Caution
Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222
Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Fundamental to all courses is an understanding of genre (whether Hollywood genres or the `genres' of documentary or news programs), and to see these as involving stylistic and editorial choices in the social construction of reality.
At each year level, students are expected to master progressively more difficult concepts pertaining to the specificity of film form (from simpler concepts of viewpoint of construction, to more difficult if inherently practical notions such as montage or the construction of filmic space using the axis of action rule, and exceptions to the rule) and concepts of narrative organisation. Students are expected to be able to apply relevantly these concepts in their analyses of a wide variety of filmic and televisual texts from different eras and different countries (Australian, American, European, Asian and the third world) and to gain some understanding of the relevance of these concepts to gender studies, studies of ideology, and studies of cultural differences.
In some courses psychoanalytic theories of the filmic signifier are employed as ways of understanding how gender is constructed in film, and how the viewer is affected by film. Some understanding of recent semiotic theory is required in some courses. For instance, in courses on television studies and on documentary, students are expected to understand and apply semiotic concepts such as `metaphor and metonymy', and see their relevance to film and television which are indexical sign systems rather than simply iconic signs.
Some of the material taught is controversial and students are expected to be able to develop arguments which distinguish between different positions, and to make reasoned judgements about the soundness and relevance of different kinds of arguments.
In 1996 and 1997 we expect to introduce a sequence of courses in screen production: `Screen production I' commencing in 1996 and `Screen production II' commencing in 1997. These courses will cater both for performing arts students and for film and television students who want to develop a literacy in screen production, using video, as a practical complement to their critical, historical and theoretical studies.
Visual Arts department students may combine art history/theory subjects with film and television subjects (or vice versa), as part of their major or minor sequence, and comparative literature and cultural studies students may take some courses in film and television studies as part of their major or minor sequence in comparative literature and cultural studies (see the entry for comparative literature and cultural studies). Below we provide a list of the range of courses offered. For more detailed information consult the section on film and television studies within the entry for visual arts.
+ VSA1050 Contemporary popular film
+ VSA2190/3190 Forms of narrative cinema
+ VSA2220/3220 Alternative film and video
+ VSA2390 Screen production I
+ VSA2670/3670 Asian cinema (proposed to be offered next in 1997)
+ VSA2710/3710 Alternatives in documentary film - an Australian focus
+ VSA2770/3770 Television studies (proposed to be offered next in 1997)
+ VSA3630/4630 German cinema
+ VSA3750/4750 Indonesian and Southeast Asian film and television
+ VSA3007/4007 Gender and genre: masculinity in film (proposed to be offered next in 1997)
+ VSA4040 Film theory and film criticism: part 1
+ VSA4050 Film theory and film criticism: part 2
+ VSA4600 Film, culture, class