LT206-5-SP-CO:
Genre, Narrative and Film
2025/26
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 12 January 2026
Friday 20 March 2026
15
06 March 2025
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 genre to offer audiences certain pleasures or disrupt our expectations? How is ideology embedded in genre filmmaking - and how have films conformed to or resisted these ideological impulses? We explore these issues by examining different genres in cinema. We consider key films from a range of genres to examine the ways in which different generic and narrative traditions create meaning. We study the history of individual genres such as Horror, Science Fiction and Romantic Comedies to identify their recurring patterns, styles, and iconographies, and investigate whether and how these genres generate ideological meanings and audience expectation. We will also consider modes of filmmaking that challenge genre categories, such as experimental and art house cinema, to consider alternative ways of classifying modes of filmmaking, narrative, storytelling and aesthetics.
The aims of this module are:
• To introduce students to the different signifying systems of film.
• To develop an understanding of how genres are made, remade, updated and recycled across film history.
• To advance an understanding of different types of genres, such Horror, Romantic Comedy, Musicals and Science Fiction.
• To familiarize students with key debates and theories in genre studies.
By the end of the module, students will be expected to be able to:
1. Communicate knowledge and understanding of the different formal, aesthetic, and generic modes of storytelling in cinema.
2. Undertake comparative analyses and demonstrate an understanding of genre conventions in cinema.
3. Demonstrate critical awareness of key issues and concepts pertaining to genre.
4. Apply, and reflect on, film and genre theory.
FILMS (indicative list - viewing and reading list is TBD)
• Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele (2017)
• Sleepless in Seattle dir. Nora Ephron (1993)
• Singin' in the Rain, dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen (1952)
• Arrival, dir. Denis Villeneuve (2016)
• Persepolis, dir. Marjane Satrapi (2007)
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Reassemblage, dir. Trinh T. Minh-ha (1982) -
• Rear Window, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
• Alien, dir. Ridley Scott (1979)
• The Maltese Falcon, dir. John Huston (1941)
• The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks (1946)
• The Fly, dir. David Cronenberg (1986)
The module will be delivered via: 1 x weekly lecture and 1 x weekly seminar
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) |
|
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.
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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