Celtic cinematography 15-KC-CE-11

The course, based on film studies as applied to minority languages, aims to explore past and contemporary depictions of the different Celtic countries in film. Given the wide discrepancy in media provision between the different countries, the main cinemas to be studied will be those of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but excerpts will also be shown from Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany. Students will initially examine the concept of minority language media studies and the theoretical basis for using endangered languages in film, considering questions of practicality and audience and the connection (if any) to language revitalization. The main theoretical basis that will be under consideration is the ‘ecology of language’ approach (Haugen 1972), examining the place new media might have in maintaining the use of languages under threat. Each cinema will be examined from a developmental stance, with early representations of the Celtic countries being screened and discussed, as well as more contemporary ones, with important evolutions being noted. Issues such as the development of national cinemas, the reproduction of cinematic stereotypes, the heritage industry, representations of ethnicity and gender, the (responsible) representation of history, landscape and language and emigration will all be discussed and analysed in a number of different films. The main tools of assessment are class participation and the writing up of a number of cinematic analyses over the duration of the course.

Learning contents:

1. The study of Celtic cinema
2. Early Cinematic Representations 1: Wales
3. Screening Scotland
4. Early Cinematic Representations 2: Scotland
5. Subverting Scottish Stereotypes? The Case of Local Hero
6. Formal Challenges in New Scottish Cinema 1
7. Early Cinematic Representations 3: Romanticising Ireland
8. The Heritage Industry: Landscape, Tradition and Modernity
9. Towards a Scottish National Cinema?
10. Welsh History 1: Language and poetics
11. Welsh History 2: Language and ethnicity
12. Screening the Troubles 1: Issues and Approaches
13. Screening the Troubles 2: Gender, genre and ethnicity
14. Screening the Troubles 3: Postmodern Irony
15. Controversies in Representing History