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Race, Cinema And American Culture (15 Credits)

Key information

  • Module code:

    5AAQS277

  • Level:

    5

  • Semester:

      Autumn

  • Credit value:

    15

Module description

Race has been an ongoing and structuring site of struggle, contention, community formation, and meaning-making throughout American history. Relations between black and white Americans have played an especially crucial role in filmmaking from early cinema through to the present day, reflecting and refracting the nation’s racial tensions onscreen and across cultural discourse more broadly. This module will examine the history of American cinema through study of how the cinematic treatment of race has shaped and been shaped by: the film industry and its institutions; practices related to specific forms of filmmaking and film genres (melodrama, musical, animation, comedy, documentary); formal and technical innovations (narrative, sound, colour); and key political and social movements (Civil Rights, feminism, Black Lives Matter). Students will also be introduced to the theoretical issues that the critical study of race in cinema raises. Key topics include: blackface minstrelsy, ethnographic spectacle, whiteness, gender and sexuality, stardom and race, and race and authorship.

Further information: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/filmstudies/modules/level5/5AAQS277.aspx

Assessment details

Coursework

Participation (15%), 1 x 2000-word essay (25%), 1 x 3000-word essay (60%)

Teaching pattern

Ten one-hour lectures, ten three-hour screenings and ten one-hour seminars.

Department

Module description disclaimer

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