MEDIA 716 : Love in/Loving the Cinema
Arts
2020 Semester One (1203) (30 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
This course looks at theme of love in the cinema. Why is it that the love story — the state of being in love, of searching for or recovering from love — has been such a staple of movie narratives? What can films teach us about love? And what about the love of cinema itself, cinephilia? Through a number of theoretical readings that draw on a psychoanalytical understanding of the love experience — including texts by Alain Badiou, Roland Barthes, Stanley Cavell, Jacques Lacan, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Luc Nancy, Adam Phillips, Renata Salecl, Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupancic — we will address the working structures of the love event in the cinema from the exquisite anguish of feeling in Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights to love as a repetitive, uncontrollable force in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love; from the repeated refrain of ‘I love you’ in Love Letters to the impossibility of love in the romantic melodrama Now Voyager. We will explore how love in the cinema sustains and makes bearable the experience of love. How the love experience inaugurates a search for signs of love not only in the actions and bearing of the beloved but in the wider world.
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 2: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 3: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 4: | Communication and Engagement |
| Capability 6: | Social and Environmental Responsibilities |
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate specific knowledge of the aesthetic construction of cinema. (Capability 1.1 and 2.1)
- Explain how film both illustrates and critiques themes of inter-personal relationships and love. (Capability 2.2, 2.3 and 3.1)
- Situate film within a broad understanding of human ethics. (Capability 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 6.3)
- Communicate interpretations of films and their philosophical content. (Capability 1.2, 1.3, 2.3, 3.2 and 4.1)
- Research issues pertaining to cinema and the general field of philosophy. (Capability 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.3 and 3.2)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation | 15% | Individual Coursework |
| Proposal and Literature Review | 25% | Individual Coursework |
| Essay | 60% | Individual Coursework |
| 3 types | 100% |
Workload Expectations
This course is a standard 30 point course and students are expected to spend 20 hours per week involved in each 30 point course that they are enrolled in.
For this course, you can expect 3 hours of seminar, 2 hours of film viewing, 10 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 5 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.
Digital Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website at http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information,
look at this Canvas page (https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894),
which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter (https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html).
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.