Focusing on a timeframe from the early to late 20th century, this module explores how the rapidly emerging media and technologies of popular culture engaged with the complex conditions of the modern era. The module will focus on key media texts and forms of this time (primarily cinema and television) which allow insight into a crucial period of social and cultural change, from the era early cinema to the dawn of the space age. Providing a broad survey of key processes of modernity, students will be introduced to relevant cultural and social theories in order to critically examine the inherent tensions and contradictions of the late modern era. Lectures will include screenings and applied case studies and students will employ both film analysis skills and a range of theoretical and critical ideas in order to conduct detailed and applied analyses of media texts and forms. In conclusion, the module outlines and critically examines the legacy of the modern in the media of early to late 20th century, examining the relevance and impacts of these debates for contemporary society and screen cultures.
• Themes and discourses of modernity relating to industrialisation, urbanisation, technological change, mobility, trauma and identity.
• The role of the arts: film form and intellectual montage. Key text: Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925).
• Charlie Chaplin: slapstick and the embodiment of modernity; using Marx in film analysis. Key text: Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936).
• The trauma of war: representing the ineffable and the philosophical approach of existentialism. Screening: Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955).
• The challenge of Television: the ‘glance’ versus the ‘gaze; positioning post-war ideals and television histories (Thatcher, Vietnam and Northern Ireland).
• Nuclear narratives: man and machine. Excerpts from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964).
• Modernity and Nation: Ireland and outside influences. Excerpts from The Rocky Road to Dublin (Peter Lennon, 1967) amongst others.
• The individual subject in cinematic modernity: from The Tramp to Travis Bickle. Excerpts from Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).
A range of the following will be covered:
Themes and discourses of modernity relating to industrialisation, urbanisation, technological change, mobility, trauma and identity.• The role of the arts: film form and intellectual montage. Key text: Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925).• Charlie Chaplin: slapstick and the embodiment of modernity; using Marx in film analysis. Key text: Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936).• The trauma of war: representing the ineffable and the philosophical approach of existentialism. Screening: Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955).• The challenge of Television: the ‘glance’ versus the ‘gaze; positioning post-war ideals and television histories (Thatcher, Vietnam and Northern Ireland).• Nuclear narratives: man and machine. Excerpts from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964).• Modernity and Nation: Ireland and outside influences. Excerpts from The Rocky Road to Dublin (Peter Lennon, 1967) amongst others.• The individual subject in cinematic modernity: from The Tramp to Travis Bickle. Excerpts from Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).
Teaching methods include lectures, screenings, key clips and detailed references to key readings. Students are expected to attend and engage meaningfully in lectures. Students will be expected to work independently on an individual case study project but will be given an opportunity to deliver a research proposal for their individual project in a class based seminar which is an opportunity to deliver an idea to their peers, listen to each other’s contributions, offer constructive criticism, and incorporate suggestions/comments as appropriate to their proposal. Students are expected to engage in self-directed learning including reading and assessment preparation. In addition to guided reading, students are expected to read and to use variety of sources (primary and secondary) and to raise issues, questions during classtime.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |