Admission requirements
A BA degree in English Language and Culture or equivalent degree.
Description
The poet W. H. Auden famously described the 1940s as ‘the age of anxiety’. They were also an age of astonishing creativity. We shall explore this fraught and compelling cultural moment through the lens of English-language cinema, examining (from our present age of anxiety) how film-makers investigated the historical and cultural crisis they were living through.
We shall explore the breadth of 1940s (and early 1950s) English-language film, following transformations within the cinematic experience, as well as examining the relationship between cinema and culture. In particular, we will focus on British directors, while making a number of significant forays into American film. We shall consider these works of art in their cultural context, and scrutinize the ways in which these wonderful films expressed, critiqued or questioned developments within American and British society. The course explores these great films’ interest in: good and evil; love, desire, unrequitedness, adultery, and marriage; gender; class; the fall of Empire; suffering and redemption; trust and suspicion; continuity and disruption; the survival of the individual; and the power of cinema – and of art – itself. The course will be taught in seminars, where students are encouraged to discuss the movie (and sometimes the literary source for that movie) in question.
Course objectives
- This course will extend and deepen the power of students’ critical analysis through in-depth consideration of texts.
- Students will explore critical debates surrounding cinema, modernity, and identity.
- The course will aim to provide for literature students the critical skills necessary for the analysis of cinematic texts.
- It will also aim to extend the students’ skills in the reading of narrative and the understanding of the relationship of a text to its historical/cultural/social context.
- Students will be encouraged to share analytical and critical views on the texts ascribed in class discussion, and will focus research skills in the writing of a final research paper, to the same end.
- In their papers, the students will show that they have developed the relevant skills for researching and writing on the fantastic.
- Further to course objective 5, through a creative response to the subject, students will hone their ability to engage the group with a topic, developing their literary (and on occasion digital) skills. As this element of the course includes the option to work in small groups, students will also have the opportunity explore their ability to work together in teams.
- As part of your creative response, students may work together with other students, developing your interpersonal skills in collaborating on the final product.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Research (and writing)
Attendance is compulsory, and students who do not attend very often and regularly will not have their essays graded.
Assessment method
Assessment
Creative response to a movie (or genre of movies) from the course. Such creative responses may include a podcast, a short film, a fragment of a film script, a short story, a pastiche, a visual montage, a poster, a “trailer”, a set of photographs etc. As with all elements of the course, these must in no way use AI generative material. Students are encouraged to work in teams, (25%)
A prose response of approximately 1000 words giving the intellectual context for your creative work. This should be individually written. (25%)
• Research essay (3500-4000 words) (50%)
The deadline for submitting the assignments will fall in late May 2026. All assignments must be uploaded to BrightSpace, and the essay should be presented in accordance with the MLA Stylesheet.
The essay will be assessed according to the following criteria: your ability to come up with a ‘thesis statement’ in relation to the topic in question, one that your essay / assignment will coherently and insightfully develop; the quality and sophistication of the central argument; the depth and appropriateness of your research; the scholarliness of your referencing and presentation; the deployment of structure; the quality of the writing; and the originality and depth of your analysis. Any student who plagiarises their work will be in trouble for doing so. Plagiarism includes writing your essay using an AI large-language model-based chatbot, such as ChatGPT.
The date for the resit essay will be set during the teaching semester.
Students who are studying for the Education Master are expected to write an essay that links the course to their teaching practice.
Students must produce essays that are their own work, without plagiarism or recourse to AI writing tools.
If a student fails an essay (with a grade less than a 5.5), they will have the opportunity to retake it.
Weighting
Creative response (25%)
An individually written prose response of approximately 1000 words (25%)
Research essay (3500-4000 words) (50%)
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
When the final grade is insufficient students can resit the essay.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
There is no set reading for the course. However, in some cases, the movie of the week is based on a literary text. You are free to explore these literary texts – in order to deepen your understanding of the film. But our primary interest will always be in the film as a film. Source texts include:
Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca (Virago Modern Classics)
Rumer Godden, Black Narcissus (Virago Modern Classics)
Stefan Zweig, Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman (translated by Anthea Bell) (Pushkin Press)
The films we will watch are:
Alfred Hitchcock, (with a script by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood) Rebecca (1940)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
George Cukor, (based on the play by Patrick Hamilton) Gaslight (1944)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, I Know Where I’m Going (1945)
David Lean (with a script by Noel Coward), Brief Encounter (1945)
Alfred Hitchcock, (with a script by Hitchcock, Ben Hecht and Clifford Odets) Notorious (1946)
Carol Reed (with a script by F. L. Green and R. C. Sherriff), Odd Man Out (1947)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus (1947)
Max Ophüls, Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes (1948)
Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954)
Alexander Mackendrick, The Ladykillers (1955)
I sometimes give details above of the scriptwriters – but you do not have to read the scripts! You are simply required to watch the films.
Some of these films are available on DVD in the library. You can arrange to watch them there. Otherwise you can buy them as DVDs or Blu Ray, or find them online (often on YouTube or archive.org), or watch them via a legal streaming service. You must have watched the film in question and thought about it before each class.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
The first class will consist of a brief introduction to the course, and a discussion of the curriculum and the assignments. We’ll begin fully in Week Two when we analyse Alfred Hitchcock’s wonderful film, Rebecca.