Module overview
Fantasy film and fiction spans a wide range of texts, from Gothic 'classics' and feminist fairy tales, to Utopian literature and musicals. Analysing fantasy texts alongside psychoanalytic and cultural theories will enable you to engage with questions concerning the body, sexual identity and genre. To enhance your interdisciplinary skills working in literature and film we will draw on theories of the gaze, the uncanny, abjection and identification. NOTE: this module includes study of some modern horror films. Students may find some of the images from these films upsetting, and should be aware of the course content in advance.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- Utopianism and dystopianism in film and fiction.
- Some important fantasy and horror sub-genres, such as body horror, the children’s fantasy film, gothic/supernatural horror;
- Key psychoanalytic concepts useful in the analysis of fantasy such as the uncanny and abjection;
- the ways in which the module texts operate as a space in which sexual, racial and other forms of difference are interrogated;
- The critical relationship between filmic and literary texts, including theories of adaptation;
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- present the findings from your reading in class discussion;
- structure an argument in written form over 2000 words.
- analyse complex written texts, and work effectively across and between fictional, filmic and theoretical texts;
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Close textual analysis
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- describe the primary qualities of various fantasy sub-genres
- deploy key film theories and methodologies in the analysis of both filmic and literary texts;
- evaluate and put to work relevant psychoanalytic and gender theories;
Syllabus
This module is concerned with fantasy film and fiction, involving analysis of a range of fantasy, science- fiction, Gothic and horror texts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, alongside psychoanalytic and cultural theories of fantasy, identity, and genre. It is organized around a number of discrete blocks of two and three weeks, focusing on Gothic 'classics', feminist fairy tales, musicals, Utopian literature, and more general writing and images specifically concerned with the body and sexual identity, as well as psychoanalytic theories of the gaze, the uncanny, abjection and identification. NOTE: this module includes study of some modern horror films. Students may find some of the images from these films upsetting, and should be aware of the course content in advance.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Screenings
- individual essay consultation
Learning activities include
- preparing for weekly seminars, in which all students present something from their reading and viewing during the week;
- individual research, including web-based research
- making notes whilst viewing a film
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Independent Study | 123 |
Teaching | 27 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Ros e ma ry’s Baby (Roman Polanski, US 1968). Film
Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter et al, US 1999). Film
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, UK 1985). Film
Orlando (Sally Potter, UK 1992). Film
A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK 1946). Film
B ra m St oke r’s Dra cula (Francis Ford Coppola, US 1992). Film
Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, US/Canada 2000). Film
The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, US 2001). Film
Twleve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, US 1996). Film
The Fly (David Cronenberg, US 1986). Film
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, US 1939). Film
Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, US 2001). Film
Textbooks
Angela Carter. The Bloody Chamber.
Annette Kuhn (ed) (1990). Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.
Virginia Woolf. Orlando.
Bram Stoker. Dracula.
Carol J. Clover (1992). Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the modern horror film. London: BFI.
Barbara Creed (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback
- short presentation each seminar on the reading/viewing you have done in preparation for that class;
- individual consultation in preparation for essays, and feedback when the essay is marked.
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 60% |
Essay | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External