The film in the English-speaking countries: genres and conventions

Timetable

Timetable

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Module aim (aims)

 to acquaint students with historical development of film in English, with a special stress on the UK and the US, in the context of the complexity of genres and conventions and make students aware of understanding the key events and processes which have affected the status of present-day American and British cinema

· to showcase the development of film in English in the context of American and British culture and socio-political milieu

· to make students aware of the conventionality and limitations of genre and critical uses of convention and genre in film analysis

· to acquaint students with fundamental methods and concepts in film analysis

· to acquaint students with major trends in mainstream cinema with a special focus on the USA and the 

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Basic knowledge of British and American culture and a strong interest in film history

Syllabus

Week 1: Early American cinema

Week 2: Silent cinema

Week 3: Classical Hollywood

Week 4: Hollywood in Transition

Week 5: Auteur Renaissance. American New Wave

Week 6: Vietnam war film

Week 7: Movie brats

Week 8: The New Hollywood

Week 9: Early British cinema to 1950s

Week 10: British New Wave & Swinging London

Week 11: British cinema: from the 1970s to the present

Week 12: British social realism

Reading list

Branigan, Edward and Warren Buckland (eds.) 2015. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory. London: Routledge.

Elsaesser, Thomas and Warren Buckland (eds.) 2002. Studying Contemporary American Film: A Guide to Movie Analysis. London: Arnold.

Guynn, William (ed.) 2011. The Routledge Companion to Film History. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lewis, Jon. 2014. Essential Cinema: An Introduction to Film Analysis. Boston: Wadsworth.

Lucia, Cynthia, Roy Grundmann, Art Simon (eds.) 2011. The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film. Four Volume Set. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Lucia, Cynthia, Roy Grundmann, Art Simon (eds.) 2016. American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Street, Sarah. 2009. British National Cinema. London: Routledge.