Universität Wien

124262 KO Critical Media Analysis (2016S)

All that Genre allows: Constructing Identities and Disrupting Fantasies in early Hollywood Melodrama and Film Noir

6.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work

The class will introduce and familiarise students with the concept of genre films as established by the early Hollywood film industry: the main focus will be on the components of the thriller and the melodrama but other prototypical genre-constructions such as the western and the musical will also be explored.
Early Hollywood melodramas and noir thrillers constructed desirable ideas of identity, gender, nation and history and thus helped to favour a specific discourse about these concepts and yet they also often disrupted these cultural constructs.
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Dear Students!
Please take note that the first session of this CMA class will take place on the 8th of April!!!
Attendance in the first session is mandatory. If you are absent without excuse you will lose your place in this CMA course.

  • Friday 08.04. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 15.04. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 22.04. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 29.04. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 06.05. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 10.05. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Thursday 12.05. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 13.05. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Wednesday 18.05. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Thursday 19.05. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 20.05. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 27.05. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 03.06. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Thursday 09.06. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 10.06. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Tuesday 14.06. 20:00 - 22:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 17.06. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Friday 24.06. 12:00 - 14:00 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

By applying theoretical concepts from louis Althusser, Stuart Hall and Michel Foucault students will engage in a critical reading of the movies on the film-list and will try to assess how:

Establishing specific film genres codified particular understandings of American popular cultures

Genre films construct gender identities

Censorship in Hollywood of the time (the Hays Code) influenced what genre films could or could not say

Distinct strategies of identification are constructed in the chosen genre films

Views and opinions on historical events such as slavery, segregation, the Holocaust or World War II were shaped by Hollywood genre films

Personal, collective and cultural traumas were addressed and codified through Hollywood genre films

Assessment and permitted materials

This course will encourage students to take a critical look at naturalised assumptions about the relationship between individual and society that are constructed in genre films.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

In addition to the visual material discussed in class, students have to read a selection of secondary texts. They will be asked to hold short presentations in class, hand in written assignments as well as take a final written exam.
All the articles and excerpts from books will be provided online via MOODLE.

Examination topics

The work done in class will invite students to ask how discourses on race, sexuality, gender and nation are constructed within genre films and how these constructions determine and influence our understanding of narrative cinema.

Reading list

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, BA 612, BEd 046
Code/Modul: UF 4.2.5-426, BA07.3; BEd 08a.2, BEd 08b.1
Lehrinhalt: 12-4260

Last modified: We 09.09.2020 00:22