FS20140 Irish Cinema & TV

Academic Year 2024/2025

This module offers an in-depth study of Irish cinema and television from historical, cultural, social and economic perspectives. Spanning different cinematic and televisual genres from documentary to political thriller, and from the sitcom to reality television, students will develop an understanding of how Irish people and society both shape and are shaped by screen culture through an analysis of key texts. Eschewing unhelpfully narrow definitions of Irishness, this module offers an examination of the Irish experience both at home and abroad, examining how these films and television programmes shape our conception of national identity at a time of increased cultural and migrational flows both into and out of Ireland (both North and South).

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module, students should be able to identify the key phases and filmmakers in the history of Irish Cinema; analyse the relationship between socio-economic change and Irish screen culture; appreciate the impact of non-Irish film and television on notions of Irish screen culture; demonstrate an awareness of aesthetic and formal patterns across global and local productions; discuss cinematic discourse on national identity using the vocabulary and theory of Film and Media Studies; and compose an essay specific to the module’s content which demonstrates a firm grasp of the assigned readings and an ability to interpret the texts of the module.

Indicative Module Content:

Screen Culture and National Identity

Influence on Irish Screen Culture of dominant external representations (e.g. Hollywood, British media)

Screen culture and diaspora

Irish screen culture and genre forms

Irish screen culture and minority identities

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

10
Small Group

10
Specified Learning Activities

20
Autonomous Student Learning

85
Total

125
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Students will attend lectures that customarily begin with response and discussion of the previous week's screening. These will occasionally be led by groups based on their reading response participatory work.


Critical writing is a key element of assessed work and students will complete a mid-term assignment that requires short focused response to a prompt, while the final assignment gives the students a larger word count in which to develop an incisive analysis of key visual texts encountered on the course. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade

Not yet recorded.

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students will receive written feedback on assignments. Students will have an opportunity to attend feedback sessions with class tutors. Students have opportunity to meet individually with lecturer during weekly scheduled hours throughout term.