Course finder

<< return to browsing

Semester 1

Critical Theory and Cinema (PLIT10108)

Subject

Politics

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 Politics courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we cannot consider interdisciplinary courses or courses without sufficient Politics/Government/International Relations focus. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

The course uses a mix of texts and films to introduce students to themes and concepts central to a critical engagement with contemporary politics. We will begin with an investigation of what critical thought is - broadly understood - and then reflect on the role of cinema as a medium for the study of politics. We will continue by exploring a series of topics of relevance to our societies: power, oppression, resistance, class, gender, racialization, the climate crisis, colonialism, disability, violence. The course includes texts and films from a global variety of traditions. Seminars and film projections will help students understand and think through some of the most pressing political injustices of our times.

Course Description

Classic texts in social and political theory will be used in tandem with films in order to problematise the ways in which class, gender, racialisation, physical ability structure our world along lines of oppression and privilege. The relationship between texts and films will be one of mutual enlightenment - they will be selected for their complementarity. Films will illustrate concepts in critical theory, but also reveal the tensions between theoretical approaches and everyday politics, thus highlighting the limits of theory and the need to cultivate an ethos of humility as scholars of politics.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 50%, Coursework 40%, Practical Exam 10%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Politics exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Politics course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second Politics course will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course