Course code

HIK6436.HT

old course code

Course title in Estonian

Erikursus kultuuriloost

Course title in English

Special Course in Cultural Theory

ECTS credits

6.0

Assessment form

Examination

lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

lecturer of 2024/2025 Spring semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

Course aims

- to explore the relationship between film and cultural memory
- to introduce students to key concepts in film studies (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing and sound; theories of spectatorship and reception)
- to introduce students to different memory concepts such as cultural memory and communicative memory (J. Assmann) as well as concepts developed specifically in relation to mass media technologies such as “memory films” (Erll 2011), “prosthetic memory” (Landsberg).
- to become familiar with various types of cinematic expression (fiction, documentaries and experimental, avant-garde films)
- to help students engage with a variety of visual and textual material
- to develop students’ skills in contextualising and analysing cinematic text
- to foster understanding of the historical, sociopolitical and cultural contexts of East European cinemas and of the aesthetic forms in which the films operate.
- to develop students’ competence in applying various theories to a range of filmic texts


Brief description of the course

Cinema is powerfully implicated in the way societies remember their pasts. This course enables students to combine film and memory studies in order to explore the changing relationships between Eastern European film, the past and the future. This includes the ways in which the past is made relevant in the present. More specifically, it explores the role Eastern European mainstream, art-house, fiction and documentary films play in the production, the storage, communication, dissemination and interpretation of collective memories. While focusing on the specificities of the Eastern European past, this course will seek to answer the following questions: how do films represent memory? How do films generate shared memories of mass violence, trauma and resistance? How do the aesthetic qualities of films contribute to generating interest in the silenced, lesser known aspects of the Eastern European past?
NB. A precondition for attending this course is watching films! Access will be provided to all the films listed as mandatory viewing. The time spent watching films is factored in the total hours / week.

Learning outcomes in the course

Upon completing the course the student:
- will have been introduced to a range of concepts in film and memory studies;
- will know how to analyse the formal and narrative components of film;
- will be familiar with various types of cinematic expression;
- will learn to connect film to broader developments in memory studies.

Teacher

Diana Popa

Study programmes containing that course

Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/24.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/23.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/22.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/21.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/20.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/19.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/18.HT)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/17.HT)