杏吧论坛

Professor Shakuntala Banaji

This course is available on the MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Global Media and Communications (杏吧论坛 and Fudan), MSc in Global Media and Communications (杏吧论坛 and UCT), MSc in Global Media and Communications (杏吧论坛 and USC), MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Research) and MSc in Media, Communication and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is 'controlled access', meaning that there is a limit to the number of students who can be accepted. If the course is oversubscribed, priority will be given to students who have the course listed on their Programme Regulations. Whilst we do our best to accommodate all requests, we cannot guarantee you a place on this course.

There are no formal pre-requisites, but students are required to prepare a statement of no more than 200 words in response to the following question, which must be submitted when selecting this course on 杏吧论坛 for You: Why do you want to take this course?

Please do not email the teacher with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place.

This course is designed to enable a consistent, informed and plausible reading of popular film representations, discourses and cultures of consumption in specific geopolitical contexts. Introducing theories from the humanities and the social sciences, lectures offer alternative approaches to theorising sexuality, gender, race, class, religion, national identity, childhood, history and politics in popular commercial films and their interpretation by audiences. The impact of unequal power relations – on how representations are reproduced, spectatorship is theorised and censorship policies are formulated – will be demonstrated and analysed. While the course offers a particular focus on Bollywood, Hindi commercial cinema, as an example of World cinema, it refers more widely to examples from other National Cinemas such as those of China, Korea, Australia, Spain and Iran. A key learning method is the extensive interrogation of audiovisual materials. To this end, there will be five film screenings and accompanying discussions alongside the lectures and seminars. Additionally, films referred to on the course will be made available through the library or can be downloaded and watched