Narratives and representations
BT BW BB BS DT GA PA BC BP BDT BJ BY
Mary Griffiths
Subject value of 1.0 (6 points) * Second semester * 3 hours per week (2 hours lecture/screening, 1-hour tutorial) * Gippsland/Distance * Prerequisites: GSC1401 and GSC1402 or with permission of subject adviser. Business students may substitute GBU1401 for GSC1401. GSC2409 is available for both the English and mass communication majors
This subject provides a brief introduction to an important field within cultural studies. It is a text-based study of prose narratives, television drama and film, and the wider social questions they raise. Students will consider how narratives demonstrate structural similarity and difference across a range of media; and how codes and conventions of representing `reality' are used to construct meaning shared by different audiences and readerships. Signifying practices concerning gender and race will be examined. The subject will include a comparative critique of mass audience and circulation genres: gothic romance, film noir, the thriller and other narratives of detection, and the Hollywood action movie. Each student will be required to complete a case study across a range of print, televisual and film texts.
Assessment
Case study (2000 words): 40% * Major assignment (2500 words): 60%
Prescribed texts
Palmer J Potboilers: Methods, concepts and case studies in popular fiction Routledge, 1991
and two examples of popular fiction (subject to availability):
Chandler R The big sleep Random, 1988
Du Maurier D Rebecca Heinemann, 1991