Media and film studies

British Cinema B

Module code: P3044B
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture, Film
Assessment modes: Coursework

The module begins by examining critical approaches to a history of British cinema and the dominant ways this cinema and its characteristics have been understood. We then examine British cinema from the 1920s to the contemporary era beginning with the factors which shaped it, in particular the debates about the social and cultural importance of a specific British cinema against the background of the massive influence of Hollywood, and the representations of ‘Britishness’ this produced. The later weeks of the module examine in more detail British cinema’s attempts to deal with the various forms of ‘otherness’, which it has sought both to define and to contain in the changing cultural and political climate of the post-war years and with the different ‘British cinemas’ this produced.

Module learning outcomes

• Critical understanding of British cinema's production of representations of Britishness/Englishness, and its constitution of 'otherness', (eg: representations of gender, 'race', class and community)
• Understanding of the changing political and cultural context in which such representations have been produced
• Ability to critically analyse specific film texts in the light of these understandings