Undergraduate Film And Visual Culture 2025-2026

What is Visual Culture? Over the last twenty years, the visual landscape has become digital, virtual, viral, and global. A vibrant cross-section of scholars and practitioners from Art History, Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, and Film Studies have responded, not only engaging contemporary image production and consumption, but also the foundations of visual knowledge: What is an image? What is vision? How and why do we look, gaze, and spectate? From the nomadic pathways of the digital archive to the embodied look that looks back, this course will introduce students to the key concepts that shape this fluid field.

This course offers an introduction to the language and practice of formal film analysis. Each week we will explore a different element of film form and discuss the ways in which the moving image has evolved - from the silent period, to world cinema such as the Hong Kong new wave and Italian neorealism, through to the "New Hollywood" - with Alien and Taxi Driver - and onto more contemporary American blockbusters such as Point Break and The Hurt Locker. This course invites students to think about formal elements within and across a wide range of genres, styles, historical moments, and national contexts. By the end of this course, the successful FS1508 student will be able to recognize and communicate the ways in which meaning is made in cinema.

The first half of a film history sequence at the second year level, Visualising Modernity focuses on crucial moments, concepts and cinematic works from the period 1895 to 1945. Students will be marked according to a mid-term essay, a final exam, short assignments on Blackboard, and attendance in lectures and tutorials.

The second half of a film history sequence at the second year level, Cinema & Revolution focuses on crucial moments, concepts and cinematic works from the period between 1945 and the present. Students will be marked according to a mid-term essay, a final exam, short assignments on Blackboard, and participation and attendance in lectures and tutorials. 

Providing a scholarly analysis of horror cinema, from Germany's early silent classics to the work of Black directors and to slasher films and so-called “paracinema” and beyond, this course will give students insight into the evolution of society’s many screen nightmares. From landmark works to cult favourites, from Murnau to Argento, from Indonesia to Spain, this is a course that will give an insightful look at some of the major trends, and theories, related to a genre that remains one of celluloid’s most provocative, and frequently controversial, forms.

Due to the adult material viewed and studied on this option, students should anticipate content that might cause offence, including graphic depictions of terror and violence (please note that this includes sexual violence as with the pivotal work of Wes Craven, essential to any module on horror). While weekly content warnings will be provided, students who might find this material offensive may wish to consider another module option.

The process of confronting the crimes and legacy of the Third Reich in Germany and Austria has been a long and difficult one. In West Germany this process began in earnest following the 1968 student revolution, with a younger generation questioning the role that their parents had played in the Second World War. In Austria, the process of coming to terms with the Nazi legacy took substantially longer to get underway, and it is only over the past thirty years that the country's view of its role during the Third Reich has shifted decisively from that of victimhood to complicity. The discussion about the Nazi past in Germany has further evolved following German re-unification in 1990. This course will look at a number of key films and directors from the past seven decades to examine the changing discourse and shifts in representation of the Nazi legacy in Germany and Austria. The course will proceed chronologically, encompassing both fiction and documentary film, offering the opportunity to compare and draw connections between films from different periods and of diverse genres.

In the popular imagination, Spain invokes a number of alluring stereotypes: sun, sand, passion, and flamenco. In this course, students will be encouraged to look beyond these dominant stereotypes. Co-taught by lecturers in music, FVC and Spanish, students will explore how music, film and visual culture can reveal deep-seated tensions regarding national identity, politics and cultural representations of Spain throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

What is exploitation cinema? With A-list filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright paying homage to the form, and physical media labels unleashing entire packages on key directors and cycles, this is the module to learn about a rich and vast history of independent voices. Taught from the firsthand perspective of industry and experience, students will gain skills in film curation and marketing, as well as undertake a practical challenge in the shape of a short trailer “homage” that will be part of a group task. From the earliest days of exploitation cinema to the direct-to-video era that sustains the form to this day, this is the module for anyone seeking to undertake an alternative understanding of modern-day Hollywood.

Through the effects of technological progress, industrialisation, deforestation, mining, our dependence on fossil fuels and plastics, and the testing of nuclear weapons, humans have become geological agents – radically transforming the Earth System in ways that will leave a trace for millions of years to come. This realisation has come to be known as the ‘Anthropocene’ – the time of humans. The implications – materially, emotionally and intellectually – are vast and complex. How do writers and artists respond to this complexity? What role can literature, film and visual art play in our understanding of it? This course addresses these and other questions. By studying select works of literature, film and visual art from the last sixty years alongside critical, theoretical and scientific writing on the Anthropocene, can we identify those images that might be thought adequate to our predicament?

Providing a scholarly analysis of horror cinema, from Germany's early silent classics to the work of Black directors and to slasher films and so-called “paracinema” and beyond, this course will give students insight into the evolution of society’s many screen nightmares. From landmark works to cult favourites, from Murnau to Argento, from Indonesia to Spain, this is a course that will give an insightful look at some of the major trends, and theories, related to a genre that remains one of celluloid’s most provocative, and frequently controversial, forms.

Due to the adult material viewed and studied on this option, students should anticipate content that might cause offence, including graphic depictions of terror and violence (please note that this includes sexual violence as with the pivotal work of Wes Craven, essential to any module on horror). While weekly content warnings will be provided, students who might find this material offensive may wish to consider another module option.

The process of confronting the crimes and legacy of the Third Reich in Germany and Austria has been a long and difficult one. In West Germany this process began in earnest following the 1968 student revolution, with a younger generation questioning the role that their parents had played in the Second World War. In Austria, the process of coming to terms with the Nazi legacy took substantially longer to get underway, and it is only over the past thirty years that the country's view of its role during the Third Reich has shifted decisively from that of victimhood to complicity. The discussion about the Nazi past in Germany has further evolved following German re-unification in 1990. This course will look at a number of key films and directors from the past seven decades to examine the changing discourse and shifts in representation of the Nazi legacy in Germany and Austria. The course will proceed chronologically, encompassing both fiction and documentary film, offering the opportunity to compare and draw connections between films from different periods and of diverse genres.

The Dissertation in FVC provides students with the opportunity to undertake independent study on a topic of their choosing within Film and Visual Culture. Students can elect to undertake a written or a practical dissertation. The written dissertation is a research essay of 8,000 words (+/- 10%). Practical dissertations involve the production of a piece of creative work such as a short film or portfolio of visual material and an accompanying essay of 5,000 words (+/- 10%). Students will be supported in their dissertations through supervisory meetings and two group workshops which will take place during the semester.

In the popular imagination, Spain invokes a number of alluring stereotypes: sun, sand, passion, and flamenco. In this course, students will be encouraged to look beyond these dominant stereotypes. Co-taught by lecturers in music, FVC and Spanish, students will explore how music, film and visual culture can reveal deep-seated tensions regarding national identity, politics and cultural representations of Spain throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

What is exploitation cinema? With A-list filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright paying homage to the form, and physical media labels unleashing entire packages on key directors and cycles, this is the module to learn about a rich and vast history of independent voices. Taught from the firsthand perspective of industry and experience, students will gain skills in film curation and marketing, as well as undertake a practical challenge in the shape of a short trailer “homage” that will be part of a group task. From the earliest days of exploitation cinema to the direct-to-video era that sustains the form to this day, this is the module for anyone seeking to undertake an alternative understanding of modern-day Hollywood.

Through the effects of technological progress, industrialisation, deforestation, mining, our dependence on fossil fuels and plastics, and the testing of nuclear weapons, humans have become geological agents – radically transforming the Earth System in ways that will leave a trace for millions of years to come. This realisation has come to be known as the ‘Anthropocene’ – the time of humans. The implications – materially, emotionally and intellectually – are vast and complex. How do writers and artists respond to this complexity? What role can literature, film and visual art play in our understanding of it? This course addresses these and other questions. By studying select works of literature, film and visual art from the last sixty years alongside critical, theoretical and scientific writing on the Anthropocene, can we identify those images that might be thought adequate to our predicament?