The School of Languages, Linguistics and Film covers a diverse range of subject areas, from which we have created a number of thematic programmes that can be chosen by you as a package.
You can immerse yourself in a particular area of study, from postcolonial studies to a regional focus on Britain, Europe, or East Asia. Each thematic programme contains courses from the areas of film, literature, the languages and cultures of a society or region, taught by experts in the field.
To select one of the module suites, you don't need to register for a distinct pathway, just select the individual modules at the point of module registration, and select one or two free-choice electives. The suggested modules within each thematic programme will fit clash-free within your timetable, but please check that the free-choice elective you have selected fits as well, once the timetable has been published. If you replace some of the suggested modules with other modules, we cannot guarantee that they will be clash-free, so please do check.
You can choose from the following thematic programmes for Semester 1 (September - December 2023)
Modules in this suite investigate coloniality in a range of different contexts. One module explores ‘Afropean’ identities across the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, by analysing literary texts by ‘Afropean’ writers, a term that encompasses being both African and European, not as a contradiction but as an expression of plurality. One module with a focus on Portugal and Brazil examines colonial power and dissent, with examples of texts spanning from the Portuguese Empire to the social movements of quilombolas and landless rural workers in Brazil today. A film-based module investigates how memories of the Holocaust and colonial crimes and violence have been dealt with in French-language cinema, by looking at landmark films.
The module Modern/Postmodern Cinema traces the relationship of film to the epochal paradigms of modernism and postmodernism in the first half and latter part of the twentieth century respectively. Cinema emerged as the medium for capturing time, at a moment in which time was being redefined by industrialism, the urban, the expansion of capitalism, and technologies of reproduction. Postmodern cinema, on the other hand, remixes the rules of genre and appropriates cultures from elsewhere. The second module in this suite takes a fresh perspective on modernism - not only as a Western, but a plural literary movement, by examining modernist practices from a range of non-Western literary contexts and asking how modernism can be redefined as plural, comparative, and transnational.
This module suite looks at Britain through the perspectives of culture, language and film. It introduces British cultural history from the late Victorian period to the present, from the discourses of Empire to contemporary discourses of Britishness in relation to multiculturalism. A module on the history of English examines the socio-historical events that determined the shape and uses of the English language over time. Applying concepts from sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and general linguistic analysis, you will explore how English has changed over 1500 years, and how similar processes continue to operate on the language today. Finally, the film module in this suite surveys the history of British cinema across six decades, from the medium’s origins in the 1890s to the end of the 1950s. You will learn to identify major trends and moments in the history of British film production, distribution and exhibition, as well as investigate the ways in which discourses around British national identity, gender, race, imperial fantasies and propagandistic interests found a means of expression and representation in cinema.
This module suite invites you to engage with European discourses on social and national identities. It contains two film-based modules: one investigates how memories of the Holocaust and colonial crimes and violence have been dealt with in French-language cinema, by looking at landmark films. A module on contemporary German cinema explores the dynamics of recent German filmmaking, including its approach to questions of transnationalism and transculturalism, particularly concerning the emergence of Turkish-German filmmaking, its approach to the representation of politics, history and the national past, and of gender and sexuality. Another module examines the Russian short story as a genre that articulates the relationship between the self and society, through texts by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and others. This can be complemented through the study of a European language, as the fourth module.
These language modules are for beginners. You can also select a non-beginner language module if you already have some knowledge of the language and want to improve it, but you need to check whether it fits into your timetable.
OR: Free choice of one 15-credit elective module, instead of a language
Through this module suite you will explore three Asian societies – Russia (spanning Europe and Asia), China, and Japan. The themes focus on the notion of culture as a central instrument in the transformation of society – as it was deployed in the 20th century’s two most influential Communist revolutions, in Russia and China, and as it is reflected in the Japanese yakuza-eiga (gangster film). You will compare the development of Russian and Chinese revolutionary culture, including the representation of the revolution and debates around Socialist Realism, examining their expression in a variety of media including film, prose fiction and art. You will also study how the Japanese gangster film reflects social and political issues such as the post-war occupation and 'democratisation' of Japan, its rapid industrialisation and the 'economic miracle', the mass migration from rural to urban areas and its social consequences. This can be complemented with the study of Chinese or Japanese language and culture.
1. Yakuza: Exploring the Japanese Gangster Film (FLM6206, 15 credits)
2. Culture and Revolution: Russia and China (SLM5067)
3. Choose one of the following languages:
4. Free choice of one more 15-credit elective module
You will study the historical processes that gave rise to modern Latin America and shaped its diverse societies. You will gain an insight into the multiple political, ethnic and cultural traditions that characterise the countries of the region. You will also familiarise yourself with key theoretical and analytical concepts specific to the study of Latin American cultural history. Two modules focus on specific cases – the Mexican revolution on the ways in which Mexican artists, writers and intellectuals responded to it and the impact it had on the society and culture of modern Mexico. The second case focuses on Portugal and Brazil and examines colonial power and dissent, with examples of texts spanning from the Portuguese Empire to the social movements of quilombolas and landless rural workers in Brazil today.
If you are a non-native speaker of English and you want to use your semester or year abroad to deepen your English language competence, by analysing the implicit conventions of real-life contemporary English, then this suite is for you. The two modules in this suite will equip you with practical tools to use spoken and written English in a variety of socio-cultural situations. Both modules will boost your academic outcomes while studying through the medium of English, and they will also enhance your employability prospects when considering a future career in multicultural and multilingual contexts. In addition to the two modules, you can choose two more 15-credit modules of your own choice.