ATS2964 Representation and resistance in film and television: key ideas

Film and television are powerful systems of representation. The images we see on screen shape how we understand the world and create meaningful social dynamics. Looking at a range of films and television series from around the world, this unit explores key ideas in screen studies that will give students the tools to decipher these social and cultural effects. The unit considers vital thinkers and theoretical traditions that have shaped the study of film and television in the 20th and 21st centuries, conveying how each have interpreted the power of different styles of filmmaking to both represent and resist the status quo – from blockbuster to art and ‘indie’ cinema, long-form television to web series. With particular attention to how film and television can shape understandings of class, race, gender and sexuality, approaches for consideration may include: textual analysis, ideological analysis, feminist theory, critical race theory, montage theory, psychoanalysis, structuralism and poststructuralism, reception studies, queer theory, affect studies and digital media theories.