The module explores the concept of power in film and visual media, from a range of critical approaches including post-colonialism, post-modernism, and post-humanism. We study a variety of films and other media texts such as TV, video games and comics as a way into thinking about dominance and resistance, and the representation of race, gender and disability.
Students will examine political, sexual, and bodily conformity, as reflected in the aesthetics and themes of contemporary mainstream and European cinema, including Science Fiction and neo-noir. The module will consider the screen itself as a space of disruption and subversion, including the place of digital images in capitalist hegemony and consumer culture, and their potential for transgression. We will examine the role of the digital in destabilizing conventional notions of production and consumption, alongside film cultures as both propaganda and anti-propaganda, as mainstream and independent, and as hegemonic and counter-hegemonic.
The module further deals with issues of postmodernism, asking whether pastiche results in a redundant recycling or increases the potential for playful remixing and fan creativity. We also discuss ideas of carnival in relation to popular entertainment, and - through the work of Foucault - examine the ways in which visual discourse constructs our cultural understanding of identity around minority groups.
Throughout, students are encouraged to critically examine the hierarchies of power that govern media production and representation, and to question the cultural privilege that structures popular media texts.
Delivery will be by lectures, seminars, and screenings. Screenings are active, collaborative and tutor-supported. The module will make use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Canvas for communication and dissemination of information between students and staff as well as making online learning materials available to all.
All courses based in the Kingston School of Art offer students free access to the online video tutorial platform Lynda.com. This provides a wide range of subjects to choose from, many with downloadable exercise files, including software tutorials covering photography, graphics, web design, audio and music, CAD and Microsoft Office software, as well as courses on Business and Management skills. Some of these are embedded in the curriculum and offer additional self-paced learning, others may be taken at will by students wishing to broaden their employability skills in other areas.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Lectures, workshops, tutorials, screenings 88 | 88 |
| Guided independent study | 212 | |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
The assessment strategy for this module consists of two 2,500 word essays (one of which may be replaced by a video essay with a 1000 word commentary), submitted at the end of Teaching Block 1 (A1) and Teaching Block 2 (A2) respectively.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| To reflect on film and other visual practices as sites of negotiation between different ideologies of identity, power and resistance A1, A2 | A1, A2 |
| To demonstrate an understanding of critical ideas relating to the reproduction of and challenge to dominant discourses of identity | A1, A2 |
| To demonstrate a critical assessment of a range of films and other visual media, such as TV, video games and comics | A1, A2 |
| To comment critically on the practices and strategies adopted in a variety of film and visual media inasmuch as they reproduce, reflect on or resist dominant discourses of identity. | A1, A2 |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Essay (2,500 words) or video Essay and Commentary (A1) | Coursework | 50% |
| Essay (2,500 words) or video Essay and Commentary (A2) | Coursework | 50% |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It is NOT a requirement that any element of assessment is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.
Bakhtin, M. (trans. Hélène Iswolsky) (1984 [1968]) Rabelais and his World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Butler, Judith (2006, 3rd ed.) Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge
Clarke, Julie (2009) The Paradox of the Posthuman: Science Fiction/Techno-Horror Films and Visual Media VDM Verlag
Hauskeller, Michael, Thomas Philbeck, and Curtis Carbonell, eds. (2015) The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television. SpringerLink
Jameson, F. (2012 )Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press
McRuer, R. (2006) Crip Theory: cultural signs of queerness and disability, NY UP
Naficy, H. (2001) An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Oxford and Princeton, Princeton University Press
Shaka, Femi O. (2004) Modernity and the African Cinema: A Study in Colonialist Discourse, Postcoloniality and Modern African identities, Trenton, NL: Africa World Press