230267 British Cinema: Genres, Directors, Debates (S) (SoSe 2024)

The concept of ‘national cinema’ has been much debated in film, media and cultural studies. Indeed, British film styles and themes have never been homogeneous but have contributed in different ways to what scholarship classifies as ‘British cinema’. Celebrating on-screen diversity, with special focus on social class and region, the seminar explores a range of realist films. Short films such as John Smith's "The Girl Chewing Gum" (1976), Stephen Daldry’s “Eight” (1998) and Andrea Arnold’s Oscar-winning “Wasp” (2003) shall be subject to our discussion before we move on to feature films like Gosford Park (dir. Robert Altman, 2001), a whodunit that takes issue with the British class system in the 1930s, and the social realist drama Sorry We Missed You (dir. Ken Loach, 2019).
The seminar is designed to further students’ skills of film analysis, which is why we will engage in close readings and pay close attention to mise-en-scène, shot, editing, sound, etc.

Please note:
The seminar is linked to Prof. Dr. Anne Schröder’s class on “Language Diversity in British Film”. The two courses are designed to complement each other which is why we strongly recommend participation in both classes.

Requirements for participation, required level

Students should be well-acquainted with the basics of literary studies; they should be able to analyse and interpret Anglophone literary texts by drawing on the genre-specific analytical categories. This knowledge and expertise is usually acquired through the successful completion of Basic Module 2.

Students enrolled in FsB 2022: successful completion of Basic Module 1 (LPT)