| Part IB | Option |
Course Description 2023-24
This course provides students with the opportunity to explore the film traditions of East Asia and the Middle East through a number of possible themes, including modernity, identity and nation, and genre. These broad concerns encompass common themes of comparative significance, such as gender, city and countryside, love, marriage, and family and violence and are expressed in genres such as melodrama.
Cinema was the major globalizing cultural medium of 20th-century modernity, at once transnational and yet deeply embedded in the lived experience of particular societies. East Asian and Middle Eastern countries have developed indigenous and independent film industries since the very early days of cinema, and film has played an important role in the cultural imagination of the different modern nations. The importance of cinema has, if anything, increased in this new century of the internet and a wide area of electronic means of conveying, storing, consuming (and stealing) moving images. All have combined to significantly broaden access to film and film culture for individuals and audiences around the world. Apart from being a subject of study in its own right, film can be an invaluable adjunct to the study of literature and history. It can offer a window on social reality and visual culture, and, like literature, can pose new questions or offer new perspectives. Finally, although this is not a language-based course, it can offer as by-product a record of living voices exercising the widest range of linguistic expression for students working with films from the area of their specialisation.
This course provides students with the opportunity to explore the film traditions of East Asia and the Middle East through a number of possible themes, including modernity, identity and nation, and genre. These broad concerns encompass common themes of comparative significance, such as gender, city and countryside, love, marriage, and family and violence and are expressed in genres such as melodrama. Students will be given access to a range of interesting classic and less well-known films while developing the skills and vocabulary to perform good cinematic analysis. Secondary readings and lectures will help to familiarise students with the historical, social, political and cultural contexts behind each film and thus deepen their understanding and appreciation for the films discussed.
The course will be taught in weekly sessions for a total of 16 weeks (8 each in Michaelmas & Lent terms). Sessions will comprise participatory lectures and seminars, with some content provided in a pre-recorded form. Students may be asked on occasion to lead seminars and make presentations based on the weekly readings that should stimulate discussions about the films viewed and issues that they raise. Each student will also write a minimum of two essays each term. Feedback on these will be given in supervisions or in group discussions.
Form and Conduct
The examination paper will consist of ten questions divided between two sections. Candidates will be required to attempt three questions in total, including at least one from each section.
This paper will only run with a minimum number of 4 students from each Department.
This description is subject to change, for the latest information, students should consult the Undergraduate Handbook available on the Faculty Intranet.