ATS2964 Screen theories

This unit considers the key theories and debates that have shaped screen studies across the 20th and 21st centuries. It enables students to view and understand a variety of screen texts and practices using critical approaches drawn from areas such as: textual analysis, feminist theory, montage theory, structuralism and semiotics, reception studies, queer theory, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, postcolonialism and digital media theories. Particular attention will be paid to how these different theories have, over time, drawn out the capacity of screen texts to shape identity politics around issues of gender, race and sexuality. As a unit that gives students the skills to read and understand critical writing, emphasis will be placed on discussing and analysing written arguments as much as screenings.