Cinema institutions
Offered if staffing available
C Verevis
8 points
* 4 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton and
Caulfield
* This subject is offered with the cooperation of the Visual Arts
department.
* Prerequisites: ENH1100 and ENH1110, or approved
equivalents
Objectives By the successful completion of this subject students will be expected to: recognise that meaning is not simply an intra-textual property of a particular text but an effect of historically specific extra-textual, material technologies or institutions; demonstrate an understanding of historically specific material technologies of production, distribution, exhibition and reception, in relation to a range of classical and contemporary Hollywood films; translate the particularity of Hollywood institutions into a methodology for investigating the material-social, historical and political-difference of other national cinemas.
Synopsis `Cinema institutions' will enable students to recognise that meaning, particularly in a mass cultural situation, is not so much the intrinsic property of a particular text but the effect of historically specific material technologies. The subject will take as examples a range of mainly classical and contemporary Hollywood films. Cinema Institutions will consider a number of institutionalised, and unofficial, public and industrial discourses, such as: film industry publicity and marketing; advertising and commercial tie-ins; media coverage of stars and directors; film censorship and studio self-regulation; motion picture palaces and suburban multiplexes; film reviewing and academic film criticism; the impact of television and wide-screen technologies in the fifties; the impact of home video and cable television in the seventies; and new media technologies in the nineties.
Assessment second year First essay (2000 words): 35%
* Second
essay (3000 words): 45%
* Tutorial presentation (1000 words) and
participation: 20%
Assessment third year First essay (2000 words): 35%
* Second
essay (3000 words): 45%
* Tutorial presentation (1000 words) and
participation: 20%
* Third-year students will be expected to read more
widely and work at a higher level than second-year students.
Recommended texts
Balio T (ed.) Hollywood in the age of television Unwin Hyman, 1990
Brantlinger P and Naremore J (eds) Modernity and mass culture Indiana U P, 1991
Wasko J Hollywood in the information age U Texas P, 1995
| Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
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