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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - Hispanic Studies

Undergraduate Course: Latin American Film: History, Identity and Social Justice (Ordinary) (ELCH09018)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course - delivered by a mixture of presentations, set readings, films to analyse, and class discussion - will offer an introduction to a range of Latin American films from different periods and styles, focusing on how filmmakers have recorded and contested societal and political upheaval. Students will examine a select corpus (originally in Spanish and in some cases in indigenous languages) in order to explore issues relating to history, identity and social justice. The syllabus includes films and criticism from a range of polities across the region and the course will make reference to broader continental and international currents, such as the New Latin American Cinema. The material will be discussed in terms of both the aesthetic contributions the films have made and their foregrounding of discourses on memory, nation, gender and ethnicity.

The course is delivered in Spanish.
Course description A selection of the following themes will be covered:

- Introduction to Film Theory and Analysis;
- Latin American Film history overview;
- Third Cinema, Imperfect Cinema, and pornomiseria;
- Patricio Guzman and the Pinochet dictatorship;
- Post-dictatorship film in Argentina;
- Urban culture and film aesthetics;
- Displacement and the politics of land;
- Gender and sexuality
- Indigenous and Afro-Latin American narratives.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Ordinary and visiting students only.
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesIn order to be eligible to take 4th Year Options, Visiting Students should have the equivalent of at least two years of study at University level of the appropriate language(s) and culture(s).
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  4
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 1x 500-word commentary on selected film clip [in Spanish] ¿ 40%

1x 1000-word essay [in English or Spanish, as preferred] ¿ 60%
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Situate a range of Latin American films in their appropriate artistic contexts;
  2. Understand the importance of cultural interventions in broader political, social and identitarian struggles in Latin America;
  3. Apply key concepts and terminology in writing on Latin American film;
  4. Discern the appropriate balance between context/formal film analysis for written assignments.
Reading List
Selected films - the primary sources for this course - will be made available.

Key readings will be made available on the Learn site or through a Resource List and will be read weekly for class study.

Additional reading includes:
Aguilar, Gonzalo. Otros mundos: Un ensayo sobre el nuevo cine argentino (Buenos Aires: Santiago Arcos, 2006)

Andermann, Jens. New Argentine Cinema (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2012)

Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (London and New York: Routledge, 2000)

King, John. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. London & New York; Verso, 1990.

King, John, Ana M. López and Manuel Alvarado. Mediating Two Worlds: Cinematic Encounters in the Americas. London: British Film Institute, 1993.

Martin, Michael T. New Latin American Cinema. Vol I & II. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1997.

Page, Joanna. Crisis and Capitalism in Contemporary Argentine Cinema (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009)

Pick, Zuzana M. The New Latin American Cinema: a Continental Project. Austin: U of Texas P, 1993.

Shaw, Deborah. Contemporary Latin American Cinema; Breaking into the Global Market. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

Shohat, Ella and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (London and New York: Routledge, 1994)

Stam, Robert. Film Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)

Stock, Ann Marie. Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Charlotte Gleghorn
Tel: (0131 6)51 3237
Email: Charlotte.Gleghorn@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk
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