Course Catalogue

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This course provides an overview of historical and theoretical approaches to queer film and television, examining issues related to representation and visibility, as well as how queer media structure looking relations, time, and aesthetic form. This course will explore how queerness can be understood not just as a narrative element, but as a vessel for understanding media spectatorship, the construction of community, and onscreen eroticism. In this course, we will use queer theory, media theory, and historiographical methods to illustrate several iterations of queer moving image cultures, from the era of silent cinema to the present.

10 x 1hr lecture

10 x 1hr seminar

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Film and Television Studies and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

None

None

First Essay (1500 words): 40%

Second Essay (2000 words): 50%

Weekly Questions: 10%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ Examine the changing constructions of gender and sexuality in film and television, taking into account particular historical and cultural contexts.

■ Investigate the relationships between film and television and wider debates around queer theory and sexual politics.

■ Study a range of issues and debates surrounding representation, gender and sexuality in film and television.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Understand the major debates, methodologies and shifts in queer theory and criticism within the context of film and television studies.

■ Develop a critical awareness of the theoretical approaches to gender and sexual representation.

■ Analyse the ways in which identities are aesthetically, politically and culturally constructed in film and television, and evaluate the forms of power and oppression inherent within these constructions.- 

■ Recognise the political and critical stakes involved in studying film and television through a queer lens.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.