LT206-5-SP-CO:
Narrative and Film
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
20 August 2024
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
How do films tell their stories? What types of narratives and modes of storytelling belong to different genres? How have filmmakers used novels, short stories, poetry, comics, and video games to create new stories for cinema? And how has transmedia storytelling changed our experience of storyworlds?
We explore different modes of storytelling in cinema. We consider key films from the canon of classic realist Hollywood, modernist and postmodernist cinema and examine the ways in which different filmic narrative traditions create meaning and transform showing into telling. We also turn our attention to the various genre classification systems that group films according to type. We study the history of individual genres such as Gothic, Film Noir, Science Fiction, and the Road Movie and identify their recurring patterns, styles, and iconographies, and investigate whether and how the Superhero genre promotes new forms of serialized narrative.
The aims of this module are:
- introduce students to the different signifying systems of film, literature, the graphic novel, videogame
- develop an understanding of how narratives are retold, updated and recycled across different media
- advance an understanding of different types of adaptation, including remakes, reboots, prequels, sequels, and transmedia storytelling
- familiarize students with key debates and theories in adaptation studies
By the end of the module, students will be expected to:
- communicate knowledge and understanding of the different formal, aesthetic, and generic modes of storytelling in cinema
- undertake comparative analyses and demonstrate an understanding of the aesthetic relations between verbal and visual media
- demonstrate critical awareness of key issues and concepts pertaining to cross-media adaptations and serial storytelling
- apply, and reflect on, film-, genre-, and adaptation theory
FILMS
- Alice in the Cities, dir. Wim Wenders (1974)
- Alien, dir. Ridley Scott (1979)
- Apocalypse Now, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
- Avengers: Endgame, dir. Anthony and Joe Russo (2019)
- Batman Begins, dir. Christopher Nolan (2005)
- Blade Runner 2049, dir. Denis Villeneuve (2017)
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, dir. Rouben Mamoulian (1931)
- Hugo, dir. Martin Scorsese (2007)
- Masculin Féminin, dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1966)
- Nosferatu, dir. F. W. Murnau (1922)
- Rear Window, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman (2018)
- Strange Days, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (1995)
- Timecode, dir. Mike Figgis (2000)
- The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks (1946)
- The Fly, dir. David Cronenberg (1986)
This module will be delivered via:
- Weekly two-hour lectorials
This module does not appear to have any essential texts. To see non - essential items, please refer to the module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Essay (2,500 words) |
11/04/2025 |
95% |
| Practical |
Participation |
|
5% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Karin Littau, email: klittau@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Karin Littau
LiFTS General Office, Tel. (01206) 872626, email: liftstt@essex.ac.uk
No
No
No
Dr Andrew Birtwistle
Canterbury Christ Church University
Reader in Film and Sound
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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