VSA2040

Australian film and television

Proposed to be offered next in 2000

Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams

8 points - 4 hours per week - First semester - Clayton - Prerequisites: One subject at first-year level in visual culture, comparative literature and cultural studies - Prohibition: CLS2720/CLS3720.

Objectives On completion of this subject students will have (a) engaged with debates relating to national and internnational film and televisual culture (b) critically examined a range of film and televisual texts as representations of Australian national experience (c) developed an understanding of the Australian film and television industries in relation to theories of globalisation (d) analysed the impact of government policy and further economic and political constraints on the national film and television industries (e) developed skills in the textual analysis of texts in relation to contemporary reformulations of nationalism (f) displayed an ability to critically engage with written and filmic texts in a clear and confident manner in both written and oral presentation.

Synopsis The aim of this subject is to provide students with an understanding of traditional approaches to the construction of nationalism and to provide the opportunity for students to negotiate a range of theoretical approaches which reconfigure these various traditions as they emerge in Australian film and television production. The subject will focus on representations of Australian social experience as constructed by both fiction and non-fiction texts for Australian screens. The subject will look at approaches taken in Australian film and television texts to questions of representation in relation to landscape, race relations, multiculturalism, beach culture, the social, globalism, marketing, distribution, gender, and film and television criticism, paying particular attention to Australian conceptions of identity and place. Works produced for mainstream film and television as well as independent and community production will be studied. There will be an emphasis on works which seek a critical engagement with dominant screen culture, including documentary films, short fiction and recent feature films.

Assessment First essay (2000 words): 35% Second essay (3000 words): 45% Visual test (1000 words): 20%

Prescribed texts

O'Regan T Australian national cinema Routledge, 1996

Recommended texts

Dermody S and Jacka E The screening of Australia vol. 1 Anatomy of a film industry Currency Press, 1987
Dermody S and Jacka E The screening of Australia vol. 2 Anatomy of a national cinema Currency Press, 1988
Dermody S and Jacka E (eds) The imaginary industry

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