Traces key critical approaches to film and television audiences. Starting with an exploration of 'apparatus theory' and understandings of the cinema-goer as 'spectator', classes then examine challenges to these models, and the emergence of scholarship around 'social' audiences and historically-contingent viewing practices. Questions of identity and representation provide focus throughout.

Lectures: Thursday 14:00-15:00, Friday 10:00-11:00

Screenings: Thursday 16:00 at the Gillmorhill Cinema

Seminars: Friday 11:00-12:00, 12:00-13:00 (x2) 13:00-14:00, 14:00-15:00

Over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus

None

None

Essay 1 (1500 words) - 40%

Essay 2 (2500 words) - 60%

Seminar Contribution - 10%

This course aims to:

■ Consider the conceptualization of screen experiences in the field of Film and Television Studies

■ Introduce the various theoretical models which account for screen experiences (from those of individual spectators to collective audiences)

■ Develop student skills in the analyses of film and television texts in context (social, political, historical, industrial, etc.)

■ Encourage critical and reflexive discussion of scholarship associated with the study of film and television, inclusive of a range of creative and critical practices

■ Provide students with a shared foundation in the theory and criticism of film and television, emphasising in particular how identity informs screen experience and vice versa 

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

■ Demonstrate understanding of the key theoretical discourses that have sought to describe screen-based experiences and of their relationship to the historical context in which they were developed

■ Apply such theories to the analysis of screen experiences

■ Evaluate the usefulness of such theories in accounting for historical and contemporary screen experiences 

■ Analyse the role that social identities play in the engagement with film and television texts, examining how this informs screen experiences

■ Write clearly and confidently about film and television theory, offering well-structured arguments in professionally produced essays, using recognised and consistent forms of footnoting and reference

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