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Special Study: Screaming out Loud: International Horror Television and Film

  • Module code: TV6009
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 6
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: Successful completion of core Level 5 TV Studies module or equivalent
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module will explore the relationship between filmic and televisual horror through a global, transmedia and transnational perspective. While the beginning of cinematic horror can be traced back to the cinematic adaptation of stage plays of literary classics including Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, contemporary horroris as much televisual as it is filmic with television series based upon films and vice-versa as the recent success of Bates Motel, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Hannibal on the small screen and the X-Files films on the large screen demonstrate. In addition, cult Japanese films including Ring and Ju-On were preceded and anteceded by television series, while One Missed Call (Nakata: 2002) gave rise to a short-run series in 2005. Furthermore, the success of K-horror on the global stage revitalised the television series Hometown Legends/Korean Ghost stories in 2009 which is based upon traditional myths and folk tales. Finally, the Master of Horror television series which ran for two seasons (2005-2007), had episodes by Dario Argento (Jenifer & Pelts), Miike (Imprint) and Nsuruta (Dream Cruise). As such, this module is concerned with modern horror as both a global and local product and a televisual as well as cinematic genre.

Aims

  • Allow a detailed and extensive study of a specialist topic in television studies
  • Undertake this study in relation to pertinent social, historical and theoretical contexts and debates
  • Require students to work independently and co-ordinate the writing of an extended, dissertation-like essay and production of a short video-essay on a topic which will be explored in the extended essay.

Learning outcomes

  • Display a detailed knowledge of a specialist topic in television studies.
  • Show an understanding of the ways in which that topic relates to relevant cultural, historical and theoretical contexts and debates
  • Demonstrate the ability to work independently and to manage their time effectively
  • Demonstrate the ability to conceptualise and structure an extended argumentative essay
  • Demonstrate the ability to produce a video essay that critically reflects on the research and writing process.

Curriculum content

  • The cultural and  historical development of horror as a global televisual and cinematic genre.
  • Debates around violence and horror particularly with relation to gender and sexuality.
  • Remakes, adaptations and translations between television and cinema in the context of the televisual and telecinematic as both a global and local discourse.
  • Theories of  transmedia, transnationalism and media convergence and participatory culture in relation to contemporary global horror.
  • Changing shape of audiences and fandom and their importance to contemporary horror.

Teaching and learning strategy

The module will be taught in 3 hourly weekly interactive workshops, with additional timetabled screenings in TB1. Students will then undertake their own individual research projects under supervision in preparation for submission of their video essay. There will be work in progress workshops and academic writing skills workshops in TB2 to enable the students to continue their research with appropriate support and supervision, leading to the final essay that is the culmination of their project.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching Lecture/seminars 30
Scheduled learning and teaching Screenings Tutor to schedule
Scheduled learning and teaching Tutorials: 5 x 0.5 3
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to require students to think about the topic of the module in analytical, academic and original ways and to explore a Television Studies subject in greater depth and breadth than other modules permit, while encouraging students to critically reflect on the process itself.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
Display a detailed knowledge of a specialist topic in Television Studies Assessed summatively through the video essay and extended written essay, and also formatively through discussion in workshops and tutorials.
Show an understanding of the ways in which the topic relates to relevant and topical cultural, historical and theoretical contexts and debates. Assessed summatively through the video essay and extended written essay, and also formatively through discussion in workshops and tutorials.
Demonstrate the ability to work independent and to manage their time effectively. These abilities are summatively assessed through the video essay and final essay and also formatively during workshops, individual tutorials and structured feedback sessions.
Demonstrate the ability to conceptualise and structure an extended argumentative essay Assessed summatively in the final essay
Demonstrate the ability to produce a video essay that critically reflects on the research and writing process. Assessed summatively in the video essay

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
Coursework-1 Video Essay 40
Coursework-2 5,000 word Essay 60
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

Jowett, L. & Abbot, S. (2013), TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen, I.B. Tauris: London and New York. 

Ndalianis, A. (2012), The Horror Sensorium: Media and the Senses, McFarland: North Carolina. 

Schneider, S. J and Williams, T. (2005), Horror International, Wayne University State Press: Detroit. 

Wheatley, H. (2006), Gothic Television, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Bibliography recommended reading

  • Badley, L. (1995), Film, horror, and the body fantastic, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
  • Balmain, C. (2008), Introduction to Japanese Horror Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Burfoot, A. and Lord, S. (2009), Killing Women: The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
  • Boyle, K. (2005), Media and Violence: Gendering the Debates, Sage Publications.
  • Brottman, M. (2005), Offensive Films, Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Carroll, N. (1990), The Philosophy of Horror, London: Routledge.1990.
  • Cherry, B. (2009), Horror, Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Choi, J. and Wada-Marciano, M. (eds) (2009), Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema, Aberdeen: Hong Kong University Press.
  • Clover, C. (1992), Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, London: BFI.
  • Gelder, K. (ed) (2000), The Horror Reader, London: Routledge
  • Grant, B. K. (ed), (1996) The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film, Austin, University of Texas Press.
  • Grant, B. K. and Sharratt, C. (eds), (2004), Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film (Revised Edition), Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
  • Hand, R. J. and McRoy, J. (2007), Monstrous Adaptations: Generic and Thematic Mutations in Horror Film, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Jackson, R. (1981), Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion, London and New York: Routledge. 
  • Lowenstein, A. (2005), Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film, New York: Columbia University Press.
  • McRoy, J. (ed) (2006), Japanese Horror Cinema, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Piazza, R et al (eds) (2011), Telecinematic discourse: Approaches to the language of films and television series, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.
  • Smit, C. R. and Enns, A. (2001), Screening disability: essays on cinema and disability, Lanham: U.P. of America.

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