Module description
Popular film genres have always conjured figures who are not-quite-human: monsters, aliens, robots, vampires, and human-animal hybrids. Recently, the question of the human has come under pressures from new technologies, environmental destruction, economic crisis, epidemics, and violent political transformations. Ideas of the posthuman, as well as animal studies, ecocriticism, and object theory are transforming how we think about the non-human world. This module considers how contemporary world cinema imagines the non-human, via a focus on those uncanny figures that are disturbingly close to the human; cyborgs, vampires, people who turn into animals and aliens who pretend to be humans. It introduces some of the critical terrain of the posthuman, and connects it to cinematic questions of identity, genre, and style. We will address topics such as feminism and queer theory, Afrofuturism and biopolitics, technology and nature, while analysing a range of cinema, from sci-fi and horror to speculative and fantastical art films.
Assessment details
- Annotated Bibliography (1000 words) 30%
- Essay (2500 words) 70%
Educational aims & objectives
This module aims to enable students to engage with a range of critical perspectives across recent scholarship on the non-human, and to make connections between these theoretical debates and film scholarship on contemporary world cinema. It will enable students to mobilise key concepts and ideas around the human/non-human in order to analyse both the formal mechanisms and the cultural, historical, and political contexts of science fiction, horror, and art cinemas. It approaches the non-human from the following critical perspectives:
- Debates in the humanities on the posthuman and the challenges of thinking beyond the human;
- The central place of feminism, queer theory, and critical race theory to thinking the human;
- Biopolitics and cinematic representations of the body;
- Animal theory and cinematic representations of the non-human animal;
- Ecocriticism and the representation of the environment;
- Geopolitics and the significance of postcolonial thought;
- Approaches to film genre including science fiction and horror;
- Contemporary world cinema and its form, style, and narrative modes.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will have acquired the following knowledge and critical skills:
- In-depth knowledge of the ways non-human figures have been used in cinema, with particular emphasis on figures that destabilise the category of the human.
- Understanding of a range of critical debates around the posthuman and visual culture, engaging the philosophical, political, technological, and aesthetic issues that shape the category of the human.
- A transnational perspective on the diversity of filmic practices that engage the non-human, including global contexts of production.
- Understanding the role of non-human figures across a range of film genres, historical moments, and styles, notably sci-fi, horror, and art cinema.
- The methodological skills to undertake textual and cultural analysis of specific films in relation to issues emerging from posthuman theory.
- Ability to apply close-reading skills to the analysis of non-human figures in film, engaging both with close description of the films and theoretically informed analysis of their aesthetic, political, and cultural significance.
Teaching pattern
Ten one hour lectures, ten one hour seminars, ten two and a half hour screenings.