Høst 2021

HIF-3107 East/West On Film - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for språk og kultur

Type of course

The course may be taken as a single course.

Course contents

As a form of art with wide mass appeal, feature films have traditionally been engaged as an ideological tool in implicit or explicit forms of propaganda. Films have been instrumental in reflecting (upon) both the Great War and the birth of the first Communist state, and participated actively in the subsequent polarisation between, firstly, the Axis powers and the Allies, and later, the NATO and the Warsaw Pact (not to speak of the present-day War on Terror). "West" (at some point including Turkey and Japan) and "East" (at one stage including a significant part of Germany) became conceptually overloaded geopolitical misnomers and rallying cries in what has been portrayed as a battleground between good and evil. Mutual stereotypes (created, fed and reinforced by cinema) have proved stronger than short-term political and ideological alliances, and remain relevant to this day. The course will examine how and why certain stereotypes have been expressed, and in some cases altered, through film and other media, on either side of the ideological divide. The course will assume both that the past has shaped the present, but also that contemporary events shape and reshape current medial representations and institutions of both society and politics. This interdisciplinary course builds upon theoretical and methodological frameworks that allow for an analysis of the various interconnections between visual culture (in particular film) and politics. It will provide students with advanced analytical and theoretical tools not limited to film theory, but also utilizing cultural analysis, memory studies, mobility studies, adaptation theory, and discourse theory. This way the studies of some of the classics of past and contemporary cinema are productively combined with an introduction and application to the latest advances in cultural research. The course is relevant as an elective for a variety of MA-programmes at the HSL-Faculty and suitable for international exchange students.

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the spring semester and 1 December for the autumn semester. Applicants from outside the Nordic countries: 1 October for the spring semester and 15 April for the autumn semester.

Admission requirements

Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, or an equivalent qualification, with a minimum of 80 ECTS within social sciences, humanities. An average grade equivalent to C or better in the Norwegian grading system is required.

Application code: 9371(Nordic applicants)

Objective of the course

Students who have taken this course will have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge of typical (filmic and medial) representations in and of East and West and their interrelations in the 20th century.
Improved understanding of key strains in contemporary film and cultural theory
Understanding of the various interactions between cultural expressions, politics, and society Critical understanding of adaptation processes between (graphic) novels and films, films and computer games, Improved knowledge of cultural analysis as an interdisciplinary method for the analysis of contemporary society and cultural expressions of political power and ideology

Skills

Ability to analyse and contextualise films and other cultural expressions through a combination of contemporary theories and methods
Ability to assess and explain complex socio-cultural processes and their effects on individual and collective identity formations
Ability to explain and critically employ key concepts in contemporary cultural analysis and film studies
Ability to critically select and productively employ a set of analytical and conceptual tools for analysis
Ability to explain key processes of narrative adaptation across medial boundaries.

Language of instruction

English.

Teaching methods

Hours lecture/week over 12 weeks and a series of film seminars. All courses undergo a halfway evaluation once in a 2-year period at the master's level.

The Programme Board determines which programme options will be evaluated per year, and which courses will be evaluated by the students and the teacher per year.

Assessment

Work requirements: The course has 2 work requirements.

Outline of student-projects (1-2 pages including annotated bibliography)
Oral project presentation (approx. 5 minutes) + Q and A

Both work requirements must be connected to student-essay projects (final exam). Students can only pass this course after the work requirements have been accepted.

Exam: Project paper based on work requirements about a subject selected by students. Projects must employ a variety of course readings. Approx. 15 standard pages (one page is equivalent to 2300 characters without spaces, 1.5 line spacing, font size 12) Project papers will be evaluated A-F. If a student fails the course he/she will be given the possibility to take a re-sit examination. The deadline for registration to the re-sit examination is 15. January in the fall semester and August 15. in the spring semester.