| Unit name | Cinema and Revolution |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MODL20020 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Sutton-Mattocks |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Modern Languages |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Cinema emerged at a time of intense political upheaval. It was greeted excitedly for its artistic and technological innovation, but also for its potential to provide a new visual language capable of overcoming linguistic barriers. From its inception, film documented and encouraged change. Shifts in perceptions of what ‘cinema’ was and could achieve were just as radical as parallel political revolutions.
This unit gives you the chance to examine different types of revolution (e.g., technological, political, social and cultural) on film from a range of SML language areas and cultural and historical contexts. This breadth equips you to engage critically with works in unfamiliar cultures and periods, and to answer such questions as: Which films contribute to understandings of revolutions and why they happen? How can sound and image adequately or significantly represent revolution/s? How have ideas of revolution stimulated film culture, including political receptions, criticism, festivals or marketing?
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
For languages and/or Comparative Literatures and Cultures students, this unit builds on Y1 work in visual culture and the study of societal change. Being both multilingual and inherently comparative, the unit will help to develop the intercultural skills that are central to both disciplines.
More broadly, the unit will interest anyone with curiosity about film as a medium and/or revolution as a concept. The nuanced approach to both will equip you well for final-year study across a range of disciplines. Class discussion and the assignments will help develop your skills as written and spoken communicators, including for non-academic audiences.
Overview of Content
Revolutions come in all shapes and sizes. Some happen quietly, their implications only emerging gradually; others arrive with a bang, sometimes (though certainly not always) literally. On this unit, we will interrogate the concept of revolution through the study of films from a range of different linguistic, cultural and historical contexts. We will consider revolutions within the cinematic medium itself (such as technological or digital revolutions) and explore the ways in which cinema has both reflected and driven social and cultural revolutions; such revolutions reshape and restructure societies, including by reorienting ways in which people think and see the world.
Each week, we will engage with films that illustrate these questions from across the SML language areas and beyond. You will encounter films directed by widely known names in film history, as well as by those who may be less familiar to you. Directors studied may include Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Nelson, Federico Fellini, Věra Chytilová, Helena Třeštíková, Marjane Satrapi and Pablo Larraín. Over the course of the unit, you will also develop familiarity with key cinematic innovations, styles and movements such as montage cinema, surrealism, socialist realism, New Wave cinema, neorealism, documentary, animated film and social realism.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
Over the course of this unit, you will build up a detailed, nuanced understanding of the concept of revolution and the ways in which revolutions have been conceptualised in historical, cultural, political and linguistic contexts that may be very different from your own, but which nevertheless share fundamental preoccupations that have relevance for our here and now. The assignments will give you the opportunity to apply your developing knowledge creatively and to communicate it to audiences beyond the academic world. Because this is a School-wide unit, you will make connections and have the chance to work collaboratively with peers from other departments. The resulting breadth of understanding will contribute to your intercultural understanding and development as students of languages and cultures.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Identify different periods, genres, and theoretical concepts and discuss them in relation to ‘cinema and revolution’ in their different guises.
2. Develop analytical and creative skills appropriate to the study level and the ability to compare and form interpretations of different types of revolution across different historical periods.
3. Critically evaluate scholarship in the field of study and articulate a critical position in written and audiovisual formats by producing material as appropriate to level I.
4. Carry out independent research appropriate to this level of study.
The unit will be taught through a mixture of lecture-workshops and seminars. Emphasis will be placed on discussion and collaboration, with peer feedback built into the structure of the unit. The assignments provide the opportunity for you to select and view films that go beyond those taught on the unit but which engage with its themes. As such, you will be able to expand your understanding of the topic, tailor your study of it to your own particular interests and share your findings with your peers. The unit is therefore research-led, not just by your tutors’ research, but by your own.
Assessment
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Collaborative presentation, 10 minutes (25%) [ILOs 2-4]
Individual written portfolio, 3,000 words (75%) [ILOs 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MODL20020).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
