Undergraduate Catalogue of Courses 2013/2014
FILM AND VISUAL CULTURE
THE FOLLOWING COURSES ARE SUPPLIED BY THE SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Note(s): FILM COURSES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE DEPARTMENTS OF FRENCH, GERMAN, HISPANIC STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY
Course Co-ordinator: Dr J Stewart
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in programme year 3 or at the discretion of the Head of School.
Co-requisite(s): This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with FS45KD (Filming Art Worlds B): GM3518 (Vienna 1900 A) or GM4518 (Vienna 1900 B).
What is an artworld? What is a filmworld? How do the visual arts engage in world-making? And what happens when filmworlds and artworlds collide? These are questions taken up by a number of film-makers, whose work will be considered on this course, including Jean Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Watkins and Raoul Ruiz. The course centres on Ruiz?s Klimt (2006), a filmic reconstruction of a particular artworld (Vienna around 1900 ? the ?birthplace of modernism;) that also seeks explicitly to explore the effect of the introduction of new film technology on that artworld. The course studies the film in relation to: the cultural history of Klimt?s Vienna, including filmic approaches; discourse from around 1900 on the changing nature of vision and visuality; Ruiz's Poetics of Cinema; the film's relationship to other 'artist biopics' that similarly set out to construct filmic artworlds; and theoretical accounts of the relationship between art and film.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 two-hour seminar per week.
1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (100%): 1 short essay 2500 words (40%); 1 written essay 3500 words (50%) and seminar work (10%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Feedback on performance on the short essay, which will be returned before the second essay is due. Contributions to seminars, including short written responses to works screened.
Formal feedback will be provided on both essays in the form of written comments provided on a template. Students will also be encouraged to discuss their performance on a one-to-one basis with the course co-ordinator. Written feedback will be offered on short written responses. Informal feedback on contributions to seminars will be offered on an on-going basis and students will also receive feedback in the form of a seminar assessment mark and written comments.
PLEASE NOTE: Resit: (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.
Course Co-ordinator: To be advised
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or by permission of the Head of School.
Co-requisite(s): Passes in Film Studies courses at level 1 and 2, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course will not be available in session 2010/11.
The course is designed to question what is the relation of politics, economics and social conditions to images? Is there a new aesthetic of politics through television, photojournalism and new media? How does such globalization to what media pundits call a "global event" or "history in the making"? How is image understood in the age of neo-capitalism, and how do identity politics affect the way we read images? The course will start with a discussion of what constitutes a global event, an historic event and a global media event. We will then look at how certain events have been treated as global events, examining how these events are embedded in a historical discourse and how such discourses are in turn aestheticized.
2 two-hour seminars and 1 three-hour screening per week.
1st Attempt: Two 2,500-3,000 word essays (40%) each and seminar work (20%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).
Course Co-ordinator: TBC
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or by permission by the Head of School.
Co-requisite(s): Passes in film studies courses at level 1 and 2, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with FS 30HB: Catharsis Culture? A. This cousre will not be available in session 2010/11.
Catharsis is a central notion in drama and film studies. Originally a medical concept meaning 'purification' or 'cleansing', in drama theory it has been associated with the idea that tragic plays would allow spectators a release from intense feelings of pity and fear.
According to a film studies' cliché the classic Hollywood film is cathartic: it calls for the emotional investment of the spectator and ultimately delivers a strong experience of release. The European art film, on the other hand, keeps viewers at emotional distance, refuses closure and thereby encourages a more intellectual and critical engagement with the film. After a discussion of the historical legitimacy of this cliché (drawing on texts from, the course will examine the status of catharsis in a series of films by contemporary directors like Bruno Dumont, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke, Carlos Reygadas, Catherine Breillat and others.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 two-hour seminar per week. Plus screenings (3 hours per week).
1st Attempt: In-course assessment: one essay 2,500-3,000 words (40%), seminar assessment (10%), 1 two-hour written examination (50%).
Resit: 1 two-hour examination (100%).
Course Co-ordinator: TBC
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in programme year 4 or by permission of the Head of School
Note(s): This course may NOT be taken as part of the degree programme of MA honours French Studies It may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with FR3051 or FR4051, nor with FS30HC Contemporary French Film A. It will be available in 2011/12 and in alternate sessions thereafter.
The course focuses on contemporary French directors whose works explore questions of desire, sexuality and death. These timeless topics are treated in new and often provocative ways allowing the following questions to be discussed: what is the relation between formalism and socio-political engagement in the works of the directors? How do the filmmakers relate to the traditions that they do not belong to (i.e. first of all Hollywood and La nouvelle vague)? What do the directors tell us about cinema and contemporary society?
Directors discussed include Claire Denis, Bruno Dumont, Lucille Hadzihalilovic and Francois Ozon among others.
1 two-hour seminar per week, plus film screening of the set films; 8 one-hour workshops for the supervision of students’ projects.
1st attempt: In-course assessment: 3 written assignments (2,000-2,500 words each) and 1 project (100%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr N Boljkovac
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.
Co-requisite(s): FS 1503 or equivalent.
In Cinema 2: The Time-Image, Gilles Deleuze echoes Shakespeare: ‘The time is out of joint’. What can this mean in relation to cinema, thought and life? Can time reveal the wounds of past, present and future? This course will explore perceptions of time through cinema. How do various national cinemas, genres and cinematic strategies convey, conceal or reveal time? As we attempt to think through these questions, this course will interrogate issues of memory, representation and death via a diverse selection of international films and readings. Inasmuch as time may be perceived differently through certain historic events and intimate experiences, monumental and mundane, universal and personal, the course will assess works of mainstream and experimental filmmakers, such as, Gillian Armstrong, Ingmar Bergman, Jane Campion, Niki Caro, Vittorio De Sica, Lasse Hallström, Werner Herzog, Philip Hoffman, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 two-hour seminar, plus a three-hour screening per week.
1st attempt: Shorter essay/close analysis of 1,500-2,000 words (30%); one 2,500-3,000 word essay (40%); seminar presentations (20%); weekly written submissions and participation (10%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Course Co-ordinator: To be advised
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.
Note(s): This course will not be available in session 2009/10.
This course will focus on the Internet and its impact on individual and group identity formations; the question of intellectual property that emerges from digital technology, hacker culture, file-sharing, etc: the reconfiguration of the notion of embodiment and gender relations; modes of dissemination of entertainment, ideas, information, and values; the culture of surveillance and webcams; political and policy regulations; ludic expression and digital arts / music; the role of the design in simulating social/cultural formations.
1 two-hour seminar per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1st Attempt: 1 web-based project with critical writing (essay of 4,000 words) (60%); written responses to critical material (40%).
Resit: Web-based project with essay of 5,000 words (100%).