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| Unit name |
The Film Musical |
| Unit code |
MUSI20144 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
I/5
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Heldt |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
Department of Music |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
The unit will be taught by members of staff of the Departments of Music and Drama, as a combination of lecture and seminar elements: Five 2-hour lectures (50:50 by Music and Drama lecturers) for the entire cohort of students, and five 2-hour seminar sessions for which the students will split up along departmental lines and be taught by members of staff (or research students) from their own department, so that concerns particularly relevant to the two disciplines can be pursued in greater depth. The general aim of the unit is to familiarise students with a range of scholarly approaches to the film musical from different disciplinary perspectives, but also to allow them, in the seminar component of the unit, to develop their understanding of the genre with regard to the particular concerns of their own field of study. More specifically,
aims of the unit are:
- to give students an overview of key developments and features of and academic approaches to a key genre of film history;
- to enable students to engage perceptively and professionally in the textual analysis of the generic form of film musicals, paying particular attention to the relationship between image and music;
- to develop the students’ ability to assemble and assimilate information from a wide variety of sources, especially with regard to different disciplinary perspectives;
- to engage students in the critical evaluation of analytical and critical writings on film musicals;
- to develop the students’ ability to make effective and detailed arguments, both aurally and in writing;
- to enable students to display competence in the practices, processes, techniques and methodologies that underpin academic practice in musicology and cinema/screen studies.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Successful completion of this unit will
- provide a framework against which students can explore and gain deeper understanding of film musicals from different disciplinary perspectives;
- enable students to describe with confidence the filmic and musical techniques and procedures employed in the film genre discussed;
- give students a clear and detailed understanding of the historical contexts in which this genre developed;
- enable students to assess how political, economic and social situations have influenced various approaches to creating film musicals;
- encourage students to write critically and perceptively about film musicals, using appropriate language and terminology;
- defend and critique arguments orally and in writing.
And additionally (specific to Level H) to:
- incorporate a consistently strong grasp of detail with respect to content;
- argue effectively and at length (including an ability to cope with complexities and to describe and deploy these effectively);
- display to a high level skills in selecting, applying, interpreting and organising information, including evidence of a high level of bibliographical control;
- describe, evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking;
- discriminate between different kinds of information, processes, interpretations;
- take a critical stance towards scholarly processes involved in arriving at historical knowledge and/or relevant secondary literature;
- engage with relevant theoretical, philosophical or social constructs for understanding relevant films or traditions;
- demonstrate an understanding of concepts and an ability to conceptualise;
- situate material within relevant contexts (invoking interdisciplinary contexts where appropriate);
- apply strategies laterally (perhaps leading to innovative results).
Teaching Information
5 x 2-hour lectures; 5x 2-hour seminars (up to 25 students)
Assessment Information
Two 3,000-word essays (each 50%)
Reading and References
- Rick Altman: The American Film Musical. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1987.
- Steven Cohan (ed.): The Sound of Musicals. London: Palgrave Macmillan/BFI, 2010.
- Jane Feuer: The Hollywood Musical. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 21993.
- Rajinder Kumar Dudrah: Bollywood. Sociology Goes to the Movies. New Delhi: Sage, 2006.
- Marcia Landy, British Genres: Cinema and Society, 1930-60. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
- Bill Marshall/Robynn Stilwell (eds.): Musicals. Hollywood and Beyond. Exeter: Intellect, 2000.
