Romantic Comedy FTV4121

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Culture and Creative Arts
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course explores the global evolution of the romantic comedy in relation to genre and medium conventions. It investigates questions around popular culture, hierarchies of taste, gendered representation, star power, and aesthetics. The course will introduce students to the key theoretical and critical debates associated with the form, with particular attention to the status of the genre as it falls in and out of fashion.

Timetable

Lecture - 10 x 1 hour over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus
Seminar - 10 x 1 hour over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus

Requirements of Entry

None

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

1 x Group Presentation 10 minutes in length - 20%

1 x Annotated Bibliography 1,000 words - 30%

1 x Final essay 2,500 words - 50%

Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable for Honours courses

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. 

Course Aims

This course aims to:

 

■ Introduce students to the themes, conventions, and aesthetics that define the genre of romantic comedy in film and television across different cultural contexts

■ Connect key developments in the genre to shifts in culture through analysis of audiences, fan practices, and popular criticism.

■ Develop students' ability to critically analyse notions of romance and comedy in relation to questions of representation, gender and sexuality, politics, and industrial motivations.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

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

 

■ Demonstrate understanding of key debates around romantic comedy with particular attention to popular feminisms, hierarchies of taste, and gendered spectatorship.

■ Confidently organise, manage, and present independent research related to course themes and recognise intersections between film and television studies and romance studies

■ Critically analyse the aesthetic and affective dimensions of romantic comedy as a genre

■ Articulate the key similarities and differences between texts from a range of cultural contexts, assessing their approaches to relationships onscreen

 

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

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