penguin, 1994. Print.
Participation:
Regular attendance, active participation, reading and writing assignments. Requirements include a short oral presentation and a term paper.
If you have any questions, please contact me at swantje.kaiser@uni-saarland.de |
