AIMS
To familiarise students with 'Star theory', how we talk about
stars, how we analyse their performance, how we come to understand what they
represent within national cultures.
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMESTo equip students with the skills to read
'star performance' within a certain set of theoretical and sociological
frameworks. The course will be taught in the Bill Douglas Centre and students
will be encouraged to exploit the considerable archival material on stars
available in the Centre. In this context, Dr Hester Higton, the curator of the
Centre, will be available on a consultation basis to assist students in their
exploiting of the archives. Thus, a further learning outcome will be the ability
to exploit archival material correctly.
LEARNING/TEACHING METHODSWeekly two-hour lecture/seminar to which
students are expected to contribute in the form of group presentations. The
course will be delivered in the Bill Douglas Centre, thus, students will be able
to draw on resources available in the Centre as part of their presentations.
Students will learn to articulate complex ideas based in 'Star theory' and be
able to present coherent analyses of stars viewed within their contexts
[national, ideological, sexual, racial, and other] and their texts [the actual
films they perform in].
ASSIGNMENTS Group presentations [coursework];
One essay of 5000
words.
ASSESSMENT Group presentations [coursework];
One essay of 5000
words.
SYLLABUS PLAN This module will investigate how Stars become iconic,
that is, how they are signs of the indigenous cultural codes, as well as
embodiments either as reflections of or as resistance to ideological
institutions - including the institutional framework of the film industry. We
shall examine how spectators impose their own expectations on Stars who act as
mediators between the real and the imaginary. So, on the one hand, we shall be
discussing in what way do Stars reflect national preoccupations and, on the
other, in what way do we derive pleasure from their performance. After the
initial introductory lectures, students will work in groups on a specific star
[e.g. Sean Connery, Catherine Deneuve, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Gerard
Depardieu, etc] and present their findings at the seminar meetings. This work
will be based in the archives at the Bill Douglas Centre and advisory assistance
will be provided by Dr Hester Higton.
Weeks 1-5
Introductory lectures
1. Star theory
2. Stars:
Hollywood and Europe
3. Stars as intertexts
4. Stars and performance
5. Stars and reception
Weeks 6-10
Student presentations
INDICATIVE BASIC READING LISTRichard Dyer, Stars, London: BFI
Publishing, 1979 [reprinted 1999]
Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film
Stars and Society, London: BFI Publishing, 1986
Christine Gledhill,
Stardom: The Industry of Desire, London: Routledge, 1991
Judith
Mayne, Cinema and Spectatorship, London: Routledge, 1993
Jackie
Stacey, Stargazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship, London:
Routledge, 1994
Yvonne Tasker, Spectacular Bodies: Gender and Genre and
the Action Cinema, London: Routledge, 1993 |
