BA Film and American Studies (TW76)

Course Code UNU1TW76401
Duration 4 Years
Attendance Full Time
Award Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Overview
Why Choose Us
Study Abroad
Requirements
Course Profile
Fees and Funding
Apply

Overview

The 2012 Complete University Guide ranks UEA second in the country for Media and Communications Studies. Read More…

People watching a cinema screen as viewed from behind.
Film and American Studies is an interdisciplinary degree course, involving film studies, television studies, American literature, American history, and cultural studies. While there are certain fixed points during the course, and certain minimum requirements, there is also a great deal of flexibility allowing students to create their own pathways, in consultation with their academic adviser. Thus, for instance, if you have a particular interest in American cinema, literature or history, popular culture, gender studies, or questions of representation in literature and film, you may want to do more modules in these areas - and this list by no means exhausts the possibilities! You may also decide to weight your degree more heavily in favour of either American Studies or Film Studies. Note also that there are some modules on European cinema and television and on the Press.

Our Film Studies courses make full use of the University’s projection facilities, with a screening programme that gives students the opportunity to see rare and high-quality archival film prints. The presence in Norwich of the East Anglian Film Archive is another important asset. UEA also has well-respected student media, providing opportunities to develop your skills outside the formal programme.

Some recent and upcoming film and television modules include: Television Documentary; Television Sitcom; Film Noir; Action Cinema; Canadian and Québécois Cinema; Screenwriters and Adaptation; English Heritage, English Cinema; British Cinema in the 1950s and 1960s; Contemporary British Cinema; Hitchcock; John Ford and the Western; Spielberg, Lucas and Contemporary Hollywood; Gender, Genre and Contemporary Cinema.

Outline of the degree

The course begins with six modules which provide a foundation in Film Studies and American Studies. These include Imagining America, American History: The Making of a Nation, Key Issues in Film Studies – a lecture/seminar module introducing a range of topics central to the study of film, - Film History: Cinema to 1930, Film History: Classical Cinema 1930 to 1960, and one other American Studies module.

In Years 2 and 4, study of the two main disciplines continues. On the Film Studies side the programme includes a lecture series covering the ‘post-classical’ period from 1960 to the present and three further modules chosen from director-based modules, genre-based modules, issue-based modules, and practical modules. In your final year you may choose to undertake a dissertation on a film or television topic which is independently researched and written under appropriate supervision.

On the American Studies side, over Years 2 and 4, you must select at least four other American Literature, American History or American Studies modules from the wide range offered.

In your final year you will also take an interdisciplinary module which draws together the work you will have done in both American Studies and Film Studies. This module is currently American Film, Literature and Society in the 1980s and 1990s, but the topic may change in future years.

Additionally, you have three Free Choice modules at your disposal (two in Year 2 and one in Year 4), you can use these to take further modules in Film or American Studies or to explore unfamiliar subjects. You might turn to other, related Humanities subjects (art history, drama, philosophy, creative writing). But, equally, you may turn in a completely different direction. Free Choice modules give you access to modules offered right across the University, subject to entry requirements.

Assessment

Key skills, issues and ideas are introduced in lectures given by all members of faculty. More specialist study is undertaken in small group seminars. These are chosen from a range offered within the School and across the University. You will also spend time studying and researching in the library or carrying out practical work or projects. In most subject areas, you are assessed at the end of each year on the basis of coursework and, in some cases, project and examination results. In your final year, you will write a dissertation on a topic of your choice and with the advice of tutors. There is no final examination. Your final degree result is determined by the marks you receive in years two and four.

All students joining degrees in the School of Film and Television Studies would find it helpful to read Timothy Corrigan's A Short Guide to Writing about Film, (2010, 7th Edition, New York: Longman) over the summer prior to joining the University of East Anglia.

Course Organiser

Dr Rayna Denison

Course Brochure

View Course Brochure

Related Courses

Why Choose Us?

UEA was one of the first British universities to develop the study of cinema and television.

The Student Experience Survey ranks UEA third in the country - two places higher than last year's result and overtaking both Oxford and Cambridge... Read More >

We have 12 dedicated members of academic staff, with several more colleagues contributing on a part-time basis. More than 40 graduates of the MA and PhD programmes hold teaching posts at universities in the UK and elsewhere. In the most recent quality assessments by the High Education Funding Council, teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level was adjudged excellent (with a score of 23 out of a possible 24) and our research was placed in the top three of UK institutions.

Each year, some 60 undergraduates are registered for one of the Film and Television Studies degrees (BA Media Studies, BA Film and English Studies, BA Film and American Studies and BA Film and Television Studies). Teaching deals mainly with the history and current shape of British and American cinema and television and with film theory and criticism. We also run modules on other world cinemas and on television, video and film production. The BA degrees in Film and English Studies and Film and American Studies are interdisciplinary, with Film or Television Studies taking up between a half and two thirds of the course. The BA in Film and American Studies is a four year course with the third year spent studying at a university in the USA or Australia.

We have hosted a number of very successful events in recent years, including major conferences on British cinema (1988), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002), Post-Feminism and popular culture (2004), Going Cheap: Female Celebrity in the Tabloid, Reality and Scandal Genres (2008), and the Anglia TV and the History of ITV conference (2008).

To find out more about why we think you should choose our degree programmes, please follow the links below:

Why Study in the School

What Our Students Say

Entry Requirements

A Level AAB-ABB
International Baccalaureate 33-32
Scottish Advanced Highers AAB-ABB
Irish Leaving Certificate AAAABB-AABBBB
Access Course Please contact us for further information
HND Please contact us for further information
European Baccalaureate 80-75%

Students for whom English is a foreign language

If English is not your first language you must have a recognised English Language qualification: Minimum IELTS 6.5 with a 6 in each sub-section and 6.5 in writing, or TOEFL 585 (238 CBT / 93 IBT).

Please contact us for more information about other qualifications that we may consider.

Minimum Grade C in UCLES Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)

If you do not meet the academic and or English requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO University of East Anglia offers guaranteed progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree:

International Foundation in Humanities and Law

Interviews

The majority of candidates will not be called for an interview. However, for some students an interview will be requested. These are normally quite informal and generally cover topics such as your current studies, reasons for choosing the course and your personal interests and extra-curricular activities.

Students will have the opportunity to meet with an academic individually on a Visit Day in order to gain a deeper insight into the course(s) you have applied for.

Gap Year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year.

Deferred Entry - We welcome applications for deferred entry, believing that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry and may wish to contact the appropriate Admissions Office directly to discuss this further.

Special Entry Requirements

We normally expect applicant to have at least two Arts and Humanities subjects at A Level.

We do not include General Studies in our offers.

Intakes

The School's annual intake is in September of each year.

Alternative Qualifications

If you have alternative qualifications that have not been mentioned above then please contact the University directly for further information.

GCSE Offer

Students are required have Mathematics and English at Grade C or above at GCSE Level.

Assessment

For the majority of candidates the most important factors in assessing the application will be past and future achievement in examinations, academic interest in the subject being applied for, personal interest and extra-curricular activities and the confidential reference. We consider applicants as individuals and accept students from a very wide range of educational backgrounds and spend time considering your application in order to reach an informed decision relating to your application. Typical offers are indicated above. Please note, there may be additional subject entry requirements specific to individual degree courses.

Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4

Year 1

Compulsory Study (100 credits)

Students will select 100 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Analysing Film and Television The module is designed to provide students with core study skills and techniques and methods of textual analysis. The module will cover the analysis of a range of formal features and frameworks such as narrative, mise-en-scene, camera work, editing and sound used in the analysis of film and television. The study skills covered will include use of the library and internet for research, as well as note taking, essay planning and the conventions of academic writing. In the process the module will cover issues such as referencing and plagiarism. It will be taught by lecture, seminar and screening. more...	FTVF1F09	20	Semester 1
Containing Multitudes: American History I This module offers a survey of American history from the colonial period through the nineteenth century, taking such key events as, eg, the conquest of the continent, the development of American democracy and the traumatic years of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Students in American Studies four-year programmes also take the complementary module Containing Multitudes: American History II, which is taught in the Spring Semester. Students attend a weekly seminar and an associated lecture series. more...	AMSA1F09	20	Semester 1
Reading Cultures Ii: Ideas and Ideologies The module develops and expands the research methods, writing skills, and oral skills acquired in Reading Cultures I: American Icons. By continuing the exploration of contemporary American culture and introducing cultural and critical theory as a means to engage with current ideas and ideologies circulating around American cultural icons, the module will encourage exploration of America's changing position in the world. The module is intended to further facilitate skills in reading, writing, analysis, synthesis, independent thinking, and confidence as self-supporting learners in order to provide a strong foundation for work at levels 2 and 3. more...	AMSA1F18	20	Semester 2
Studies in Film History This module provides an introduction to the narrative history of film from the mid 20th century to the present, as it is commonly understood within Film Studies. The purpose here is not to convince students of the rightness of this history but rather to familiarise them with the key points of reference in the field. The module is also designed to familiarise students with a range of objects and methods within the practice of film history and to use these to encourage students to start asking questions about the construction of the established and accepted narrative of film history. more...	FTVF1F06	20	Semester 2
What Is Film History? This module provides an introduction to the narrative history of film in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as it is commonly understood within Film Studies. The purpose here is not to convince students of the rightness of this history but rather to familiarise them with the key points of reference in the field. The module is also designed to familiarise students with a range of objects and methods within the practice of film history and to use these to encourage students to start asking questions about the construction of the established and accepted narrative of film history. more...	FTVF1F11	20	Semester 1

Option A Study (20 credits)

Students will select 20 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Containing Multitudes: American History II This module continues where Containing Multitudes I leaves off and tracks the historical narrative through from the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century, covering industrialisation and America's emergence as a world power, the Progressive era, the New Deal, the Cold War and its legacy, and the impact of the dramatic changes of the 1960s. Students attend a weekly seminar and an associated lecture series. more...	AMSA1F04	20	Semester 2
Imagining America: Literature II Imagining America: Literature II is a level one module designed to expand upon an introduction to the major writers and themes of literature from the United States. For this module there will be a weekly lecture and seminar. Further information on the timing of the seminar can be found in the published timetable. more...	AMSA1F02	20	Semester 2

Year 2

Compulsory Study (40 credits)

Students will select 40 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Film Theory This module explores aspects of film theory as it has developed over the last hundred years or so. It encompasses topics including responses to cinema by filmmaker theorists such as Sergei Eisenstein; influential formulations of and debates about realism and film aesthetics associated with writers and critics such as Andr?? Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, Rudolf Arnheim and Bela B??l??zs; the impact of structuralism, theories of genre, narrative and models of film language; theories of authorship; feminist film theory and its emphasis on psychoanalysis; intertextuality; theories of race and representation; reception models. The module is taught by lecture, screening and seminar. Students will work with primary texts - both films and theoretical writings - and have the opportunity to explore in their written work the ways in which film theories can be applied to film texts. more...	FTVF2F43	20	Semester 1
Research Training The module is designed to provide students with the key concepts and methods necessary to devise and execute an independent research project whether using traditional academic methods or practice based research. As a result, it will cover the key processes involved in devising and focusing a research project, reflexively undertaking the research itself and writing up one's results. In the process, students will be shown how to position their work in relation to an intellectual context; devise the research questions that are practical and realistic; and developing research methods through which to address these questions. The module will be taught by lecture and seminar. more...	FTVF2F34	20	Semester 2

Option A Study (20 credits)

Students will select 20 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Animation Animation is one of the most popular and least scrutinised areas of popular media culture. This module seeks to introduce students to animation as a mode of production through examinations of different aesthetics and types of animation from stop motion through to cel and CGI-based examples. It then goes on to discuss some of the debates around animation in relation to case study texts. Example debates include: who animation is for (children?), the limits of the term 'animation' in relation to CGI, the industrial frameworks for animation production (art vs commerce) and character vs star debates around animation icons. A range of approaches and methods will therefore be adopted within the module, including political economics, cultural industries, star studies and animation studies itself. The module is taught by seminar and screening. more...	FTVF2F33	20	Semester 1
British Cinema and the Past Literary adaptations, historical epics, war films, spoofs, bio-pics and romantic comedies: British films feature a range of filmmaking styles that deal with and represent 'the past'. This module examines the prominent position that period films have occupied within British film culture of the last century. Their enduring popularity among both filmmakers and audiences raises a range of aesthetic, ideological and practical issues. What techniques and conventions do they use to depict the past? What visions of the British past do they offer? What pleasures do they provide for their audiences? How important are foreign audiences and investment? Do films about the past provide escapist entertainment, or do they enable filmmakers (and audiences) to address contemporary concerns? Investigating films such as 'Zulu', 'A Room with a View', 'Elizabeth', the 'Carry On' series and 'The Queen', the module examines the depiction of the past in British cinema from the 1930s to the present. The module is taught by seminar and screening. more...	FTVF2F18	20	Semester 2
British Cinema Since 1990 The period since 1990 has been one of rapid change in the British film industry and this module explores this changing landscape. It will explore key areas including institution (the role of screen agencies, the BFI and key film making institutions such as Aardman, Working Title and Warp films) and policy as well as looking at areas such as genres, stars and directors. We will consider the interplay between the British film industry and the wider global film industry and will draw on a range of both familiar and less well known texts in order to analyse some of the key developments in British cinema during this time and to consider how recent developments such as the closure of the Film Council might impact upon British cinema culture. more...	FTVF2F51	20	Semester 1
Film and Authorship This module will introduce students to the theory and analysis of authorship within film. In the process, it will introduce students to the key theoretical debates over film authorship before moving on to examine a range of case studies. The module is taught by seminar and is supported by a separate programme of screenings. more...	FTVF2F36	20	Semester 2
Film Genres Film Genres introduces students to the range of theories and methods used to account for the prevalence of genres within filmmaking. The module investigates historical changes in how film genres have been approached in order to consider how genres have been made use of by industry, critics and film audiences. Genre theories are explored through a range of case studies drawn from one or more of a range of popular American film genres that may include the Western, melodrama, romantic comedy, the road movie, the buddy movie, film noir, the gangster film, the war film and action/adventure film. In exploring concepts and case studies relating to film genres the module aims to demonstrate the impact of genres within contemporary culture. more...	FTVF2F71	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Video Production This module will enable students to acquire the essential skills to undertake video production and create coherent video programmes. Practical instruction and familiarisation is supported by workshop sessions focusing upon elements of the relationship between technique and the inscription of mise-en-scene within film. Whilst specific craft skills are recognised there is greater emphasis upon the overall requirements of the production process, including elements of production management, and an understanding of how these components integrate to maximise the communication potential of a production. Learning is structured around the production of an individual portfolio of practical tasks supported by associated research tasks investigating the application of technique to the interpretation and reception of audio-visual texts, and a project executed within small production groups. An individual evaluation of learning during the module is also required. more...	FTVF2P81	20	Semester 1
Introduction to Video Production This module will enable students to acquire the essential skills to undertake video production and create coherent video programmes. Practical instruction and familiarisation is supported by workshop sessions focusing upon elements of the relationship between technique and the inscription of mise-en-scene within film. Whilst specific craft skills are recognised there is greater emphasis upon the overall requirements of the production process, including elements of production management, and an understanding of how these components integrate to maximise the communication potential of a production. Learning is structured around the production of an individual portfolio of practical tasks supported by associated research tasks investigating the application of technique to the interpretation and reception of audio-visual texts, and a project executed within small production groups. An individual evaluation of learning during the module is also required. more...	FTVF2P82	20	Semester 2
Media Internship AVAILABLE ONLY TO STUDENTS ON COURSE(S): U1W610301 and U1P300302. This module is intended to provide students with an opportunity to experience working within a media organisation. The organisation will provide a clear sense of their structure and activities and students will work to a precise job description. The internship will therefore offer students the opportunity to work as individuals within a team and develop skills and experience vital to future career in the media. more...	FTVF2F41	20	Semester 1
Media Internship AVAILABLE ONLY TO STUDENTS ON COURSE(S): U1W610301 and U1P300302. This module is intended to provide students with an opportunity to experience working within a media organisation. The organisation will provide a clear sense of their structure and activities and students will work to a precise job description. The internship will therefore offer students the opportunity to work as individuals within a team and develop skills and experience vital to future career in the media. more...	FTVF2F42	20	Semester 2
Popular Music This module encourages students to explore the ways in which popular music has been understood by scholars in the field of media and cultural studies. The module will examine the debates over popular music industries, texts and audiences, and incorporate an exploration of a range of popular musical forms, including folk music, rock, pop, rap and/or hip-hop, and dance music cultures. It will also examine the relations of popular music to other media, such as television and the internet. more...	FTVF2F52	20	Semester 2
Reception and Audience Studies in Film and Television This module seeks to understand the ways in which audiences engage with film and television. It will introduce students to some of the key research on, and theoretical debates about, audiences and the processes of reception, from work on encoding and decoding, through studies of the social activities of television consumption, to research on marketing, critical reception and exhibition. It will also introduce some of the methodological issues involved in the actual practice of doing audience studies. In this way, the module will not only encourage students to learn about the study of film and television audiences, but also equip them with the tools necessary to undertake their own studies. The module is taught by seminar. more...	FTVF2F29	20	Semester 1
Script Analysis and Story Structure This module investigates the theory and practice of script analysis for film and television. Students will have an opportunity to learn professional approaches to reading and evaluating scripts and source material for production. The module will explore basic dramaturgy and learn a variety of paradigms to describe story structure and character development. Students will learn several approaches to evaluating material, and will have the opportunity to create industry standard story reports. Each week, students will read and analyze scripts and/or books, and then screen films based on the material. Seminars will introduce key concepts and explore the narrative elements in the scripts and final films. In addition, the unit will look at story development as a facet of media practice. The module will draw on a variety of texts. Original scripts will form the backbone of the module, but the reading will also include novels and other forms of source material. This will also include a brief survey of dramaturgy, from the `Poetics' to modern manuals for script analysis. Other readings will examine the area as media practice. Formative work will play an important role in the module. Students will produce written reports virtually every week, which they will peer-correct in small support groups. This provides an opportunity to work in a variety of formats or with different types of material. In addition, it provides much-needed practice, as it takes many repetitions to learn the proper style and produce effective, professional-style work. The instructor will monitor formative work submitted through the Portal/Blackboard. more...	FTVF2F64	20	Semester 2
Television Genre Work on television genre continues to draw on theories developed in relation to film, despite the fact that these theories have been heavily criticised. Not only can this ignore the differences between film and television genres, it can also work to privilege film over television, so that television is often seen as an inferior copy of genres developed elsewhere. The module will therefore explore the theory of genre in relation to television, the historical development of television genres, and the operation of genre in the production, mediation and consumption of television and its programmes. The module will also examine these debates in relation to concrete case studies. The module is taught by seminar and screening. more...	FTVF2F54	20	Semester 2
Television Studio Production AVAILABLE ONLY TO STUDENTS ON COURSE(S): U1G450302, U1QW36301, U1TW76301, U1TW76401, U1W610301, U1WV63301, U1P300302. This module introduces students to television studio production, using the resources of the campus television studio. Once students have learned the basic skills of both live and recorded studio production (including directing, vision and sound mixing, camera-work, lighting, floor management and editing), they work towards the production of a short television programme. They are also required to write a report analysing and evaluating the production process and the finished product. more...	FTVF2P32	20	Semester 2
Television Studio Production AVAILABLE ONLY TO STUDENTS ON COURSE(S): U1G450302, U1QW36301, U1TW76301, U1TW76401, U1W610301, U1WV63301, U1P300302. This module introduces students to television studio production, using the resources of the campus television studio. Once students have learned the basic skills of both live and recorded studio production (including directing, vision and sound mixing, camera-work, lighting, floor management and editing), they work towards the production of a short television programme. They are also required to write a report analysing and evaluating the production process and the finished product. more...	FTVF2P33	20	Semester 1
The Business of Film and Television The module provides an intensive introduction to the business of film and television; including the development, financing, production, distribution and exploitation of films and television programmes. It is based around a detailed understanding of the film and television value chain, showing how different businesses and creative people work together to create and exploit programmes. It will also cover the process by which scripts or TV programme ideas are written and developed. Emphasis will be placed on UK, European and American Independent film models, as well as the US studio model. It includes a wide range of recent case studies and real-life examples, with companies from Pixar to Working Title, and film-makers from Ken Loach to Terry Gilliam. Issues raised will include the impact of new technologies; changing business models; the conflict between commerce and art; entrepreneurship and managing creative people; and the complex and difficult relationships between writers, directors, producers, executives, financiers, and distributors. It is a practical forward-looking course about current and future business practise, which will be a valuable foundation for anyone interested in working in the media, film or television sectors. It will also be valuable to anyone studying film and television programmes and culture, so that they can fully understand the financial and business context in which programmes are created. By the end of the module you will know how films and TV programmes get dreamt up, how they get developed, and how they get financed and distributed. You will learn how the industry actually works. more...	FTVF2F35	20	Semester 1
The Practice of Screenwriting: Issues in Adaptation This module is a practical screenwriting class. Students will explore basic issues in screenwriting and will focus on the problems of creating new screenplays adapted from novels, short stories, articles and other sources. Classroom sessions will compare film adaptations to the original material, introduce concepts of screenwriting and screenplay form, and apply key tools of script analysis. The final project will offer the opportunity to write a short screenplay or the first act of a feature-length script. The module offers essential skills for anyone contemplating a screenwriting career. The module is taught by seminar and screening. more...	FTVF2P20	20	Semester 2
The Practice of Screenwriting: Issues in Adaptation This module is a practical screenwriting class. Students will explore basic issues in screenwriting and will focus on the problems of creating new screenplays adapted from novels, short stories, articles and other sources. Classroom sessions will compare film adaptations to the original material, introduce concepts of screenwriting and screenplay form, and apply key tools of script analysis. The final project will offer the opportunity to write a short screenplay or the first act of a feature-length script. The module offers essential skills for anyone contemplating a screenwriting career. The module is taught by seminar and screening more...	FTVF2P23	20	Semester 1

Option B Study (20 credits)

Students will select 20 credits from the following module(s).

You may pick any of the modules that begin with:

AMSA2

Modern Times: America Between the Wars, 1918-1941 "Modern Times" explores the turbulent years of boom and bust between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II. The work includes consideration of the growth of modern urban mass culture, the impact of the Russian Revolution upon US politics, life during the Great Depression, the significance of the New Deal and American perspectives on the rise of Fascism in Europe. The political and social ideas of the era are a key focus of the work and students will investigate the reactionary politics of the Ku Klux Klan, the radical "Popular Front" of the Communist Party, the populist challenge of "Kingfish" Huey P. Long and, of course, the Democratic Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. more...	AMSA2H38	20	Semester 2
Living On the Hyphen: Cuban America Since the mid nineteenth century Cuban nationals have been exiled in the United States and created a body of literature alerting the reader to the specifically transnational nature of Cuban identity. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the concomitant political, economic and cultural isolation of the island, the case of Cuba and Cuban exiles in the USA has been seen to be an exceptional and singular phenomenon with few commonalities with other ethnic groups in the United States. Moving beyond a nation-based model and utilising a transnational theoretical framework this course looks at contemporary Cuban and Cuban-American literature and film from both on and off the island in order to reconceptualise the relationship between the island and its exiles, analysing the evolution of the Cuban exile life and the ways in which questions of exile, return, family, belonging, identity, language and memory are explored and how they differ from previous generations for a variety of political, historical, sociological and ideological reasons (to be explored). more...	AMSA2L15	20	Semester 1
Contemporary US Foreign Policy and International Affairs The aim of this module is to introduce students to issues in recent American foreign policy for the most part since the end of the Cold War, though with some reference where appropriate to earlier periods and events. We also examine institutional and political processes in policy-making. The module draws on the disciplines of history, political science and international relations to develop historical awareness along with an understanding of the workings of American political institutions in their international context. more...	AMSA2H41	20	Semester 1
American Women Writers of the Twentieth Century This module surveys the prose of some of the twentieth century's most important American women writers, writers who (or whose 'other' works) tend to disappear from reading lists that include books by women only out of duty. Along the way we will seek to interrogate the terms with which we begin: American, women and prose. Assuming that biology does not define literature, we will instead seek to understand the social pressures on these women writers, and their responses to them, in an effort to maintain the specificity, diversity and range of these women's literary pursuits. more...	AMSA2L63	20	Semester 1
Contemporary American Fiction The purpose of this module is to expose students to a range of prose works by important contemporary American writers. In particular, we will be concerned with some of the key concepts associated with contemporary American fiction, including the definition of the contemporary: postmodernism; metafiction; historiography; postcolonialism; and memory. more...	AMSA2L78	20	Semester 2
American Studies Year Abroad A year spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year American Studies programmes. For students on programmes:U1T700401, U1TQ73401, U1TW76401, U1T7W8401, U1V238401, U1V2L2401, U1TW76401. more...	AMSA2Y1Y	120	Year Period
American Studies Semester Abroad: America A semester spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on American Studies 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y03	60	Semester 1
America and Vietnam This module examines the involvement of the United States in Vietnam, from the Second World War to the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. Focusing on the main period of US entanglement, 1963-1973, it uses documents, historical studies, film, and literary texts to illuminate the American experience in Vietnam and its domestic repercussions. more...	AMSA2H01	20	Semester 1
American Music The first book published in the New World was a hymn book. Music, sacred and profane, has been at the centre of American lives ever since. Accordingly, this module will explore the history of American music - but it will also examine the way that its development tells a larger story. Focusing largely on the vernacular musical traditions we will encounter a wide range of musical styles and musicians, each of which has something vital to tell us about the shaping of America. After all, as Plato knew, "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake." more...	AMSA2S45	20	Semester 1
American Studies Semester Abroad: Australia A semester spent at an Australian university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y02	60	Semester 2
Gender and Sexuality in the New Republic This module examines the social construction of gender and sexuality within the United States during the period 1789-1861. It will trace the emerging gendered discourses of the post-revolutionary period, and address their significance to the formation of an American identity during this period. It will also focus upon the ways in which discourses of gender and sexuality interacted with those of race, class and ethnicity. A particular focus will be placed on the competing and contradictory identities that emerged in the northern and southern states, and the course will explore the possible reasons for, and consequences of these differences. more...	AMSA2H06	20	Semester 2
American Masculinities This interdisciplinary module will examine how national identity and white masculinity are entwined in a conflicting discourse of hegemonic and challenging narratives in the US. It will focus on a specific construction of white masculinity as it has become embedded and legitimized as the normative national identity against which all others are subordinated. The module will examine gender discourses that radically challenge this accepted link between masculinity, whiteness and national identity. more...	AMSA2S02	20	Semester 2
Native Americans This seminar will study Native Americans within the broad context of American history, although the cultures of individual tribes will also be examined. Brief attention will be paid to pre-colonial times, but the main emphasis will be on the period after the white man's arrival. more...	AMSA2H15	20	Semester 1
New York City: History and Culture in the 20th Century This module will explore the history and culture of New York City in the 20th century. The readings, lectures, and discussions will concentrate on ethnic identity, the civil rights movement, public art, political and social conflict, urban development, film, architecture, and literature. The course will also examine why New Yorkers pay inordinate attention to their neighbourhoods and how this emphasis on place has racial and ethnic implications. more...	AMSA2H10	20	Semester 2
Adolescence in American Culture Post-1950 This module will suggest that there is a preoccupation with adolescence in postwar and contemporary American culture, and will explore why this is the case. It will do so by introducing students to representations of adolescence in various disciplines, focusing particularly on literature, film, psychoanalysis and cultural studies. Questions to be explored will include: What is 'American' about adolescence? How do representations of adolescence vary according to factors such as gender, race and region? Is there a particular discipline or artistic form which is especially suited to depictions of adolescence? more...	AMSA2S53	20	Semester 1
19th Century American Writing This module aims to build on and develop your knowledge of the range of American literature in the nineteenth century. We will consider the rise of a distinctly American literary tradition in modes like realism, the gothic, romanticism, naturalism and the detective story, looking to make new connections both among writers and between literature and such larger issues as slavery, economics and feminism. more...	AMSA2L59	20	Semester 1
The Cold War and American Culture This module explores the way in which American society and culture was shaped during the years of the Cold War, the tense standoff between the two 'superpowers' between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The work includes consideration of the key events, issues, and concepts in the history of the Cold War, from the division of Europe and the Marshall Plan, the emergence of the Truman Doctrine, the impact of the Chinese Revolution, through the Cuban missile crisis, the period of detente in the 1970s and the chilling of US-Soviet relations during the 'second Cold War' of the early 1980s. Particular attention is given to the impact of those events in the USA, upon the ways in which Cold War anxieties were represented ' and, also, the ways in which anxieties about American society became meshed in the Cold War. Discussion will range across issues from the bomb and the space race to the family, gender, and race. Throughout, particular use will be made of visual sources and film. more...	AMSA2H44	20	Semester 2
Radical Cousins Or Rival Siblings? U.s. and Australian Literatures. This module takes as its point of departure critic Joseph Jones' representation of America and Australia as 'radical cousins' and extends this formulation to ask whether they might equally be thought of as rival siblings. From its establishment as a penal colony in 1788'in large part as a result of the newly independent United States' refusal to harbour Britain's convicts any longer'Australia remained loyal to the Empire, even as it looked increasingly to the United States for guidance in matters of politics and popular culture. The module compares American and Australian literature from the past century or so in order to examine how both countries have engaged and explored shared questions about settler and post/ colonial identity; the staging of cultural independence from Great Britain; the size and scope of the natural environment; and gender performance, among others. more...	AMSA2L18	20	Semester 2
Race and Racism in the USA This seminar will explore the origins and continued role in American culture of the idea of race. Where did the concept of race come from? And to what uses has it been put by various groups within America's pluralistic society? Restricted to students on programmes in American History or Literature, or who have previously done modules on race. Not available to first year students. more...	AMSA2H32	20	Semester 2
The Holocaust in American Literature This module aims to explore representations of the Holocaust in American literature. Students will explore how the Holocaust is represented by American Jewish and non-Jewish authors. Students will consider whether, and how, the Holocaust is `Americanised' by American writers; they will consider some of the ethical and philosophical debates concerning representation of the Holocaust in art; they will examine how American Jewish writers engage with the Holocaust to negotiate questions of Jewish identity; and they will consider the problematic uses and definitions of the term `holocaust' in American culture. more...	AMSA2L82	20	Semester 2
American Voices: Oratory and Speech in American Culture As annual readings of the `Declaration of Independence' remind us, the United States was born through voice. Public speech has profoundly shaped American life and various types of oral expression ' such as sermons, lectures, conversation and song ' have had a seminal influence on cultural development. Thinking about voice in America raises fascinating questions. Why has oratory been so important and how has its symbolism changed? In what ways has voice unified, divided or transformed society? Whose voices have been heard, and whose silenced? What happens when the voice is written down? In this module, we will examine verbal expression in American culture from the oratory of the Iroquois to that of Barack Obama. We'll embark on a chronological survey of public speech, thinking about place of the `oral' in American writings, and the representation of voice in literary history. Each week will involve the active class exploration of passages from speeches, novels, videos and other texts, demonstrating how attention to oral contexts and rhetoric can enrich an appreciation of cultural history. more...	AMSA2S10	20	Semester 2
Films That Made US American: the 1980s Through the Movies The module will examine America in the1980s. It will look at youth culture, post-Vietnam revisionism and the `remasculinization of America', yuppie culture, and the impact of both AIDS and drug addiction. Core factors of study in this module are the effects of both New Right morality upon the American socio-cultural landscape, and Ronald Reagan as postmodern president administrating to a `celluloid America' of his own fantastic imagining. Overall, the module will offer the chance to analyse the tensions and contradictions of the decade as they were played out in both the content and structure of contemporary American film. more...	AMSA2S03	20	Semester 1
Looking At Pictures: Photography and Visual Culture in the USA Photographic portraits, family albums, anthropological illustrations, lynching postcards, advertisements, food packaging and fashion photos are just some of the pictures that will be "read" and analysed in this module. Students will explore how visual texts can contribute to an understanding of nationhood, class, race, sexuality and identity in the USA. Opening sessions will focus on ways of "reading" visual texts. [No previous experience of working with images is necessary]. Most of the semester will be devoted to analysing how photographic images both reflect and contribute to constructions of American culture. more...	AMSA2S48	20	Semester 2
The Beats and the Limits of Writing This module covers the writers known as `The Beats' in terms of their antecedents, the literary and cultural traditions in which they worked, and the social and critical debates that raged during their heyday. Students will be asked to read widely, to compare and contrast different writers' styles, and to make informed judgements about the writers' relationships to the times in which they wrote. The module aims to foster an understanding of the Beat literary phenomenon in literary, political and social contexts. It will also examine the debts Beat writers owed to `American Renaissance' writers including Emerson and Whitman, to wider ideas of the `avant-garde' in the Twentieth Century generally, and to European Romantic traditions. It will investigate how a Beat poetics developed as a response to Cold War `consensus culture', and sought to establish a countercultural (though distinctly American) `tradition'. more...	AMSA2L84	20	Semester 2
Doing It Yourself: Punk and America Although the exact provenance of `punk' remains a contested issue, since its emergence in the mid-1970s this transnational musical and cultural phenomenon has become very much a part of the American grain. Indeed, punk's capacity to adopt, appropriate, assimilate, and re-invent a vast and eclectic range of cultural styles, forms, and ideas, as well as its `do-it-yourself,' places it in a longstanding American intellectual tradition of self-reliance and innovation. In this interdisciplinary module, we will attempt to define punk, and consider what it means to be punk, by examining its influence in music, film, poetry, and fiction. The unit will also explore the socio-political implications of punk in terms of gender, sexuality, and community, and question the possibility of punk in an increasingly globalised and commoditised world. more...	AMSA2S05	20	Semester 1
Protesting the American Century: Dissent and US Foreign Policy The module considers dissent and protest vis-??-vis US foreign relations during what was famously termed the `American Century'. It looks at how dissenting voices ' from government officials, military officers, intellectuals, spies, citizen groups, and whistleblowers ' have challenged the status quo from 1898 to the present. Analysing the connections with other protest movements at home, it explores how opposition to unjust US policies abroad is considered a quintessential American characteristic. It looks at the writings and activities of a wide range of political figures, activists, and writers, including George Kennan, Walter Lippmann, Seymour Hersh, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Philip Agee, as well as the emergence of classified material into the public domain such as the Pentagon Papers and WikiLeaks State Department cables. Finally, it considers the effort to oppose and, in some cases, silence critical voices. more...	AMSA2H13	20	Semester 1
American Paris Between the Wars This module introduces some of the styles, ideas and ideologies of trans-Atlantic modernism as elements in the creation of a myth. It centres on the American expatriate colony in Paris and, from this, works to contextualise and re-imagine some of the century's most notorious literary and artistic moments. Initial studies of the little magazines, manifestos, publishers, painters and photographers provide a sense of the driving political and aesthetic energies of the period, while the module's middle weeks uses this context to re-read a group of expatriate novels. The final three weeks of the course shifts the emphasis to considerations of memory, memoir and the construction of myth. more...	AMSA2L65	20	Semester 1
20th Century American Poetry This module provides a broadly chronological view of American poetry from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. It wonders about what the consequences might be if we consider seriously Emerson's claim (made in 1844), that America might be seen as a poem. Through detailed examination each week of groups of three related poets, the module aims both to question what constitutes an American poetics, and to examine how this conception has changed over the course of the twentieth century. As well as tracing a trajectory in American poetry from modernist to postmodernist modes, one of its primary concerns is also to start exploring how ideas of what an American poetry might be are inflected differently in `mainstream' and in more avant-garde (or `experimental') poetries. Indeed, by explicitly thinking about these differences the module will pay particular attention to the ways in which ideas of nationhood, of political dissent and protest, of poetic `groupings' and canon-formation, are instrumental in determining what we choose to see as America's representative poetry. By the end of the module students should have a wide knowledge of a range of different twentieth-century American poetries, as well as a strong sense of how the political, cultural and literary `tastes' of America across the century have delivered it the sorts of poetry it deserves. more...	AMSA2L24	20	Semester 2

Free Choice Study (40 credits)

Students can select modules worth 40 credits from the course catalogue with the approval of their School.

Year 3

Essential Study (120 credits)

Students will select 120 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
American Studies Semester Abroad: America A semester spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on American Studies 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y03	60	Semester 1
American Studies Semester Abroad: Australia A semester spent at an Australian university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year programmes. more...	AMSA2Y02	60	Semester 2
American Studies Year Abroad A year spent at an American university taking an approved course of study. Restricted to students on 4 year American Studies programmes. For students on programmes:U1T700401, U1TQ73401, U1TW76401, U1T7W8401, U1V238401, U1V2L2401, U1TW76401. more...	AMSA2Y1Y	120	Year Period

Year 4

Compulsory Study (30 credits)

Students will select 30 credits from the following module(s).

Name	Code	Credits	Period
Film and Television Studies Year Abroad Dissertation RESERVED FOR STUDENTS ON COURSE: U1TW76401 Final year dissertation involving research into a specific issue or topic in American culture. Restricted to students on the 4-year Film and American Studies programme. Topics will already have been approved on the basis of dissertation proposals submitted during the year abroad. more...	FTVF3F31	30	Semester 1

Option A Study (90 credits)

Students will select 90 credits from the following module(s).

Name

Code

Credits

Period

Asian Cinema

'Asian Cinema' is a category of films increasingly in evidence in diverse places ranging from cinemas to high street shops. Recent years have seen a variety of Asian cinema incursions into global film culture, from Bollywood in UK multiplexes to Hong Kong action styles used in the Hollywood blockbuster. Inherent within the label are debates of resistance, industry, art, technology and aesthetics that have held sway since the dawn of cinema worldwide. In this module we break down these discourses and address the significant cultural, economic and political influences that Asian cinemas have had, and indeed still have, within world culture. more...

FTVF3F68

Semester 2

Celebrity

The module will explore the phenomenon of celebrity and fame from its origins to the present day, moving across a range of different media, including film, television, print media and the internet. In the process, it will examine key approaches to the study of celebrity, paying particular attention to the cultural formation of celebrity and how it is bound up with structures of power (e.g gender, class, ethnicity). It will feature a range of case studies that will include Classical Hollywood cinema, the coming of television, the supposed 'tabloidization' of print media, the birth of Reality TV, the growth of the celebrity scandal and the relationship between celebrity and the internet. more...

FTVF3F64

Semester 2

Creative Work in the Media Industries

This module offers students the opportunity to gain an understanding of the industries that many of them may well wish to work in. The media industries are those that produce culture, and so they naturally include television, film, music, publishing (books, newspapers and magazines) and so on. People often want to work in the media since this kind of work offers opportunities to be `creative', to think independently and engage in activities which interest them already. But what does `creativity' mean in different kinds of media work and what kind of conditions do those working in the media typically face? To explore such questions, we reflect on changes in the nature of work itself in modern societies. That is, when so much modern work is either temporary and precarious, with many in advanced industrial countries working longer hours than ever before, is there a danger that work is detracting from the quality of our lives rather than enhancing it? The module explores the potential to find pleasure, fulfilment (and a steady income), as well as pressure, frustration and precariousness in media work. It also looks at the extent to which it is feasible to do `good work' in the media industries, as they become seemingly ever more commercial and competitive. How possible is it to produce challenging, innovative, groundbreaking, thoughtful or just genuinely entertaining media products? This means engaging with academic research and other writing, both historical and contemporary in nature. The above issues cannot be addressed through simple description. They raise important theoretical and historical issues about the place of artistic and professional creativity in modern societies. more...

FTVF3F57

Semester 1

Crime Television

This module explores crime and investigation in recent US television, encompassing formal developments such as the use of group formats, specialist teams and genre hybrids. It considers theoretical/critical issues that may include the value and limits of approaching television via genre, representations of urban US life, the (lack of) engagement with questions of race, gender and the female investigator, gender and sex crimes, the statement and transgression of social/cultural taboos to do with sex, violence and identity and the increasing significance - post 9/11 - of paranoid narration, the investigation of terrorism as crime and the policing of US civil society. This module is taught by seminar and screening. more...

FTVF3F92

Semester 2

Gender and Genre in Contemporary Cinema

This module offers an overview of critical and theoretical approaches to gender and genre in contemporary cinema, focusing particularly on North American cinema. Topics explored may include: new women and new men - the articulation of gender in popular and 'independent' American cinema since 2000; feminism and authorship; the response of mainstream and independent cinema to the political and cultural contexts of postfeminism; race and the limits of feminist representation; masculinity, homosociality and Hollywood genre. The module is taught by seminar, tutorial and screening. more...

FTVF3F10

Semester 2

Professional Video Production

This module gives students the opportunity to produce digital video projects to specifications set down by the university and a range of external bodies. The briefs might include events such as conferences, study days and exhibitions or might involve students working with community groups to produce video based material. Students will benefit from a holistic experience, working in groups to take projects from brief to realisation and will gain a professional experience in producing viable yet creative production solutions to the specifications of their `clients'. This module will provide experience of working in a `real life' style production scenario and as such will be a valuable addition to the CV of any student wishing to pursue a career within the demanding and competitive production company environment. more...

FTVF3P81

Semester 1

Professional Video Production

FTVF3P82

Semester 2

Science Fiction Cinema

Science Fiction is currently a key genre in popular cinema, providing a significant focus for addressing social, cultural and political issues. This module follows the historical development of the genre and looks at changes in the way both mainstream and alternative films have addressed such issues. Films we look at range from silent classics such as 'Le Voyage dans la Lune' and 'Metropolis' to the more recent 'Independence Day', 'The Fifth Element', and 'The Matrix'. Other screenings might include 'Things to Come', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', 'Demon Seed', 'Alien', 'The Brother from Another Planet', 'Robocop' and 'Akira'. Separate screenings. more...

FTVF3F07

Semester 1

Selling Spectacle

Spectacle is the cornerstone of the modern film industry, in Hollywood and in other national cinemas around the world. Blockbusters and other films are produced, marketed and exhibited using epic language, hyperbolic visuals and overblown promotional materials. Yet despite these excessive claims, the world of selling spectacle and epic marketing techniques are often overlooked in academic or critical discussions. This module will explore the history of spectacle within the global film industries, the cinematic technologies that have been created to enhance that spectacle, and the advertising and promotional techniques that were utilised to emphasise and display it. Following the work of theorists such as Tom Gunning, Geoff King, Janet Staiger and Barbara Klinger, the module will demonstrate the historical development of spectacle and selling that lies behind the modern system of film production, distribution and exhibition. Understanding the theory and methodologically distinct approaches needed to analyse posters, press books, trailers, websites, interviews, and critical reviews will be an essential component to this module. Students will be expected to engage with both theories of film advertising and analysis of marketing materials and other related epiphenomena. While the module will consider some films that may be described as belonging to the `epic' genre ('The Ten Commandments', 1956; or 'Gladiator', 2000) this module is not concerned with generic traits so much as spectacular production practices throughout film history, and the industrial practices that were invented to educate audiences in such new, spectacular, images and concepts. Using specific case studies, the module will trace the historical development of spectacle within filmmaking, and its role in redefining the function of film advertising and promotion. more...

FTVF3F45

Semester 1

Stanley Kubrick: Films in Context

Stanley Kubrick is regarded as one of the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, with '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) and 'Dr Strangelove' (1964) being listed in critics' polls as two of the best films ever made. Kubrick also was one of the most commercially successful directors of the 1960s and 1970s. This module concentrates on the 11 full-length films he made from 1956 to 1999, but also considers his early career as a photo-journalist and maker of documentary shorts and short features. The module examines the production, themes, style and reception of Kubrick's films, and situates them in the context of broader developments in American cinema, culture and politics. more...

FTVF3F52

Semester 2

Teenage Kicks: Media, Youth and Subculture

This module will address the historical development of the commercial youth market and introduce key debates relating to young people and their uses of mainstream and underground media. It will examine a range of theoretical approaches to youth culture, subculture and post-subculture, employing case studies of popular and alternative music, club culture, film, television, subcultural style and new digital technologies. It will address questions of ideology, identity and representation, most significantly issues of class, gender, race and ethnicity, and encourage students to discuss how cultural interests and practices are used to construct individual and group identities. It will focus primarily on the British post-war context ' highlighting the influence of American popular culture, Black Diaspora and technological transformation on British youth ' but will also examine young people's media use and subcultures in other national and transnational contexts. The emphasis will be on analysing the extent to which cultural power is negotiated and resisted through shared media consumption and subculture formation more...

FTVF3F61

Semester 1

Women, Islam and Media

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE EITHER FTVF1F09 OR TAKE PSI-1A05 OR TAKE PSI-1A06 This module intends to explore the relationship between women and Islam in contemporary media; particularly in film and television. The module is interdisciplinary in scope with readings and theoretical underpinnings from film and television studies as well as media, cultural and gender studies. The module is arranged thematically and focuses on different aspects of the relationship between women and Islam. Some of the themes and topics that will be studied in the module are: the political and religious resonance of the veil; Orientalism and Occidentalism's significance to media studies; representations of consequences of arranged marriage in television; honour killings; trauma, terror and Islam and the representation of women as terrorists in films; the representation of silence, women and Islam in television adverts; international women's film festivals. more...

FTVF3F83

Semester 1

You may also pick any of the modules that begin with:

AMSA3

American Gothic This module is a 20-credit version of AMSA3L62 AMERICAN GOTHIC and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3L68	20	Semester 2
Mark Twain and the Gilded Age This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L20 MARK TWAIN AND THE GILDED AGE and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3L22	20	Semester 2
The Literary 1960s This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L23 THE LITERARY 1960s and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3L25	20	Semester 1
The Great Society: America From Jfk & Lbj to Nixon, 1960-74 This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3H01 THE GREAT SOCIETY: AMERICA FROM JFK and LBJ TO NIXON, 1960-1974 and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3H03	20	Semester 1
The American Body This module reads the changing values, presentations and representations of the body that move through and construct American culture. This module will involve pairing theoretical perspectives with current and historical ideas of the body to allow us to interrogate intellectual and popular meanings assigned to and played out through the body, reading particular moments in American writing, art, photography and popular forms for the things they might tell us about corporality and self presentation, but also about the wider structures of the social and cultural environment. We will engage with canonical debates about race, gender, sexuality and ideas of `representation', but also with categories that cut across and through these modes of reading ' with the normal and the ideal, ideas of illness and wellness, ability and disability, of the organic and the machine, of the body under servitude, or under punishment, and with the whole idea of embodiment in itself. This module ' like all other modules at this level - requires a substantial, regular, reading commitment. more...	AMSA3S30	30	Semester 2
Tales of the Jazz Age This module examines American prose of the 1920s in the context of the Jazz Age. American literature of the 20s is often conflated with modernism, or the expatriate experience, or the Harlem Renaissance; this module will consider 1920s writing in the context of the market and the rise of professional authorship, anxieties about imitation and the middlebrow and conformism, and the pressures of commercial success on fiction. It will draw on reception studies and the influence of publication formats (mass-market magazines, serial publication, the burgeoning market for film adaptations). Texts will be drawn from a mix of 'high' and 'low.' After considering the pressures of commercialism on the publication of The Waste Land, texts could include the short stories of Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, Babbitt, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Winesburg, Ohio, Glimpses of the Moon, and Manhattan Transfer. Students will also be expected to research journalism of the day, such as The New Yorker and the New York Times, which have accessible online archives. more...	AMSA3L31	30	Semester 1
The Great Society: America From Jfk & Lbj to Nixon, 1960-74 This module follows the American story from 1960-1974, from the promise and tragedy of JFK's Camelot, through the achievements and frustrations of LBJ's Great Society, to the period of adjustment ' and disillusionment ' during the Presidency of Richard Nixon and the era of Watergate. The work covers the key political events of a period that saw a defining struggle between liberalism and conservatism ' one which continues to resonate to this day. In part it focuses upon the politicians who helped define the era ' such as Bobby Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, and George Wallace as well as the Presidents. But consideration is not confined to Washington politics: we will look at popular protest, from the Civil Rights movement and Black Power to the New Left, the peace movement, women's liberation, and Stonewall. We consider the war on poverty, the politics of race, the emergence of a new environmental awareness, the questioning of gender, and the sexual revolution. In addition, the unit includes discussion of the continuing significance of the Cold War, not least in respect of Vietnam and the Space Race. Students are also invited to consider the ways in which the dramatic changes and conflicts of the era shaped American culture, especially movies, music, art, and literature more...	AMSA3H01	30	Semester 1
American Drama 1970-Present This module will be concerned with exploring the work of American dramatists in the context of the social, political and cultural life of the country. In particular, it will give attention to the work of new women and African-American writers as well as to that of established dramatists. more...	AMSA3L19	30	Semester 1
First Peoples, Colonizers and the USA This is a two-semester, 60 credit module that aims to provide students with specialised knowledge of American Indian history up to the present day. The first semester will follow a chronological sequence and the second semester will be organised around topics. We will be combining the methodologies of History (with a focus on analysing change over time), Anthropology (with its concern with social structures and values) and American Studies (with its focus on deconstructing cultural representations and identities). By evaluating the developing historiography of American Indian history, students will learn about changing issues and concepts in the historical debate. Primary sources will be used throughout both semesters. A range of different types of texts will be analysed and students will learn techniques appropriate for interrogating them. On their own and in groups, students in this module will work with an increasing level of independence. In the second semester, they will work in groups to introduce different weekly topics and everyone will be given the opportunity to write a research project on a topic of his/her own choosing. more...	AMSA3H7Y	60	Year Period
American Gothic American fiction began in the period of the European Gothic novel, which thus marked the American tradition from the first. In this seminar module we will establish the meaning of gothic conventions and consider their persisting effects in American fiction. more...	AMSA3L62	30	Semester 2
Creative Writing-Fiction In this course you will write original works of fiction and present them to your peers for feedback in a workshop environment. The instructor will guide you in critiquing your peers' writing, and advise you as you work your way through the drafting process. This module is only available to students on U1T7W8401 American Literature with Creative Writing and U1T7WV301 American Literature with Creative Writing (3 year). more...	AMSA3L66	30	Semester 2
Multi-Ethnic American Writing America has long been interpreted as the location of social possibility founded upon a desire to assimilate and negate ethnic 'others'. This module traces the literary responses of four distinct 'American' cultures: Native American; African American; Asian American; and Mexican American. Each group of texts engage with the specific historical, cultural and political relationships between the US and each author's country of origin or national/cultural history, across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics will include race and racism, colonisation, imperialism, slavery, segregation, immigration, and illegality/invisibility, with an emphasis upon contemporary experiences. more...	AMSA3L12	30	Semester 2
American Autobiography This module examines the fascination of American literature with questions of selfhood, identity and autobiography. Opening sessions of the module will look at ways in which the very idea of America and its literature emerges from early-national attempts to 'write the self' and discuss changing theories of selfhood, identity and individuality as they are played out in America's historical development from colony, to nation, to postmodern superpower. Subsequent sessions will focus on specific texts of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries which engage questions of selfhood in order to define, maintain and develop an idea of what being an American might mean. more...	AMSA3L07	30	Semester 1
American Autobiography This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L07 AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3L13	20	Semester 1
American Drama 1970-Present This is a 20-credit version of AMSA3L19 AMERICAN DRAMA 1970-PRESENT and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3L21	20	Semester 1
Multi-Ethnic American Writing This is a 20-credit version of AMSA3L12 MULTI-ETHNIC AMERICAN WRITING and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3L16	20	Semester 2
American Studies Year Abroad Dissertation Final year dissertation involving research into a specific issue or topic in American culture, society, history or literature. Restricted to students on the 4 year American Studies degree programmes. Topics will already have been approved on the basis of dissertation proposals submitted during the year abroad. more...	AMSA3Y05	30	Semester 1
Native American Writing and Film This module considers Native American writing and film as sites of cultural and political resistance, analysing the ways in which a diverse range of Native authors, screenwriters and directors within the United States respond to contemporary tribal socio-economic and political conditions. Taking popular ideas of 'the Indian', this module considers the ways in which stereotypes and audience expectations are subverted and challenged. Topics include race and racism, indigeneity, identity, culture, gender, genre, land and notions of 'home', community, dialogue, postcolonial theory in its application to those who remain colonised, and political issues such as human rights and environmental racism. more...	AMSA3S02	30	Semester 2
The Literary 1960s When thinking of the sixties, literature, in general, is not what immediately springs to mind - pushed, as it is, to the background of music and the counterculture. Yet the decade brought about many profound changes in the paradigms of literature. Amongst such changes was the proliferation of metafiction as a narrative response to both the 'exhaustion' of literature in the light of the period's dramatic events, and to the new literary and philosophical developments in critical theory (poststructuralism). There was also the emergence of two 'new' genres: new journalism, and the non-fiction novel. This module is an examination of literary responses to the many changes and challenges brought about in this decade. It will discuss whether literature simply recoiled into solipsistic abstraction or whether it was a motivating force in the general struggle to conceptualize a `new' or countercultural American consciousness. more...	AMSA3L23	30	Semester 1
The American Body This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3S30 THE AMERICAN BODY and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3S32	20	Semester 2
Mark Twain and the Gilded Age According to William Faulkner, Mark Twain was 'the first truly American writer ['] the father of American literature.' This module will test such paternity claims and examine their wider ramifications. We will explore Twain's writing, his relationship to the Gilded Age, his contemporaries, and his influence on later American writers. As both author and man, Twain contained multitudes. Few writers have straddled so many genres and styles, and few Americans have embodied so many of the nation's animating forces and tensions. He was, as his friend William Dean Howells felt, 'incomparable', and this module is an opportunity for significant reading and research into his life, work and beyond. more...	AMSA3L20	30	Semester 2
Tales of the Jazz Age This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L31 TALES OF THE JAZZ AGE and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3L33	20	Semester 1
Writing and New Media in Early America This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L28 WRITING AND NEW MEDIA IN EARLY AMERICA and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3L30	20	Semester 2
Place, Race and Space: American Migration and Citizenship This module will examine the contradictions of place-making, spatial mobility, and citizenship in the Americas by looking at the movement and settlement of immigrants and migrants since the 1870s. Although the concepts of place-making and spatial mobility appear to be contradictory, immigrants and migrants in their quest to find a home, move across regions, borders, and continents. Their ability to settle in certain places, depends on the economic and cultural conditions that prevail in the host locality and on the political-economic structure of the host society. Citizenship becomes an important variable in this process, because non-citizens are more vulnerable to social, political, and economic changes. more...	AMSA3S11	30	Semester 1
The Rising Tide of the Transpacific This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L35 THE RISING TIDE OF THE TRANSPACIFIC and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3L37	20	Semester 1
US Interventionism, the Cia and Covert Action The covert activities of the CIA represent arguably the most notorious face of US foreign relations. Yet to what extent is clandestine American interventionism consistent with official overt policies? And how do we come to understand covert action campaigns? This module will introduce the main conceptual and historic debates relevant to the analysis of covert action as a tool of US foreign relations. In so doing it will consider the institutions and processes behind covert action, especially the role of the CIA. It also considers the mediums that narrate and explain American covert action. This will provide a fuller and richer understanding of the United States' place in the international system since World War II, its relationship to other states and non-state actors, and discussions about American identity and the nation's role in the world. more...	AMSA3H26	30	Semester 2
Writing and New Media in Early America Contemporary life is dominated by emergent media forms and new means of apprehending reality. But how unprecedented is this? American culture from the Colonial period through the nineteenth-century also witnessed the escalating influence of various forms of `media': an explosion of magazines and newspapers; newly instantaneous telegraph communication; daguerreotypes and photography; mass circuits for public speaking; early sound recording. This was not only a technological and social process but also a literary phenomenon. Just as with today's 'new media,' these changes transformed American writing and are responsible for much of what is striking about classic American literature. This module focuses on the relationship of literary art to this media landscape during 1750-1900, from the age of Franklin to that of Brady, Edison and Pulitzer. Throughout the semester, we will be defining what we mean by `media', considering the interaction between genre and medium, channels of information, data storage and transmission. Subjects the module will cover include: the emergence of literary journalism; the rise of the foreign correspondent; the symbolic figure of the photographer and journalist in American fiction; the effect of early sound recording on literary aesthetics. Questions it poses include: what effect did fresh modes of writing, listening and seeing have on fiction or poetry?; have `journalism' and `literature' always been mutually-exclusive? How have ethnic groups used such media as distinct modes of expression? These issues will be approached thematically by media type, with two sessions each on: 1) Colonial newsprint; 2) literary magazines; 3) the mass penny press and telegraph; 4) the lyceum; 5) the phonograph. Authors to be considered along the way include Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Horace Greeley, Margaret Fuller, Henry James, Nellie Bly and Upton Sinclair. more...	AMSA3L28	30	Semester 2
The Poetics of Place: Post 1945 American Poetry and Environment This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3L26 THE POETICS OF PLACE: POST 1945 AMERICAN POETRY AND ENVIRONMENT and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3L26	20	Semester 2
Place, Race and Space: American Migration and Citizenship This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3S11 PLACE, RACE AND SPACE: AMERICAN MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3S13	20	Semester 1
US Interventionism, the Cia and Covert Action This is the 20 credit version of AMSA3H26 US INTERVENTIONISM, THE CIA AND COVERT ACTION and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3H28	20	Semester 2
Gender in American Culture This is a 20 credit version of AMSA3S22 GENDER IN AMERICAN CULTURE and is available only to Visiting students. more...	AMSA3S24	20	Semester 2
The Poetics of Place: Post 1945 American Poetry and Environment The American poet Charles Olson famously declared: `I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America, from Folsom cave to now. I spell it large because it comes large here. Large, and without mercy.' This module explores how a range of linguistically innovative American poets, from 1945 to the present, have engaged this question of space and environment in their writings. There will be a particular focus on how scientific literature, natural history writing, field guides, and eco-criticism have contributed to poets' theories of poetry and poetics as well as an emphasis on the role environmental notions of place and space play in forming and critiquing ideas of American identity. more...	AMSA3L24	30	Semester 2
New American Century: Culture and Crisis A two semester special subject American Studies module that reads contemporary American culture through the lens of crisis. On the eve of the twenty-first century it appeared that the United States of America was indeed entering into a new American Century with its role as global leader as strongly defined as it was a century earlier. However, the last decade has been witness to a nation in turmoil and crisis, from the conflict between a universalising (Americanising) globalisation and an introspective nationalism; the war on terror and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq; environmental crisis and disaster; the conflict surrounding immigration and national identity, to the present financial crisis. The renewed and vigorous return to rhetoric of national `unity' that characterised the campaign and election of Barack Obama as President of the United States in 2008 highlighted the historical divisions and crises of American society and underscored that contemporary America is in crisis geopolitically, economically, democratically, environmentally, and culturally. Indeed, Obama's presidency has witnessed further polarisation of American politics and culture with the birth of the Tea Party Movement and the very recent Occupy Wall Street (now global) movement. Through a variety of cultural texts, from literature, film and documentary, political speeches and letters, to historical texts and pop culture, this course examines the ways in which these crises have been culturally and politically constructed and given particular sets of meaning and the ways in which these `meanings' have been utilised and mobilised to further create `Fortress America' and its particular brand of nationalism at the expense of all `others', whether outside or inside the United States. The way culture has engaged with, coproduced, and resisted these sets of meanings will be the main focus of this module. more...	AMSA3S1Y	60	Year Period
Animals in American History This two-semester, 60 credit module familiarizes students with the wide range of approaches that have been taken toward the study of animals in American history. We will begin with early modern understandings of the place of animals in the natural order, and proceed through the introduction of domestic livestock into North America, controversies between colonists and Native Americans over hunting, cattle and fencing, wolf-eradication campaigns, wilderness preservation, the role of horses in the development of modern cities, the invention of the zoo, pet-keeping, factory hog-raising, and ideological battles over animal rights. By evaluating the developing historiography, students will learn about changing issues and concepts under debate. Primary sources will be used throughout both semesters. A range of different types of texts will be analysed and students will learn techniques appropriate for interrogating them. On their own and in groups, students in this module will work with an increasing level of independence. In the second semester, they will work in groups to introduce different weekly topics and everyone will be given the opportunity to write a research project on a topic of his/her own choosing. more...	AMSA3H3Y	60	Year Period
Gender in American Culture The aim of this module is to think about democracy in the United States through a gendered lens. The Declaration of Independence declared that "all men were created free and equal", but throughout the history of the United States certain social groups have been denied their rights to citizenship and democracy. Therefore this module will be focusing upon the ways in which gender has been central to the construction of citizenship and democracy in the US. These concepts are critical elements in the formation of a modern American identity, and this module will provide a broader understanding of this distinctive feature of American history and society. more...	AMSA3S22	30	Semester 2
The Rising Tide of the Transpacific This module considers the ways in which American literature has engaged with the opening up of Pacific space from the early nineteenth century to the present. From Melville's adventures on whaling vessels throughout the Pacific, to Pearl Harbour and anxieties about Japanese presence in and beyond the borders of the United States, to writing by contemporary Asian-American authors whose work evinces influences from China, Korea and India, the texts on this course chart the ways in which the Pacific Ocean and its peoples have contributed to, created, and contested American national narratives. The module will develop students' insights into issues of U.S. national history and cultural geography, and deepen their engagement with current theories of nationalism and transnationalism either in preparation for, or as a frame for reflection on, their studies abroad. more...	AMSA3L35		Semester 1
Native American Writing and Film This is a 20-credit version of AMSA3S02: NATIVE AMERICAN WRITING AND FILM and is available only to Visiting Students. more...	AMSA3S04	20	Semester 2

Disclaimer

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules and regular (five-yearly) review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff or sabbatical leave. Where this is the case, the University will endeavour to inform students.

UEA

Film and Television Studies Courses

Film and Television Studies

BA Film and American Studies (TW76)

Outline of the degree

Assessment

UEA was one of the first British universities to develop the study of cinema and television.

The Student Experience Survey ranks UEA third in the country - two places higher than last year's result and overtaking both Oxford and Cambridge... Read More >

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Quick Links