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CULS5204C

Cultural Studies in Film and Video

Term 2, 2019/20

Lecture: Wednesday 6.45-9.30 pm

Venue: Room 307, Esther Lee Building 利黃瑤璧樓

Lecturer: Prof. LIM Song Hwee 林松輝

Email: shlim@cuhk.edu.hk Office: Room 213, Leung Kau Kui Building

Office Tel: 3943 9872

Tutor: Wen Mingrui 溫明鋭

Email: mingruiwen@cuhk.edu.hk

Course description

This course will examine a wide range of film and video work from a cultural

studies perspective. It aims to demonstrate, through the detailed analysis of

selected work, how the media of film and video have represented and

problematized key concerns in cultural studies, such as ideology, identity and

industry. The course will explore the role of film and video in the mediation of

our understanding of culture in its myriad manifestations, and the ways in which

cultural studies could be enriched from a critical engagement with film and video

as a media form and practice.

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INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to demonstrate an

advanced understanding of a selection of key concepts in cultural studies and an

ability to analyse film and video critically. You would have engaged with

scholarship on the topics and acquired the vocabulary for film analysis. You

would also be able to demonstrate your understanding of these topics and

techniques through classroom presentations and discussions.

LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Teaching is by a weekly lecture-cum-seminar session. The lecture (typically

90 minutes) will introduce key concepts and provide film analysis. For the

seminar (typically 60 minutes) students will be expected to do group

presentations on topics related to the module.

The language of instruction for this course is English; students can choose to

also speak in Cantonese and Putonghua in seminars and during

presentations.

Topics for group presentation in seminars:

To be announced during the semester.

ASSESSMENTS

10% - Class participation/attendance

20% - Group presentation

70% - Term paper (can be written in either English or Chinese)

Grade descriptors

A Outstanding performance on all learning outcomes.

A- Generally outstanding performance on all (or almost all) learning

outcomes.

B Substantial performance on all learning outcomes, OR high performance on

some learning outcomes which compensates for less satisfactory

performance on others, resulting in overall substantial performance.

C Satisfactory performance on the majority of learning outcomes, possibly

with a few weaknesses.

D Barely satisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes.

F Unsatisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes, OR failure

to meet specified assessment requirements.

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Honesty in Academic Work: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Honesty in Academic Work: A Guide for Students and Teachers

The Chinese University of Hong Kong places very high importance on honesty in academic work submitted by students, and adopts a policy of zero tolerance on academic dishonesty. While "academic dishonesty" is the overall name, there are several sub-categories as follows: (i) Plagiarism (ii) Undeclared multiple submission (iii) Cheating in tests and examinations (iv) All other acts of academic dishonesty Any related offence will lead to disciplinary action including termination of studies at the University. Everyone should make himself/herself familiar with the content of this website and thereby help avoid any practice that would not be acceptable: https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/ English: https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/Eng_htm_files_(2013-14)/index_page2.htm

中文：https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/Chi_htm_files_(2013-

14)/index_page2.htm All student assignments in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes should be submitted via VeriGuide: https://academic.veriguide.org/academic/login_CUHK.jspx

GENERAL RECOMMENDED READING LIST

Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson (2012) Film Art: An Introduction. New

York: McGraw-Hill, 10th edition.

Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen (eds.) (2009) Film Theory and Criticism:

Introductory Readings. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 7th

edition.

Hall, Stuart (ed.) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying

Practices. London: Sage.

Hartley, John (2011) Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key

Concepts, fourth edition. New York and London: Routledge.

Hill, John, and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.) (1998) The Oxford Guide to Film

Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.

Stam, Robert (2000) Film Theory: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell

Publishing.

Tinkcom, Matthew, and Amy Villarejo (eds.) (2001) Keyframes: Popular Cinema

and Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge.

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SYLLABUS PLAN

Week 1 Introduction

Week 2 Dialogues in Research

PART I IDEOLOGY

Week 3 Culture Industry and Consumption

Week 4 NO CLASSES – public holiday

Week 5 Cultural Identity and Production

Week 6 State Apparatuses and Power

PART II IDENTITY

Week 7 Sinophone Articulations

Week 8 Postcolonial Ethnography

Week 9 Guest lecture by Stewart Home

Week 10 Essay writing workshop

PART III ITINERARY

Week 11 Roots and Routes

Week 12 Migrating Labour

PART IV INSTITUTION AND INDUSTRY

Week 13 High Concept Movie– to be rescheduled

Week 14 Art Cinema

Week 15 Concluding lecture

Course outline

Week 1, 8th January 2020

Introduction

+ HOW TO READ A FILM (I): FRAMING AND SHOT COMPOSITION

Recommended viewing

1. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 2007)

2. Opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics (YouTube clips)

Required reading

Andrew, Dudley (2000) “The ‘Three Ages’ of Cinema Studies and the Age to

Come.” PMLA 115 (3): 341-51.

Hall, Stuart (2007) “Encoding, Decoding.” In Simon During (ed.) The Cultural

Studies Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 477-487.

Week 2, 15th January 2020

Dialogues in Research

When Pepe the Frog Meets Freedom Hi:

Re-appropriation of Symbol and Speech in Protest Movements

Speakers: Prof. Katrien Jacobs and Prof. Lim Song Hwee

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PART I: IDEOLOGY

Week 3, 22nd January 2020

Culture Industry and Consumption

+ HOW TO READ A FILM (II): MISE-EN-SCENE

Recommended viewing

1. The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006)

2. Commercial advertisement on TV

Required reading

Adorno, Theodor W., and Max Horkheimer (1993) “The Culture Industry:

Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” In Simon During (ed.) The Cultural

Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 29-43.

Storey, John (1999) Chapter 3, “Cultural consumption as communication.” In

Cultural consumption and Everyday Life. London: Arnold, pp. 36-60.

Week 4, 29th January 2020 - NO CLASSES (LUNAR NEW YEAR HOLIDAYS)

Week 5, 5th February 2020

Cultural Identity and Production

+ HOW TO READ A FILM (III): EDITING

Recommended viewing

1. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

2. CCTV footage on YouTube

Required reading

Benjamin, Walter (1999) “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical

Reproduction.” In Hannah Arendt (ed.) Illuminations, trans. Harry Zorn.

London: Pimlico, pp. 211-44.

Saxton, Libby (2007) “Secrets and Revelations: Off-Screen Space in Michael

Haneke’s Caché (2005).” Studies in French Cinema 7 (1): 5-17.

Week 6, 12th February 2020

State Apparatuses and Power

+ HOW TO READ A FILM (IV): NARRATION AND POINT OF VIEW

Recommended viewing

1. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

2. Cops (US TV series, since 1989)

Required reading

Foucault, Michel (1991) “Panopticism.” In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the

Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Penguin Books, pp. 195-228.

MacDonald, Megan C. (2012) “Humanism at the limit and post-restante in the

colony: The prison of the postcolonial nation in Jacques Audiard’s Un

Prophète (2009).” International Journal of Francophone Studies 15 (3/4):

561-80.

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PART II: IDENTITY

Week 7, 19th February 2020

Sinophone Articulations

Recommended viewing

1. A Time to Live, A Time to Die 童年往事 (Hou Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢, 1985)

2. The Melaka Story: Simply Peranakan

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoc7QDppH3A)

Required reading

Shih, Shu-mei (2007) Introduction to Visuality and Identity: Sinophone

Articulations across the Pacific. Berkeley: University of California Press,

pp. 1-39.

Yip, June (1997) “Constructing a Nation: Taiwanese History and the Films of Hou

Hsiao-hsien.” In Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu (ed.) Transnational Chinese

Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press, pp. 139-168.

Week 8, 26th February 2020

Postcolonial Ethnography

Recommended viewing

1. Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006)

2. Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sihm0dtdsAc)

Required reading

Chow, Rey (1995) Part 3, “Film as Ethnography; or, Translation Between

Cultures in the Postcolonial World.” In Primitive Passions: Visuality,

Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema. New York:

Columbia University Press, pp. 173-202.

Silvey, Vivien (2013) “Pluralism and cultural imperialism in the network films

Babel and Lantana.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 49 (5): 582-95.

Week 9, 4th March 2020 – GUEST LECTURE BY STEWART HOME

[details to be announced later]

Week 10, 11th March 2020

Essay writing workshop

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PART III: ITINERARY

Week 11, 18th March 2020

Roots and Routes

Recommended viewing

1. The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin, 2007)

2. Who Do You Think You Are (Olivia Colman)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHO8U0gs2tQ&list=PLZsy4Rj7uAiRDAih7

BcoYwbjTRnUse4IC)

Required reading

Berghahn, Daniela (2007) “No place like home? Or impossible homecomings in

the films of Fatih Akin.” New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film 4 (3):

141-57.

Brah, Avtar (1996) “Diaspora, border and transnational identities.” In

Cartographies of diaspora: contesting identities. London and New York:

Routledge, pp. 179-210.

Week 12, 25th March 2020

Migrating Labour

Recommended viewing

1. Ilo Ilo/爸媽不在家 (Anthony Chen/陳哲藝, 2013)

2. Last Train Home/歸途列車 (Fan Lixin/范立欣, 2009)

Required reading

Lan, Pei-chia (2006) Chapter 1, “A Bounded Global Market.” In Global Cinderellas:

Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan. Durham: Duke

University Press, pp. 29-58.

Naficy, Hamid (2001) Chapter 1, “Situating Accented Cinema.” In An Accented

Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton

University Press, pp. 10-39.

PART IV: INSTITUTION AND INDUSTRY

Week 13, 1st April 2020 (to be rescheduled)

High Concept Movie

Recommended viewing

1. Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)

2. Movie tie-in merchandizing

Required reading

Berry, Chris (2003) “‘What’s big about the big film?’: ‘de-Westernizing the

blockbuster in Korea and China.” In Julian Stringer (ed.), Movie

Blockbusters. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 217-29.

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Wyatt, Justin (1994) Chapter 1, “A Critical Redefinition: The Concept of High

Concept.” In High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood. Austin,

Texas: University of Texas Press.

Week 13, 8th April 2020

Art Cinema

Recommended viewing

1. Vive L’amour 愛情萬歲 (Tsai Ming-liang/蔡明亮, 1994)

2. Kaili Blues/路邊野餐 (Bi Gan/畢贛, 2015)

Required reading

Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) Chapter 2, “The Production of Belief: Contribution to an

Economy of Symbolic Goods.” In The Field of Cultural Production: Essays

on Art and Literature. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 74-111.

Neale, Steve (1981) “Art Cinema as Institution.” Screen 22 (1): 11-39.

Week 15, 15th April 2020

Concluding lecture

[details to follow later]