Critical Approaches to the Study of Regional Cinemas
- Course Code:
- 15PMSH008
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
- Taught in:
- Term 1
Within critical discourse until the late-1980s, ‘national cinema’ has often been defined and posited in terms of the ‘other’ of Hollywood and as such, it has often been located within high/low culture debates that sought to elevate cinema to ‘high culture’ status centred on the ‘art house’ cinema circuit. Alternatively, elementary discourses stemming from notions of ‘cultural imperialism’ have considered the ‘negative’ influences (both cultural and financial) of Hollywood on local production. The principal objectives of this course are to question these existing paradigms that define ‘national cinema’ in the simplistic terms of geographical production and to offer an alternative methodology for the study of the relationship between cinema, as a product of mass entertainment, and the nation-state.
These objectives will be framed within an initial discussion of the context of cinema as a western technological invention that was essentially imported into Asian countries, and a consideration of the historicity of the juncture in time when it was invented. Cinema began in the age of Freudian psychoanalysis, the rise of nationalism and the emergence of consumerism (Shohat and Stam 1996), and as Comolli (1986) reminds us, the development of the camera obscura as a ‘machine’ was not neutral, but came imbued with certain ideological assumptions that underpinned its development.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
Objectives:
- To provide a frame of reference for the analysis of the cinemas of Asia and Africa;
- To challenge existing critical paradigms that define ‘national cinema’ in the simplistic terms of geographical production and reception zones;
- To offer alternative methodologies for the study of cinema within the national and global contexts based on the theoretical premise of a ‘Politics of Cinema’;
- To raise students’ critical awareness of both the historical context of the development of cinematic technology and techniques of production as western inventions, and the historicity of the juncture in time when cinema was invented.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course students will have:
- Understood the theoretical, methodological and empirical issues involved in the analysis of non-Western with particular reference to Asia and Africa;
- Gained an in-depth understanding of the historical complexities of the symbiotic nature of the relationship between cinema and the nation-state both in terms of the development of the technology and also its impact on perception;
- Questioned the existence of ‘national cinema’ as a concept in view of the transnational nature of the industry in the ages of ‘modernity’ and ‘globalisation’;
- An understanding of alternative methodological paradigms through which to pursue independent study of ‘national cinema’ within the various pathways on offer in the MA Cinemas of Asia and Africa degree.
