What you will study
You will study all that is new, vital and innovative in contemporary and emergent cinemas. As well as evaluating and critically analysing a range of perspectives on cinema in light of contemporary developments, shifting cultural alliances and patterns of cross-fertilisations, you will be introduced to the main areas of debate in the history of film criticism.
Your dissertation will demonstrate your detailed research into a topic of your choice, including current theoretical and methodological debates relevant to the subject area, as well as an understanding of the historical and cultural context.
Current modules focus on European and transnational cinematic traditions, post-1960 British cinema, film and philosophy, film and adaptation, avant-garde and experimental cinema, and cinematic animals. You'll be expected to complete 180 credits altogether and can choose two optional modules worth 30 credits each.
Modules
You will be introduced to a range of ways of understanding cinema and encouraged to undertake original research into a wide variety of cinematic case studies. The course will equip you with the knowledge and skills to understand film from an historical perspective and to recognise its continued relevance in shaping contemporary debates.
Core modules
Film History Theory and Analysis
30 credits
This year-long module will provide the theoretical core to the MA Film Studies programme. It aims to explore a set of theoretical paradigms that have shaped the study of film and will approach the subject from an historical, formal, and theoretical perspective. It will introduce students to a range of cinematic examples that will provide the focus for discussion and analysis. Examples will be drawn from classical cinema, art cinema, and experimental cinema, and will encompass both historical and contemporary work. The module will be taught through a series of seminars that will give students the opportunity to explore both films and texts in considerable detail, allowing them to consider how the medium has engaged with a range of theoretical debates over the course of its history.
Film and Philosophy
30 credits
Film and Philosophy is one of the two core modules on the Film Studies MA. It explores the many ways in which Philosophy and Film can form a productive relationship, from using film to illustrate key ideas from the history of philosophy, to suggesting ways in which film can itself be said to engage in new types of philosophical thinking. The module will provide you with an overview of many of the central debates in the field, and will illustrate them with reference to a wide range of cinematic examples, but it will also encourage you to develop your own Film-Philosophical investigations. The module runs for the whole of the academic year, and is divided into a set of Module Topics, each with their own particular focus, but which build to provide you with a broad understanding of the subject.
Major Project
60 credits
The Major Project is the capstone module of the Masters programme. Focusing on critical research, analysis, and presentation, the capstone project enables students to synthesise and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout the course. The module provides students with an extensive programme of training and resources which are designed to aid them in the development, planning, research, and writing of their projects. It brings together students from several MA programmes in the School of Critical Studies and Creative Industries and embeds a range of interdisciplinary and practice-led approaches to their respective fields of study. It provides students with the opportunity to craft their own approach to their field through critical-theoretical and/or creative, practice-based research. The Major Project can accommodate research projects developed through a range of academic and professional contexts depending on the motivation and interests of the student. It can be presented either as a written dissertation or as a creative project, such as a portfolio comprising a chosen medium or media, accompanied by a critical commentary. The intensity of the workload increases across the three teaching blocks, allowing increasing focus in line with the level of your expertise.
Optional modules
Cinematic Animals: Monsters, Beasts, and Humans on Film
30 credits
This module examines the way in which the genres of Horror (and Cartoon Comedy) splice animals and humans together to create frightening (or comical) visions of both. There is a long history in cinema of humanising the animal (‘anthropomorphism') and animalising the human (‘theriomorphism'), through hybrids of animal and human beings (werewolves, insect-men, lizard men), or animal and human behaviour, as when feeding (vampires, zombies, cannibals) or in political behaviour (invading alien monsters). We will analyse the narrational methods, cinematic technologies, ethics, and politics of these films by looking at contemporary examples including The Fly, Red Dragon, District 9, Antz!, and Beauty and The Beast.
British Cinema 1960s to Today
30 credits
This module examines the hybrid and diverse nature of British cinema from the early 1960s to the present day. The central focus of this course will be the relationship between British cinema and national identity. We will not only investigate the ways in which British cinema reflects national consciousness, but we will examine how it has shaped and contributed to it. In so doing, we will explore the multiple ways in which British cinema both reflects and produces socio-historical, cultural and political change.
On this module you will study various key post-1960 British film genres including social realism, the gangster film and the British pop/rock film. We will consider various British and transnational auteurs such as Joseph Losey, Stanley Kubrick and Ken Russell and will address significant debates in British film studies around stardom, Queer Cinema, Black and Asian cinema, women directors and regional British film. In doing so the module will explore not only their relationship with society, but the industrial and economic factors that have determined their production.
Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Cinema
30 credits
The module will explore the relationship between cinema as a cultural phenomenon of the modern age, and the production of gendered identities and stardom. The module offers a survey of the forms of identification the cinema has provided, and examines some recurring popular types and their meaning in relation to the contexts that produce them. The module draws from feminist ideas and semiotics to discover continuities in terms of traditional representation and meanings in the construction of gender. It examines how popular discourses attempt to resolve the tensions between traditional moral and feminist positions and commodification, as well as identify the cinematic practices that might challenge these.
Film and Adaptation
30 credits
This module introduces students to key theories around the adaptation of novels (and graphic novels) to film (and TV and theatre) through a varied range of case studies from Shakespeare to James Joyce, from Alice in Wonderland to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, from Pride and Prejudice to Watchmen. It engages with ideas like fidelity - can an adaptation ever be truly 'faithful' to the original? - and theoretical concepts such as structuralism, poststructuralism, and intertextuality. The assessment offers students a choice between traditional essays, creative scriptwriting or a combination of the two.
