module specification

 This module considers issues of reception and interpretation within the field of film studies from both a historical and theoretical perspective. Using a variety of case-studies, the module explores the historical and theoretical issues that inform and structure film reception and interpretation, the interaction between text and context and the formation of film canons.

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 This module considers issues of reception and interpretation within the field of film studies from both a historical and theoretical perspective. Using a variety of case-studies, the module explores the historical and theoretical issues that inform and structure film reception and interpretation, the interaction between text and context and the formation of film canons. LO1-3

Case studies might include cinephilia and film history, canons and canonicity, cult films and counter-canons, stars and reception, censorship and controversy, camp, film festivals, fandom and audiences, new technologies and new cinephilia.  LO1-3

Learning and teaching on this module will be conducted via lectures, seminars, screenings, workshops, blended learning and student’s guided independent study. Students will be expected to enhance their learning in scheduled classes through guided primary and secondary research.
The assessment strategy provides opportunities for personal development as students are able to reflect on and develop their learning and research skills in their portfolio of research and in conjunction with tutor feedback, prepare for their final independent reception case-study.
Opportunities for reflective learning will be facilitated through seminars and workshops. Formative and summative feedback is provided after each coursework, in formal written form on WebLearn after the portfolio of research, by email or in person after an individual appointment.

 On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

LO1: Conceive, plan and undertake a piece of written work or research and planning.
LO2: Critically evaluate arguments and assumptions which underpin film reception and interpretation through independent research on one category of reception.
LO3: Apply the theoretical and historical issues and methods that they have learning to review by carrying out a piece of independent reception case-study.

 This module’s mode of assessment promotes independent learning and research skills. Building on the portfolio of research and planning and the formal feedback they receive, students will have the opportunity to focus in-depth on a topic and to demonstrate their understanding of a range of issues around film, reception and interpretation in their final assignment.

 Identify core and additional reading

Liaise with Library Services to confirm availability of on-line licenses in academic year

Where possible, the most current version of reading materials is used during the delivery of this module.  Comprehensive reading lists are provided to students in their handbooks.  Reading Lists will be updated annually.

Core Texts:
Janet Staiger, Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
Janet Staiger, Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception (New York: New York University Press, 2000).
Janet Staiger. Media Reception Studies (New York: New York University Press, 2005).

Other Texts:

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1984). 
Marina De Valck and Malte Haneger (eds.), Cinephilia: Movies, Love and Memory (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005).
Mark Jancovich [et al], Defining Cult Movies: the Politics of Oppositional Taste (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003).
Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton, Cult Cinema (Chicester: Wyley-Blackwell, 2011).
Leila Wimmer, Cross-Channel Perspectives: The French Reception of British Cinema (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2009).

Journals:
Cineaste
Cinema Journal
Film Comment
Film Quarterly
Screen
Sight and Sound