Introductory description

This module uses approaches from film studies, television studies and cultural studies to explore the screen cultures of the UK. The module is especially concerned with the role played by screen media in shaping and navigating concepts of national identity.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The following is an indicative list of topics.

Week 1- Introduction to the module.
Week 2- Questions of National Screen Cultures.
Week 3 and 4: Empire and Colonialism.
Week 5 and 7: Race and Ethnicity.
Week 8 and 9: Regionality and the Nation.
Week 10: Borders.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an ability to offer detailed analyses of film, television and/or other screen media, using skills and methods from film studies, television studies and cultural studies
• Demonstrate a culturally and historically informed understanding of the complex ways in which national identity is both represented and constructed on screen
• Engage with relevant critical debates about the role that discourses of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality or regional identity play in shaping concepts of 'the nation'
• Reflect on personal viewing and make connections to course content
• Organise and deploy ideas and information in order to formulate cogent arguments, and express them effectively in written form

Indicative reading list

Neil Archer, Cinema and Brexit: The Politics of Popular English Film (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).

David Berry, Wales and Cinema: The First Hundred Years (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994).

Jonathan Bignell and Stephen Lacey (eds), British Television Drama: Past, Present and Future, second edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

James Chapman and Nicholas J. Cull, Projecting Empire: Imperialism and Popular Cinema (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009).

David Forrest and Beth Johnson, Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Andrew Higson, ‘The Limiting Imagination of National Cinema’, in Mette Hjort and Scott MacKenzie (eds), Cinema and Nation (London: Routledge, 2000).

Andrew Higson, Film England: Culturally English Filmmaking since the 1990s (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011)

John Hill, ‘Living with Hollywood: British Film Policy and the Definition of “Nationality”’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22:5 (2016), 706-723.

Mary Irwin and Jill Marshall, UK and Irish Television Comedy: Representations of Region, Nation, and Identity (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Christoph Linder (ed.) The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

Christopher Meir, Scottish Cinema: Texts and Contexts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015).

Robert Munro, ‘Performing the National? Scottish Cinema in the Time of Indyref’, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 17:4 (2020), 425-448.

Jonathan Murray, The New Scottish Cinema (London: I.B. Tauris, 2015).

Robert Murphy (ed.), The British Cinema Book (London: BFI, 2001)

Clive Nwonka, Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023).

Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha (eds), Black Film, British Cinema II (London: Goldsmiths Press, 2021).

Amy Sargeant, British Cinema: A Critical History (London: BFI, 2005).

Sarah Street, British National Cinema, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2009).

Subject specific skills

This module develops skills of audio-visual literacy, through historically and culturally informed textual analysis of the moving image. It helps students to engage with major thinkers and debates within the fields of film studies, television studies and cultural studies. It asks students to think critically about the role of screen cultures in contributing to, and complicating, debates about identity.

Transferable skills

This module develops skills of critical and analytical thinking; self-reflection and self-directed learning; intercultural awareness and sensitivity; clarity and effectiveness of communication, written and oral; accurate and persuasive writing; audio-visual literacy.