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World Cinema / World Literature

Module description

This team taught module, considers the relationship between the production of cinema and literature and debates around the critical and theoretical concepts of ‘world’ cinemas and literatures and their articulation around world revolutionary moments and cultures of protest and dissent. Interdisciplinary in approach, this module is suited to students with an interest in world, global and postcolonial film and literary studies.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to trace conceptual and theoretical connection between world cinematic and literary productions to highlight the political, social and cultural legacies of an increasingly interconnected world. Focused on a range of genres (fiction, non-fiction essay, memoir, fictional film and documentary), you will investigate key world revolutionary moments of the mid-20th century, cutting across diverse territories and modes of representation to give you the opportunity to extend your knowledge in an emergent area of interdisciplinary research that remains contested. The module will enable you to study cinemas and literatures characterised by non-mainstream or alternative aesthetics, and offers you the opportunity to consider a wide range of directors and writers and their often insurgent, counterhegemonic cultural productions relating to revolutionary moments, the spectres of partition, and protest and revolt. Conceptually, the module enables you to study the intersection between the complex critical-theoretical debates across the disciplines, taking account of the multinational dimension of film production and publishing. Regions covered by the module may include Africa, Europe, East and South Asia, Latin America, and the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean. The module will provide advanced methodological training in working across disciplines, in exploring pathways to use critical theoretical concepts to analyse works of film and literature, and in using bibliographic and electronic resources.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an advanced ability to analyse film and literary texts using appropriate formal and critical terminologies
• 2. Demonstrate an advanced appreciation of the critical debates around issues of world cinematic and literary narrative as well as uneven distributions of media technologies
• 3. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of issues of readership and spectatorship in relation to literary and cinematic form
• 4. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to connect the formal analysis of film and literature to broader theoretical and conceptual questions

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate a sophisticated and intellectually mature ability to analyse literature and films of different geographical locations and aesthetics
• 6. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous proficiency in the close formal, thematic, and generic analysis of different genres of film and literature
• 7. Demonstrate advanced and autonomous skills in the research and evaluation of relevant critical and theoretical concepts in relation to the study of film and literature

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Through seminar work, demonstrate advanced communication skills and team working skills
• 9. Through essay-writing, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills and the ability to construct a coherent, substantiated argument
• 10. Through the planning and organisation of research projects, demonstrate time-management skills and independent thinking

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Marginal Literatures and Cinemas
• The World City
• Modernity and Modernization
• Magical Realism
• Melodrama in national and transnational contexts
• World cinemas and literatures and critical theory
• Historical memory and colonial legacies
• Introducing World Cinemas and World Literatures
• 1968 – Protest and Revolt
• Partitions
• Caribbean Revolutions
• ‘World Revolutions – Revolutionary Worlds in Film and Fiction’ - Forum Debate

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Core Reading:

• Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of this World
• Merle Collins, Angel
• Han Kang, Human Acts
• Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
• Bernhard Schlink, The Weekend

Indicative Core Viewing:

• Uli Edel, The Baader Meinhof Complex
• Michael Cacoyannis, Attila ’74: The Rape of Cyprus
• Göran Olson, BlackPower Mixtape
• Im Sang-soo, The Old Garden
• Werner Herzog, Little Dieter Needs to Fly
• Peter Davies, Hearts and Minds
• Raoul Peck, I’m Not Your Negro

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/search.php?search=EASM167

Key words search

World Literatures, World Cinemas, Postcolonial Literature and Film