Collaborative in-class writing exercises

Critical Analysis of Raise the Red Lantern

Step 3: Descriptive narrative

Review your notes and compare them with your classmates' first impressions of the clips. Now work with your team to organize your thoughts when viewing the clips for the first time. Categorize them into three thematic categories, such as cinematic space, visual metaphor, historical imagination, etc.

1.

2.

3.

Now watch this clip again with your team. You may pause the film at any time to facilitate discussion or close "reading" of the scene.

Using the thematic categories and impressions of the film you collected, write a descriptive narrative of the scenes, with connections to 1.) Su Tong's novella, 2.) historical background of the story (the 1920s) discussed in class, and 3.) the historical background of the film (the 1980s).

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