Introduction to the Study of Genre: Recounts Lesson 3

We have survived the first three sessions! I am very glad to be teaching your class, and I realize that you have a lot to offer. I know the lesson can get rather complex at times, but what is most important is that you develop a critical reading mentality. That means, every time you pick up a text, don't merely look at it for its content. Think about why the writer use this style of writing, and also think about the consequences. In short, that means you have to frequently ask yourselves the two things I keep pointing out in class: Why and so What?

In session 3, we are introduced to the subgenre of the Personal Recount. Personal Recounts are somewhat different from Factual Recounts as they tend to be based on one person's or one group's point of view on something that happened. For example, in the Diary of Anne Frank, she looked at the War through her innocent, childlike eyes. In the Pianist, Szpilman experienced the war differently. All their experiences are equally true and important. When we read about the war, what do we usually read? Most of the time, history textbooks list the major events that happen, and the number of people killed, places where battles are fought, leaders of the groups and so on. However, such texts do not always show you the pain experienced by the people during a war. Therefore, personal recounts such as Anne Frank's and Władysław Szpilman's give you a closer and deeper look at the war. These stories are extremely memorable, and extremely touching. If you would like to read more about World War II, Anne Frank or Władysław Szpilman, do check out these pages on Wikipedia.
World War II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
Anne Frank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl
Władysław Szpilman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pianist_%28memoir%29
The web site gives you further links where you can actually read extracts from the two books I introduced. As for the movie, I will leave it with Miss Chew and she can screen them for you, maybe after the exams.

As you know, I love films alot and I use them alot in my teaching. Many personal recounts have been made into films, and The Pianist is one of many many many many films based on a person's memoirs. Can you think of any others? Sometimes when we watch a movie, we can get so carried away by the interesting events happening on-screen. That's great, and a good movie should entertain you. However, a great movie is one which makes you think after that. Often, movies that are based on true stories mix fiction and fact to make it more exciting. Again, this is genre-mixing taking place, combining Fictional Narrative with Factual/Personal Recounts. Combining the real with the imaginary seems to be fine with most film-makers. Do you think that this should be allowed? Just to confuse you further, Jean Baudrillard, a French Philosopher who passed away this week, states that people no longer know what is true and what is false, and cannot separate the imaginary from reality anymore in this new media age. Genre-mixing could be blamed for this, but is there anything wrong with mixing the real and the imaginary? I watch more than 500 films a year, and I realize that it can be difficult at times to come back to the real world after spending so much time in a "fake movie world". Do you have the same experience?

I think most Singaporeans will watch more than a thousand films in their lifetimes. It becomes extremely important that you understand films and how they work. This will allow you to decide the truth value in films, and whether some films have certain biases or are clearly telling a lie. You can also appreciate the films you watch a lot better when you understand how the filmmaker tells you the story in a short period of time. The Pianist is a few hundred pages long, but the movie is only 150 mins (quite long for a normal film). Harry Potter is more than a thousand pages in some series, but the movie is only about 100 minutes long. You can then judge whether the film is successful in telling the story by what they show you within that short period of time. Anyway, do think through the questions here, and work with a few friends on the assignment given and feel free to post your answers/comments. I will be reading them, and also provide some further comments to your posts. You can post till next week's term break, so do spend some time thinking during the holidays. Here's the assignment for lesson 3 (on Film and Personal Recounts):

More and more Personal Recounts are being made into films. If you look at how films have changed in the past 100 years, many filmmakers have moved from imaginary stories into “true accounts”. Can you guess why?
Work with a few friends and list out some films that were made based on true stories or real events.
Write down a few people or events that you would like to see as a movie. For example, Singapore’s experience during World War 2, the life of David Beckham, etc.

Happy posting!

Thomas Lim