Undergraduate - UnitAMU2448 - Film genres

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Arts and Social Sciences, Malaysia
Offered	Malaysia Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Assoc. Professor Andrew Ng Hock Soon

Synopsis

This unit introduces learners to a wide variety of film genres. They include traditional genres such as the western, melodrama, noir, the musical and horror, as well as newer ones like the biopic and the martial arts film. Learners will consider the socio-cultural and historical influences on genres, and in some cases, understand significant differences between Western and non-Western works within a particular genre. Theoretical concepts related to the study of genres, such as intertextuality and hybridity, will also be emphasized.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the unit, students should be able to:

Identify the conventions associated with film genres;
Evaluate the differences between Western and non-Western works classified under a particular genre;
Interpret genre using concepts like intertextuality and hybridity, and how they are part of what constitute a genre;
Write a detailed research into a specific genre;
Explain the ways in that genres are socio-culturally and historically determined and often ambiguous and tend to encompass divergent, even contradictory;
Evaluate the ambiguous nature of genres in terms of their apparently contradiction; i.e. being bound by certain conventions while simultaneously transgressing them.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.