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Description
This module examines the role of moving images in documenting and re-imagining the cityscape worldwide in the 20th and 21st centuries. For example, from London to Tokyo; Rio de Janeiro to Tehran; New York to Dakar, each weekly seminar will focus on a different global city and its place in feature film. We will observe the identity and character of represented cities and the role that they play in perpetuating myths and ideals that are tied to colonialism, nationhood, community and tourism. We will also observe the city and its relation to diaspora, considering transnational fluxes and flows between different urban spaces and temporalities. In our discussions, we will tease out the different tensions and meeting points between, for instance, connection and alienation, utopia and dystopia, wealth and deprivation, vulnerability and power. We will consider a range of relevant historical and critical-theoretical approaches to global cities on screen, including theories of space and place, cultural geography, gender, diaspora, psychogeography and multisensory experience.听听
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The learning outcomes will be as follows:听听
- Engage with and discuss a range of critical theory relating to space, urban planning and architecture and their on-screen representations听
- Conduct sequence analyses of filmic material with close reference to the construction of urban environments on screen听
- Compare and contrast medium-specific representations of the city across a range of media formats, such as feature films, documentaries, photographs, short informational films, essay films, archival material, amateur film, websites.听
- Design, research and write a 3000-word essay on the cinematic city, under the guidance of the module tutor.听
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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