Module finder

The aim of every language course at the University is to enable you to communicate in your target language at that particular level and in your particular area of interest. We use the word ‘communicate’ in its widest sense, meaning that you will not only be able to talk to people in the language but also to develop your proficiency in listening, reading, and writing. This means that the course aims for you to understand all the things which affect communication in that language, including knowledge of how the language is used, how it works and how to analyse it, and the cultural contexts in which it is spoken.
This particular module is aimed at students having already met the learning outcomes of stage 5.

Following an emphasis on psychoanalysis and post-structuralism in the 1970s, academic writing on film since the mid-1980s focussed increasingly on the role of history in the interpretation of cinematic texts, accompanied by a ‘return to the archive’. Engagement with a new range of empirical sources and a multiplicity of ‘voices’ intensified the debate around the question where meaning resides (especially whether there is a singular and identifiable origin or source of meaning). Reception studies interrogated the traditional critical priority given to concepts such as the ‘auteur’, to psychoanalytical frameworks, and even the status of the filmic text itself. This module aims to discuss the challenges of these interventions. We will investigate what motivates particular trends in film theory, and how and why certain critical perspectives become dominant. Some of the most prominent questions this module addresses are: How have the radical technological changes over the past decades impacted on the study of cinema? What is the status and relevance today of cinema’s 20th century ‘classical’ back catalogue? What is the value of ‘old’ films, and if cinema is ‘dead’, as some commentators claim, what are the prospects for film in a post-cinema, YouTube, iPhone, NetFlix, and Wikipedia age? Looking beyond academia, what effects have these changes had on the practices of cinephilia (the love of/for cinema)?

Following an emphasis on psychoanalysis and post-structuralism in the 1970s, academic writing on film since the mid-1980s focussed increasingly on the role of history in the interpretation of cinematic texts, accompanied by a ‘return to the archive’. Engagement with a new range of empirical sources and a multiplicity of ‘voices’ intensified the debate around the question where meaning resides (especially whether there is a singular and identifiable origin or source of meaning). Reception studies interrogated the traditional critical priority given to concepts such as the ‘auteur’, to psychoanalytical frameworks, and even the status of the filmic text itself. This module aims to discuss the challenges of these interventions. We will investigate what motivates particular trends in film theory, and how and why certain critical perspectives become dominant. Some of the most prominent questions this module addresses are: How have the radical technological changes over the past decades impacted on the study of cinema? What is the status and relevance today of cinema’s 20th century ‘classical’ back catalogue? What is the value of ‘old’ films, and if cinema is ‘dead’, as some commentators claim, what are the prospects for film in a post-cinema, YouTube, iPhone, NetFlix, and Wikipedia age? Looking beyond academia, what effects have these changes had on the practices of cinephilia (the love of/for cinema)?

This module is designed to explore in detail the key areas of feminism, postcolonial theory, and cultural semiotics i.e. the analysis of cultural signs, whether in visual culture, such as advertising, political culture, or based in cultural practices. The module focuses on core ideas about misogyny, discrimination, the psychology of colonialism, and cultural consumption.
We will focus on selections from major texts which have been foundational in the study of culture, resistance, and domination. These texs are available in English allowing students with no prior knowledge of French or Francophone contexts to engage with the module.

This module is designed to explore in detail the key areas of feminism, postcolonial theory, and cultural semiotics i.e. the analysis of cultural signs, whether in visual culture, such as advertising, political culture, or based in cultural practices. The module focuses on core ideas about misogyny, discrimination, the psychology of colonialism, and cultural consumption.
We will focus on selections from major texts which have been foundational in the study of culture, resistance, and domination. These texs are available in English allowing students with no prior knowledge of French or Francophone contexts to engage with the module.

The module involves audio-lectures, which include trigger questions, and independent study. Students are expected to carry out some reading in advance of listening to each session, in order to make the most of the sessions.

The module involves audio-lectures, which include trigger questions, and independent study. Students are expected to carry out some reading in advance of listening to each session, in order to make the most of the sessions.

The module involves audio-lectures, which include trigger questions, and independent study. Students are expected to carry out some reading in advance of listening to each session, in order to make the most of the sessions.

The module involves audio-lectures, which include trigger questions, and independent study. Students are expected to carry out some reading in advance of listening to each session, in order to make the most of the sessions.

The framing of this module is that Machiavelli has seriously misled modern political thinking by permitting a wedge to be driven between morality and politics. Even if that was not Machiavelli’s intention, that has been the consequence of his ideas. Thus, this module can be approached as an extended criticism and response to Machiavellianism in political thought and in politics. We will recover a lost way of thinking that does not drive a wedge between morality and politics. This recovery will show us a more subtle way of thinking about morality and politics in order to understand that this earlier tradition of thought has more depth and rings more true with regard to our own moral convictions. However, the purpose is not primarily about beating up Machiavelli, enjoyable though that is; our primary purpose is to think more deeply about actual political problems that challenge our own moral beliefs. Our primary texts come from the ancient Greeks and the focus is on the ethical use of political power – whether that is possible and what it would like like in practice. Who should take this module? It should appeal to those who think Machiavelli was right, but who are not afraid to have their convictions challenged. It should appeal to those who disagree with Machiavelli and are looking for penetrating arguments to use against him. It should appeal to those who observe contemporary politics and are alarmed that we are seeing blatant dishonesty, torture, arms sales to oppressive regimes, and a host of other behaviours that we feel are deeply wrong. After a brief recap of Machiavelli to set the stage, we will dive in to an analysis of those thinkers who defined the tradition of Western political thought before Machiavelli, Plato and Aristotle. Through them we will find a richer and more profound – and more applicable to our world – understanding of the conflict between morality and politics, more profound than any modern thought infected with Machiavelli’s ideas. This module will actively undermine cynical, realist thinking about politics that becomes a lazy excuse for not asking ethical questions of our politicians or ourselves.