LT206-5-FY-CO:
Narrative and Film
2023/24
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
14 February 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
"How do films tell their stories? What types of narratives and modes of storytelling belong to different genres? How have filmmakers used novels, short stories, poetry, comics, and video games to create new stories for cinema? And how has transmedia storytelling changed our experience of storyworlds?
In the Autumn Term we explore different modes of storytelling in cinema. We consider key films from the canon of classic realist Hollywood, modernist and postmodernist cinema and examine the ways in which different filmic narrative traditions create meaning and transform showing into telling. We also turn our attention to the various genre classification systems that group films according to type. We study the history of individual genres such as Gothic, Film Noir, Science Fiction, and the Road Movie and identify their recurring patterns, styles, and iconographies, and investigate whether and how the Superhero genre promotes new forms of serialized narrative.
In the Spring Term we explore how filmmakers have recycled, updated, and given new life to canonical and popular literatures, and movie originals. We study different types of adaptation, such as free adaptation and intermedial borrowing, and we analyse what is involved in the transposition of stories from one medium into another. We also explore the differences between remakes and reboots, and the differences between adaptations which retell the ""same"" story again (and again) and transmedia storytelling which arguably invents prequels, sequels and spin-offs out of a desire of never wanting a particular story to end, thus satisfying our modern ""novelistic"" taste for seriality.
In this module we draw on a wide range of works from movie classics such Apocalypse Now (1979), based on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, to the transmedia franchise Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Module content note: some films may include sexual violence.
Please contact the module supervisor if you have any questions.
The learning aims of the module are to:
• introduce different formal, aesthetic, and generic modes of storytelling in cinema
• develop an understanding of how narratives are retold, updated and recycled across different genres, art forms, and media
• gain an overview of different types of serial storytelling, including adaptations, remakes, reboots, prequels, sequels, and transmedia
• familiarize students with key concepts in film analysis, genre theory, and adaptation studies
On completing this module students should be able to
• communicate knowledge and understanding of the different formal, aesthetic, and generic modes of storytelling in cinema
• undertake comparative analyses and demonstrate an understanding of the aesthetic relations between verbal and visual media
• demonstrate critical awareness of key issues and concepts pertaining to cross-media adaptations and serial storytelling
• apply, and reflect on, film-, genre-, and adaptation theory
FILMS
• Alice in the Cities, dir. Wim Wenders (1974)
• Alien, dir. Ridley Scott (1979)
• Apocalypse Now, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
• Avengers: Endgame, dir. Anthony and Joe Russo (2019)
• Batman Begins, dir. Christopher Nolan (2005)
• Blade Runner 2049, dir. Denis Villeneuve (2017)
• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, dir. Rouben Mamoulian (1931)
• Hugo, dir. Martin Scorsese (2007)
• Masculin Féminin, dir. Jean-Luc Godard (1966)
• Nosferatu, dir. F. W. Murnau (1922)
• Rear Window, dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman (2018)
• Strange Days, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (1995)
• Timecode, dir. Mike Figgis (2000)
• The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks (1946)
• The Fly, dir. David Cronenberg (1986)
Anticipated teaching delivery: Weekly 2-hour lectorial
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Hitchcock, A. (1954) ‘Rear Window.’ London: Universal Pictures (UK) Limited. Available at:
https://essexuk.kanopy.com/node/51173.
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Mulvey, L. (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’,
Screen, 16(3), pp. 6–18. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6.
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Mulvey, L. (2009) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, in
Feminisms redux: an anthology of literary theory and criticism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 432–442. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/reader.action?docID=3032152&ppg=454.
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Kuhn, A. (2007) ‘Classic Hollywood Narrative’, in
The Cinema Book. 3rd ed. London: BFI, pp. 39–40. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781838710484.0009.
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R. Barton Palmer (1986) ‘The Metafictional Hitchcock: The Experience of Viewing and the Viewing of Experience in “Rear Window” and “Psycho”’,
Cinema Journal, 25(2), pp. 4–19. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1225456?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
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‘Masculin féminin | Kanopy’ (no date). Available at:
https://www.kanopy.com/en/essexuk/video/11814121.
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Wollen, P. (1976) ‘Godard and Counter-Cinema: Vent d’est’, in Movies and methods: an anthology. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 500–508.
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Gledhill, C. (1973) ‘Notes for a Summer School: Godard, Criticism and Education’,
Screen, 14(3), pp. 67–74. Available at:
https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/14/3/67/1624852?login=true.
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Friedberg, A. (2009) The virtual window: from Alberti to Microsoft. Cambridge: MIT.
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‘Steel in the gaze: on POV and the discourse of vision in Kathryn Bigelow’s cinema - Laura Rascaroli’ (no date). Available at:
https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/38/3/232/1639837.
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‘Strange Days and the Subject of Mobility - Brian Carr’ (2002)
Camera Obscura, 17(2), pp. 190–217. Available at:
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/camera_obscura/v017/17.2carr.html.
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Thomas, E.A. (no date) ‘“Camera Grammar: First-Person Point of View and the Divided ”I’ in Rouben Mamoulian's 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2015.1052618.
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 |
Coursework |
Essay 1 (2,500 words) |
18/12/2023 |
47.5% |
Coursework |
Essay 2 (2,500 words) |
05/04/2024 |
47.5% |
Practical |
Participation mark |
|
5% |
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 Karin Littau, email: klittau@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Karin Littau
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk.
Telephone 01206 872626
Yes
No
No
Dr Andrew Birtwistle
Canterbury Christ Church University
Reader in Film and Sound
Available via Moodle
Of 55 hours, 53 (96.4%) hours available to students:
2 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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