Film & Media Studies

At the end of the 20th century, several scholars famously pronounced that society had become “posthuman” (N. Katherine Hayles) and that “we are cyborgs” (Donna Haraway). Two and a half decades later, this diagnosis seems even more accurate: cyborgs, androids, and artificial intelligence populate literature and film; ‘cyborg’ technology in medicine can replaces limbs, organs, and senses; and artificial intelligence assists humans in various ways in their daily lives, from applications in their phones to digital assistants and chatbots. What are the implications of these developments for a traditional understanding of the human and the relationship between humans and machines? How do these transformations impact ideas about, and representations of, the human body and embodiment? What ethical and socio-political issues are at stake? The course explores these questions with the help of theoretical approaches from the fields of Posthumanism, Gender Studies and Critical Race Studies, as well as literary texts and films. Students read two contemporary novels – Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021) – and watch two films – Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014) and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012). They also have a chat with Chat GPT.

The focus of this course will be the discussion and comparative analysis of English language narrative and film within the domain of the Strange, Fantastic, Sci-fi, Slipstream and New Weird sub-genres. The lectures and discussions will cover the cross-medium experience, adaptation, film theory and literary "readings" of film. An interdisciplinary approach involving literary theory, film theory, philosophy, pop culture and psychoanalysis will be employed in these analyses.

This course introduces students to photography as a tool for communication and encourages students to reflect critically on issues of form and content to convey meaning. Students will learn key technical processes in contemporary image making and consider existing photographic theories alongside emerging digital practices. Students will work individually to realise set exercises in and out of class and produce a completed series of images to a set brief.