Course Description

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could mask your true identity? What about if you were invisible? There are endless possibilities to these questions and dreams. How would these things change your life? What would you do with this power? You could control other around you and manipulate them into thinking that you were someone that you are not. The opportunities are infinite and everlasting. Have you ever imagined that you were someone else or that you could do whatever you wish because no one knew you were there? These questions are what make up the Rhetoric of Masking and Invisibility. Over the course of the semester we will ask ourselves these questions, among many others. We will determine and refine a well-developed definition of what these terms mean from our individual perspectives. After developing a well-constructed definition, we will then turn to Unit II where we will relate our definitions to how we see masking and invisibility in our society. Following that, we will go back in time and learn about how history has shaped our understandings of masking and invisibility. Throughout the course we will write three papers and various writing assignments.

Unit I: What is your definition of masking? What is your definition of invisibility?
This unit will help us explore our initial perceptions of what we believe that masking and invisibility mean. We will question our individual interpretations of what we feel these terms mean. Do these terms always lead to negative consequences? How do masking and invisibility affect you or those around you? We will watch the movie Being John Malkovich to introduce the course in an exciting and entertaining manner. This movie will help us discover what it means to mask or be masked. Following that movie, we will watch the movie The Mask. For obvious reasons, this movie is about a mask. In this movie we will focus on uncovering what it means to conceal your identity from those around you. A specific episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be viewed next. This episode will challenge us to examine our definitions of what we believe invisibility to mean.

Unit II: How are masking and invisibility covered up in our society?
The focus of this unit is to analyze how masking and invisibility are generated in our society. This unit is based on what our definitions of masking and invisibility are from Unit I. We will begin this unit with the movie The Usual Suspects to display how concealment of one's identity is conveyed, in respect to societies standards. The second movie we will watch is Primal Fear. This movie further examines how masking leads to negative outcomes. We will then view the movie, Silence of the Lambs to examine what it means to mask oneself in a society like our own. We will then read the novel, The General's Daughter, which will focus on the negative effects of masking. By the end of this unit we will be able to identify various media, such as movies or television, that have an influence on our society in relation to masking and invisibility.

Unit III: How has history shaped our perceptions of masking and invisibility?
This unit will help shape how our definitions of masking and invisibility and their relationship to the history of our nation. This unit will be divided into two sections. The first section will be the history in fiction novels. In this section we will read the novel 1984. This novel will help us understand the pressures of an over-powering existence and our need to be free from this authority. The second section will be the history of non-fiction literature. We will begin the second part of this unit with the film Life is Beautiful. From this film, we will be exposed to the masking that took place in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Following this film we will read the novel, The Broken Spears. Here we will learn about what it means to live life knowing only one side of the story. To conclude the unit we will read The Narrative of Fredrick Douglas. This short story will expand on our knowledge of difficulties of African Americans to grow up in a white driven society.