Information for BA Film and Literature students 2024

Welcome to Film and Television Studies at Warwick!

We are absolutely delighted that you have chosen Warwick as your preferred place of study, and we look forward to welcoming you to the University in September. Below we have suggested some possible ways in which you might prepare for your first term, and it is accompanied by a list of preparatory reading suggested by the tutors who teach the Year 1 modules.

When you join Film and Television Studies this Autumn, you will be a member of a first-year cohort who are following one of two degrees: Film and Literature and Film Studies. All first years study four core modules in Film History, Film and Television Analysis, Film and Television Criticism and Film Theory, plus a number of additional modules.

In the case of Film and Literature students, your additional modules will be Modes of Reading and Adaptation: From Page to Screens. These modules continue into the second term as well.

The reading lists below will give degree-specific preparation, but there are a couple of general points which I thought it might be useful to explain as well.

All Film and Literature students will have taken a literature A Level (usually English), and, consequently, the literature modules assume that students possess some existing knowledge of certain fundamental literary forms and modes of study that are typically explored on A Level syllabuses. In recent years it has tended to be the case that a significant proportion – sometimes around 50% - of our new first years on both degree courses will have taken an A Level in Film or Media Studies. For the benefit of those who have not taken one of these courses at A level, I’d like to stress the fact that you will not be in any way disadvantaged. Our first-year film modules do not presume any existing familiarity with the history of cinema or key approaches to the study of the subject. I should also add that because we study a dramatically broader range of films and topics and practise very different modes of study than is possible on any A Level syllabus, if you have studied film before you will not find that the first year at Warwick simply duplicates a lot of the teaching you’ve already experienced.

With regard to the reading lists, I’d also like to reinforce the fact that degree-level study involves a lot more independent reading than you will be accustomed to doing at A Level. Film modules typically involve the viewing of at least one new film per week and there will also be compulsory supplementary critical reading which you are expected to undertake each week. It would be to your real benefit to undertake some preparatory reading (and viewing) over the summer.

Please also check these webpages for more information and advice about the induction process and the timetable for Welcome Week and the first week of the Autumn over the coming weeks.

We do really look forward to welcoming you to Film and Television Studies in September.

With warm wishes,

Dr Rick Wallace

Director of Film and Television Studies

Preparatory Reading for Film and Literature Students

For all of the core first-year film modules, an important priority should be to extend the range of your film viewing. Try to see as much as you possibly can of all types of film. Make the most of any streaming sites you have access to, along with films shown on television or in your local cinema. It would be especially useful for you to seek out films from parts of the world and periods in film history that you are unfamiliar with.

When you arrive at Warwick, you will be able to find copies or online editions of all the reading material listed below through the University Library. In the meantime, you can find preview versions of many of them through sites such as Google Books, Open Library and publishers’ websites.

Modes of Reading

This module aims to provide students with a grounding in theoretical frameworks and methodologies for reading and interpreting literary and cultural texts. Offering different optics through which to think about culture, the module will introduce you to a variety of critical approaches, allowing you to develop an informed awareness of the possibilities available to you as readers and critics. The module situates its exploration of key theoretical debates in relation to a selection of (predominantly) post-1973 cultural texts, including novels, photographs, plays, films, poetry and music.

The set texts (and album) we will be reading and listening to this year include the following: Chris Kraus's I Love Dick; CAConrad's The Book of Frank; Sa'dallah Wannous's Soiree for the 5th of June, Boots Riley's I'm a Virgo and Richard McGuire's Here.

Before you arrive at Warwick, you could start reading Chris Kraus's I Love Dick, which we'll be discussing for the first 5 weeks. We also recommend that you take a look at the syllabus and dip your toes into the key theoretical and cultural texts for ‘Unit 1’ on Narrative. See the syllabus page for further details. Students might want to become familiar with Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth and Imre Szeman's Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: the Johns Hopkins Guide (2012)and David Lodge and Nigel Wood's Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, third edition (2014). You will have free access to both once you're enrolled.

Adaptation: From Page to Screens (first term)

This module will provide you with a thorough appreciation of a major issue that is central to your Film and Literature degree – the adaptation of texts. The first term offers a broad overview of the field by exploring the work of major theorists, including Bluestone, Cardwell, Elliott, Leitch and Stam and focussing on key debates arising in classic novel adaptation, heritage cinema and television, and popular genres, ending with a study of the figure of Sherlock Holmes.

These are the novels we will focus on in the first term - any edition is fine - the first 3 listed are studied in multiple weeks.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Arthur Conan-Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel

Introductions to Adaptation Theory:

Robert Stam, ‘Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation’, in James Naremore (ed.), Film Adaptation (London: Athlone Press, 2000), pp. 54-76.

Sarah Cardwell's chapter entitled ‘What is (an) Adaptation?’, from Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002).

Film and Television Analysis

The first part of this module will introduce you to the main critical vocabularies for understanding the analysis of film form and meaning. It will offer extensive practice in developing the skills of close audiovisual film analysis.

The second part of the module will introduce you to the scholarly study of television, complementing and enriching your work on film in the first weeks; it will also equip you to follow a television-focussed strand of study through your degree, if you choose to do so.

Suggested reading:

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, twelfth edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019, or earlier editions). This is a useful guide to the terminology of film analysis; it has a comprehensive glossary of terms with which you should familiarise yourself as soon as possible. You can find excerpts from the book on David Bordwell’s website here: https://www.davidbordwell.net/books/index.php#filmart.

Tom Brown and James Walters (eds.) Film Moments (London: BFI, 2010). A fascinating anthology of readings of key moments from a broad spectrum of films. Readers in the UK can find an excerpt from the book on the publisher’s website here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/film-moments-9781838715786/.

Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, The Film Experience: An Introduction, sixth edition (New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2021, or earlier editions). A useful survey book that is best consulted in relation to Bordwell and Thompson.

John Gibbs, Mise-en-Scène: Film Style and Interpretation (London: Wallflower, 2002. A lucid and informative introduction to this key topic for the module.

V.F. Perkins, Film as Film: Understanding and Judging Movies (Penguin Books, 1972; De Capo Edition, 1993). An early and very influential book in film studies, written by a founding member of Film and Television Studies at Warwick.

Jonathan Bignell, An Introduction to Television Studies, fourth edition (London: Routledge, 2023, or earlier editions). A very useful introductory text on television studies. Readers in the UK can find an excerpt from the book on the publisher’s website: https://www.routledge.com/An-Introduction-to-Television-Studies/Bignell-Woods/p/book/9781138665828.

Milly Buonanno, The Age of Television: Experiences and Theories (Bristol: Intellect, 2008). A good critical and historical survey of many of the key transformations in television and television studies.

John Corner, Critical Ideas in Television Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2009). A very useful introduction to key theoretical frameworks in television studies.

Karen Lury, Interpreting Television (London: Hodder Arnold, 2005). An excellent introduction to the textual study of television.

Film History

This module is designed to introduce you to the study of the history of film and the study of the relationships between history and film. It will look at key film schools and movements in world cinema history from its first decades and through the twentieth century. The module will provide a survey of a range of national cinemas and situate them in relation to specific historical moments in the history of cinema. It will explore some of the factors in the global success of Hollywood cinema in the first half of the twentieth century and examine some of the ‘new waves’ and ‘new cinemas’ which have sprouted up across the globe since the post World War Two war period. By exploring how cinematic movements are constituted and conceptualised in critical, aesthetic and political discourses, the module will aim to reflect on questions of canon formation, critical practice, the political impact of cinema, circuits of transnationalism, and modes of film production.