BA Film Studies and English Literature

This course will introduce students to the key concepts and debates that have developed out of film and cultural theory within the past fifty years, and apply them to specific case studies, across national cinemas and genres. The key ideas of the course — ‘screen culture’ and ‘society’ — will be offered to students in ways which address constructed aesthetic, socio-cultural and industrial processes that go into the production and reception of screen media, including the experiential. The course will explore aspects of ideology, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, sensory cinema, national allegory, slow cinema, political filmmaking, technology and representation. A range of case studies will be used for close textual analysis and theoretical elaboration.

Pre-requisites:  Any L1 core Drama (DRAM) film study course unit

• To interrogate the notion of a 'screen culture' through modes of production and reception
• To explore the relationship between screen media and wider socio-cultural contexts
• To employ textual analysis within a contextual framework

Relate the close textual analysis of the films to wider socio-historical processes and contexts

Understand the impact of social change and attitudes on screen media

Understand screen media’s potential for socio-political commentary and intervention

Read screen texts across genres and national industries

Analyse screen texts in relation to wider cultural theories

Apply theories and secondary readings critically to their understanding of screen texts

Develop a critical language for analysing and evaluating narrative content and aesthetic forms in screen media within wider socio-historical contexts

Conduct in-depth research into screen media and their histories

Apply theoretical readings to questions of screen production, exhibition and reception

Conduct close textual analysis of screen texts

Construct a persuasive argument in clear language, grounded in research

Work individually and collaboratively with other members of the group

Demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively with others about intellectually demanding concepts, topics, materials

Demonstrate an ability to draw with accuracy, focus, detail and precision on complex materials in independent and group work

Demonstrate an ability to effectively present – through discussion and in writing – complex topics, drawing convincingly on oral, written and visual media as appropriate to the topic

Summative: Group Visual / Video Essay: 30%
Summative: Essay question: 70%

• Aaron, Michelle (2004) New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press

• Braudy, Leo and Cohen, Marshall eds. (1999) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings.
• New York: Oxford University Press. Latest edition.
• Edgar, Andrew and Sedgwick, Peter eds. (2002) Cultural theory: the key concepts. London:
• Routledge.
• Hayward, Susan (2006) Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.
• hooks, bell (1992) Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: Southend Press.
• Turner, Graeme, ed (2002) The Film Cultures Reader. London: Routledge,

Weekly screening