LT927-7-AU-CO:
Critical Moments in the Theory and History of Film

The details
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Thursday 03 October 2024
Friday 13 December 2024
20
17 February 2023

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

MA Q20212 Film and Literature,
MA QV2312 Film Studies

Module description

This module aims to provide an updated and in-depth examination of historical and contemporary theories and debates relating to formal, social, cultural, and political dimensions of film and screen media, emphasizing these as transnational, globalized phenomena.

Through weekly screenings and class discussions of key film, media, and theoretical texts, we shall aim to call into question both the apparently 'obvious' or 'straightforward' ways in which we talk about film and screen media, and the importance of addressing and mastering theoretical approaches in the field in order to inform and deepen our analyses and debates. These may include among them historical, ideological, psychoanalytic, semiological, postmodernist, feminist, queer, phenomenological, haptic, and other emerging approaches to film and screen media.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:



  • To provide an updated and in-depth examination of established and contemporary theories and debates relating to formal, social, cultural, and political dimensions of cinema and screen media.

  • To emphasize debates around cinema and media as transnational, globalized phenomena.

  • To call into question both the apparently 'obvious' or 'straightforward' ways in which we talk about cinema and screen media.

  • To address the importance of mastering theoretical approaches in the field in order to inform and deepen analyses and debates.

  • To examine a select sampling of historical, ideological, psychoanalytic, semiological, postmodernist, feminist, queer, phenomenological, haptic, and other emerging approaches to cinema and screen media.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to have an:



  1. Understanding of the assumptions underpinning formal, social, cultural, and theoretical accounts of cinema and screen media.

  2. Enhanced understanding of the relative usefulness and applicability these accounts.

  3. Enhanced understanding of various ways in which more recent theories have come to question established approaches to cinema and media.

  4. Enhanced comprehension of local and specific cultural phenomena in film and media.

  5. Enhanced consideration of film and media as transnational, cutting across and delivered through various platforms.

Module information

While stressing the importance of close analysis, the module is designed as a 'tool kit' approach to the critical understanding and analysis of film and media rather than a series of 'close readings' of selected texts. Classes will involve detailed discussions of different theoretical perspectives as well as drawing on extracts from texts which may complicate certain established positions and readings. Classes function as a space for you to develop your own ideas, through a process of constructively discussing and critiquing those of key theorists, artists, and practitioners. This will help facilitate students to move on to create their own distinctive interventions – whether as practitioners, historians, critics, or theorists.

Broad topics for seminar discussion are indicated in the reading list in the module documentation, though please consult the updated module handbook for the specific week-by-week subject matter and texts.

Bibliography and reading list (indicative):

Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 7th edn (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004)

Carnes, Mark et al. (eds), Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (New York: Holt, 1995)

Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink, The Cinema Book, 2nd edn (London: BFI Publishing, 1999)

Turner, Graeme, Film as Social Practice, 4th edn (London: Routledge, 2006)

Bazin, André, What is Cinema?, 2 vols (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967)

Deleuze, Gilles, Cinema 1: The Movement Image (London: Athlone, 1986)
____________, Cinema 2: The Time Image (London: Athlone, 1989)

Easthope, Antony (ed.), Contemporary Film Theory (Harlow: Longman, 1993)

Heath, Stephen, Questions of Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981)

Jenkins, Keith (ed.) The Postmodern History Reader (London: Routledge, 1997)

Sobchak, Vivian (ed.), The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event (New York and London: Routledge, 1996)

Stam, Robert, Film Theory: An Introduction (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000)

Tosh, John and Sean Lang, The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods, and New Directions in the Study of Modern History, 4th edn (Harlow and New York: Longman, 2006)

Turner, Graeme (ed.), The Film Cultures Reader (London: Routledge, 2002)

White, Hayden, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987)

Learning and teaching methods

The principal learning environment for this module is the weekly seminar, during which you will be expected to make constructive contributions to class discussion, airing your ideas and responding respectfully to those of others. You are unlikely to maximise the potential of the learning environment if you come along to classes unprepared – for this reason, it is vital that you familiarise yourselves with the weekly set readings before each seminar.

Bibliography*

  • Epstein, Jean. (1993) 'On Certain Characteristics of Photogenie', in French Film Theory and Criticism, Volume 1: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939. Volume 1: 1907-1929 (French Film Theory & Criticism): Princeton University Press., pp.314-320
  • Mulvey, Laura. (2002) 'Afterword', in The new Iranian cinema: politics, representation and identity, London: I.B. Tauris.
  • Cronenberg, Brandon; Fichman, Niv; Jones, Caleb Landry; McDowell, Malcolm; Gadon, Sarah. (2013) Antiviral, [UK]: Alliance Films.
  • (no date) Erkki Huhtamo, Push the Button, Kinoautomat Will Do the Rest.
  • Eisenstein, Sergei M. (1994) ''Béla Forgets the Scissors'', in The film factory: Russian and Soviet cinema in documents 1896-1939, Abingdon: Routledge., pp.145-149
  • (no date) BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH.
  • Brown, William. (©2018) 'What is Non-Cinema', in Non-cinema: global digital filmmaking and the multitude, New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. vol. volume 6, pp.1-15
  • Dyer, Richard. (1998) ''Stars as Specific Images'', in Stars, London: BFI., pp.60-85
  • Demme, Jonathan; Foster, Jodie; Hopkins, Anthony; Glenn, Scott; Levine, Ted. (2007) The silence of the lambs, Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment.
  • Kaplan, E. Ann. (2000) ''Is the Gaze Male?'', in Feminism and film, Oxford: Oxford University Press. vol. Oxford readings in feminism, pp.119-138
  • Garwood, Ian. (2013) 'Sensation and Narrative Sense in Amores Perros', in The sense of film narration, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Simmel, Georg. (1997) 'The Metropolis and Mental Life', in Simmel on culture: selected writings, London: Sage.
  • González Iñárritu, Alejandro; Echevarría, Emilio; García Bernal, Gael. (c2001) Amores perros, [London]: Optimum Releasing.
  • Torben Kragh Grodal. (2009) 'Stories for Eyes, Ears and Muscles', in Embodied visions, New York: Oxford University Press., pp.158-180
  • Rodowick, David Norman. (2007) 'The Digital Event', in The virtual life of film, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press., pp.163-174
  • Metz, Christian. (2009) ''Identification, Mirror'', in Film theory and criticism: introductory readings, New York: Oxford University Press., pp.800-808
  • Sobchack, Vivian Carol. (c2004) Carnal thoughts: embodiment and moving image culture, Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Shohat, Ella; Stam, Robert. (2014) Unthinking Eurocentrism: multiculturalism and the media, Abingdon: Routledge. vol. Sightlines, pp.1-12
  • Metz, Christian. (1985) 'Photography and Fetish', in October. vol. 34, pp.81-
  • Balázs, Béla. (1994) ''The Future of Film'', in The film factory: Russian and Soviet cinema in documents 1896-1939, Abingdon: Routledge., pp.144-145
  • Marks, Laura U. (2000) The skin of the film: intercultural cinema, embodiment, and the senses, Durham, NC: Duke University Press., pp.127-193
  • Staiger, Janet. (1993) ''Taboos and Totems: Cultural Meanings of The Silence of the Lambs'', in Film theory goes to the movies, New York: Routledge. vol. AFI film readers
  • 'Bollywood Ain't "World Cinema"' | Alternet, http://www.alternet.org/story/18563/bollywood_ain't_'world_cinema'
  • Baudrillard, Jean. (c1994) 'The Precession of Simulacra', in Simulacra and simulation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press., pp.1-42
  • André Bazin and Hugh Gray. (1960) ''The Ontology of the Photographic Image'', in Film Quarterly. vol. 13 (4) , pp.4-9
  • Grosz, E. A. (1995) 'Sexual Difference and the Problem of Essentialism', in Space, time, and perversion: essays on the politics of bodies, New York: Routledge., pp.45-57
  • Livingstone, Rodney. (2011) 'The Close-Up', in Béla Balázs: early film theory : Visible man and the spirit of film, New York: Berghahn Books. vol. [10]
  • Antonioni, Michelangelo; Redgrave, Vanessa; Hemmings, David. (c2004) Blow-up, U.K.: Warner Home Video.
  • Powell, Michael; Marks, Leo; Boehm, Carl. (2007) Peeping Tom, U.K.: Optimum.
  • Youngblood, Gene. (1970) 'Synaesthetic Cinema: The End of Drama', in Expanded cinema, London: Studio Vista.
  • Interactivty in Fiction Series as Part of Its Transmedia Universe: The case of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/interactivity-in-fiction-series-as-part-of-its-transmedia-universe-the-case-of-black-mirror-bandersn
  • Epstein, Jean. (1993) 'Magnification', in French Film Theory and Criticism, Volume 1: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939. Volume 1: 1907-1929 (French Film Theory & Criticism): Princeton University Press; y First edition thus edition., pp.241-245
  • Eisenstein, Sergei; Hughes, Edward Dudley. (c2007) Strike, [London]: Tartan Video. vol. v.1
  • Epstein, Jean; Liebman, Stuart. (1977) 'Magnification and Other Writings', in October. vol. 3, pp.9-25
  • Bellour, Raymond. (c2007) 'The Pensive Spectator', in The cinematic, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
  • Väliaho, Pasi. (2010) 'Umwelt: Automatism and Affectivity', in Mapping the moving image: gesture, thought and cinema circa 1900, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press., pp.79-108

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Essay (5,000 words)    100% 

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

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Daniel O'Brien, email: d.obrien@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Daniel O'Brien
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

 

Availability
Yes
No
Yes

External examiner

Dr Andrew Birtwistle
Canterbury Christ Church University
Reader in Film and Sound
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 40 hours, 20 (50%) hours available to students:
20 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.

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