124260 KO Critical Media Analysis (2024S)

People are eternally fascinated by other people's life stories, and the urge to record these stories is often considered a basic human need. This course will explore the representation of historical and contemporary lives on the silver screen. The films we will study are The Danish Girl (2015), Belle (2013), Song of Love (1947), I Am Not There (2007), and some biopics of the students' own choosing. The course will also include guest sessions with film scholars Timo Frühwirth (on Hidden Figures, 2016), Emily Poulter (film reviews) and Mina Radovic (on heritage film).
We will take a look at the representation and appropriation of historical lives in the context of contemporary discourses of celebrity, national identity, and gender. Themes that will occupy us throughout include the aesthetics and politics of subject representation and the notion of biographical truth in artistic media, the questions whose lives get told, for what purposes, and in what form.
AIMS:
-- Students will become familiar with a range of biographical motion pictures.
-- They will be able to explain key concerns articulated in these films and contextualize them appropriately with reference to their generic context, to historical sources, and to the wider cultural and political discourses in which they participate. They will be able to apply various critical approaches to biopics, such as biographical theory, cultural memory studies, gender and postcolonial theory; in presentations, discussions and in a short scholarly paper.
-- They will develop a thorough knowledge of concepts and terminology central to the study of film and thus hone their skills in the critical analysis and interpretation of films in general, and biopics in particular.
METHODS:
Class discussions, reading assignments, oral presentations, group work, written assignments, eLearning