FHEQ level

This course is set at Level 7 (Masters) in the national Framework for Higher Education Qualifications.

Course Aims

Exploring a wide range of films, theoretical debates and social and historical contexts, the programme aims to provide students with an advanced knowledge of the expressive and representational possibilities of cinema and of the history and variety of film scholarship. The core courses and options seek to introduce students to the key historical and theoretical paradigms of film studies and to develop skills in critical and contextual analysis and advanced research methods. Students can also broaden their field of study by selecting approved optional modules from other MA programmes within the School of Humanities at Sussex. On such courses, students are able to explore the intellectual cross-currents and interactions between film and other practices of representation (for example, literature and media culture).

The core courses offer a rigorous higher-level introduction to scholarly practices of film history and film theory, while the optional modules enable students to develop further frameworks for broadening their interests in the discipline. The degree culminates in the writing of a dissertation, a substantial independent research project that allows students to apply knowledge and methodologies learned from the taught modules to a film or cinema topic that particularly interests them. The dissertation provides scope for examining areas not covered in depth by the taught courses themselves.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of the programme, the successful student will be able to demonstrate:

(1) A specialised knowledge of dominant intellectual traditions within film studies;

(2) An understanding of pertinent critical structures and frameworks for the analysis of cinematic texts and practices;

(3) An ability to understand, interrogate, evaluate and apply key methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks relevant to the advanced study of film and cinema;

(4) An understanding of the ways in which a range of different cinematic cultures interrelate with their stylistic, formal, theoretical, social, cultural and political contexts;

(5) The ability to engage systematically and critically with a broad range of concepts and approaches in film studies, and to communicate the conclusions of that engagement to others;

(6) Oral and written skills of clarity, rigour, precision and concision in the presentation and criticism of arguments and positions;

(7) The ability to work individually and in groups in the processing of course materials;

(8) The ability to organise one¿s time, to work independently, to research complex material, to make appropriate use of electronic and other resources;

(9) The ability to produce well-written and well-presented word-processed essays that demonstrate a more sophisticated engagement with learning and communicative procedures than would be expected at undergraduate level;

(10) The ability to produce a substantial and original piece of independent critical and/or theoretical research in the form of a critically argued dissertation.

Part-time course composition