BA Film Studies and English Literature / Course details

This course unit will offer students an introduction to world cinema through a range of debates and concepts that problematise its delineation. It addresses the development of world cinema through key historical junctures within the 20th and 21st centuries:¿ such as the crises of modernity and the cultural ruptures emerging as a result of a confluence of geo-historical and political developments. The aim is for students to learn to read cinema in and of the world as both bound by national formations while simultaneously exceeding them, through an understanding of the dynamics of cultural flows across histories and political formations. 

• To provide students with an understanding of the key debates in world cinema that take into account major historical junctures within the 20th and 21st centuries:  such as the crises of modernity and the cultural ruptures emerging as a result of a confluence of geo-historical and political developments
• To acquaint students with ways of reading world cinema as both being bound by national formations while simultaneously exceeding them, through an understanding of the dynamics of cultural flows across histories and political formations
• To equip students with the necessary analytical and critical skills to analyse the corpus films and evaluate representational and aesthetic strategies deployed by filmmakers

• Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the debates and approaches underpinning the study of world cinema
• Evidence an ability to critically analyse films and evaluate their approach to portraying their themes in the light of local aesthetic and cultural debates
• Demonstrate an awareness of how approach impact representational strategies and aesthetics

• Demonstrate an ability to make connections between concepts, and apply these relationships in analysis and argument
• Demonstrate an ability to synthesise material from diverse sources, consider multiple and competing lines of argument, evaluate arguments of others, and revise approaches in response to feedback
• Demonstrate an ability to initiate and undertake critical analysis of the corpus films and to develop a line of argument in response

• Communicate understanding of course materials effectively in both speech (as evidenced through seminar participation) and writing (as evidenced by summative assessments)

• 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

Dennison, Stephanie and Song Hwee Lim (2006) ‘Situating World Cinema as a Theoretical Problem’, in Dennison and Lim (eds) Remapping World Cinema: Identity, Culture and Politics in Film (London & New York, Wallflower Press): pp.1–15.

Ezra, Elizabeth and Terry Rowden (2006) ‘General Introduction: What Is Transnational Cinema?’, in Ezra and Rowden (eds) Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader (London and New York, Routledge): pp.1–12.

Kuhn, Annette and Grant, Catherine ‘Screening World Cinema,’ in: Screening World Cinema: a Screen Reader, ed. Annette Kuhn and Catherine Grant. London: Routledge 2006, pp. 3-13.

Martin-Jones, David, 2016. ‘Introduction: Film-Philosophy and a World of Cinemas’, in Film-Philosophy 20: 1, pp. 6 – 23.

Najib, Lúcia, Chris Perriam, and Rajinder Dudrah, eds. (2012) Theorizing World Cinema, New York: I.B. Tauris.