HR270-5-FY-CO:
Sex, War and Class at the Movies: 1930-1960
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 5
Inactive
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
12 March 2021
Requisites for this module
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This module explores the relationship between cinema and society in Britain from the inter-war depression, through to the onset of `affluence` and mass-consumerism after World War Two. More specifically, cinematic representations of classes and cultures will be examined in relation to the lived social and economic history of the period, in order to find out what they both reveal and conceal about the historical processes which transformed Britain during this vital period.
The main sources will be feature films but other primary sources will be employed when appropriate to enable us to situate the texts more firmly in their contexts. These will be read in conjunction with a wide range of secondary sources taken from the fields of film history and social history. A variety of genres and styles will be considered including comedy and musical comedy, social documentary, melodrama and social realism.
Major themes to be considered include images of class, community and nation; gender division and gender identity; ideology and hegemony; social mobility and alienation; affluence and class-consciousness.
Films studied will be chosen from the following: Sing As We Go (Basil Dean, 1934); Advance Democracy (Ralph Bond, 1938); The Stars Look Down (Carol Reed, 1939); Spare Time/Fires were Started (Humphrey Jennings, 1939/1942); Turned Out Nice Again (Marcel Varnel, 1941); In Which We Serve (Noel Coward/David Lean, 1942); The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss, 1945); Hue and Cry (Charles Crichton, 1947); Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949); Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959); I'm Alright Jack (John Boulting, 1959); Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960); A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961); A Kind of Loving (John Schlesinger, 1962); This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963).
No information available.
No information available.
General Reading List:
Robert Murphy (ed.), The British Cinema Book< (2009).
Two-hour screening, one-hour lecture and one-hour seminar per week.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Exam |
Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 180 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 180 minutes during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Peter Gurney, email: pjgurney@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Peter Gurney
Belinda Waterman, Department of History, 01206 872313
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Miriam Dobson
University of Sheffield
Reader
Dr Ingeborg Dornan
Brunel University London
Reader in History
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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