Film & TV and Philosophy BA (Hons)

Core modules

Theorising the Screen

This module explores some of the key theories that have shaped our understanding of the screen. It draws upon classic works of film theory and television studies as well as theories that have adhered to more marginal and alternative screens, audiences, and industries.

Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy

This module will introduce you to the ideas of the key thinkers that have helped to shape the development of 20th-century philosophy. Specific ideas and themes covered will include: the significance of Kant in the development of contemporary European thought, Husserl and phenomenology, Heidegger on the authentic life as well as work on the nature of language, meaning and the mind by contemporary British and American analytic philosophers.

Humanities in the workplace

This module will give you a taste of live industry experience. You will carry out a work placement, write a report around your experience and set clear work-based learning objectives.

Film & TV optional modules

British Cinema

This module examines British Cinema since the 1960s. It looks at a wide range of films to understand how British cinema represents issues such as nation, class, race and gender. It discusses key genres, movements and theoretical debates.

Analysing British Television

This module introduces you to key ways of understanding the development of British television. It examines the evolution of British television industries and institutions from their beginnings up to the present, looking at important factors and influences that have shaped the industry over time. It explores different accounts of ‘Britishness’ both in television shows or formats and in the relationship between television producers and audiences.

European Cinema and the City

This module starts from the dual observation that cinema is the art of the modern and that the city is the space of the modern. It builds on this to examine the interaction of cinema and the urban: how film has both represented and been shaped by the city.

Philosophy optional modules

Applied Philosophy II

Philosophy is often viewed as a remote and highly esoteric discipline that has very little to say to ‘ordinary people’ in their workaday lives.

This module will challenge this view, and examine the ways in which philosophical forms of questioning and analysis can assist us both in our personal and in our working lives. Drawing upon both ancient and modern philosophical sources, the module will examine the way in which philosophy can provide us with ideas and arguments that point us towards greater self-insight and ultimately better ways of living.

Philosophy and Media

This interdisciplinary module aims to view the media philosophically through the lens of everyday life. Its central organising theme is the media’s potential to operate as a powerful philosophical tool within an image saturated society, with the capability to transmit, influence and critique dominant ideological norms.

The Philosophy of Time

Study two opposed contemporary theories of time's flow and three opposed ontological positions regarding the existence of the past, present and future.

Core module

Dissertation

The final year dissertation module enables you to undertake a sustained, single piece of independently researched work on a topic of your choice, under expert supervision.

OR

Humanities Research Project

Explore your interests in a way that draws on both subject areas. Combine the knowledge and skills you have gained in each of your subjects to complete an interdisciplinary piece of research. You can deliver your project either as a written dissertation or through an alternative creative format such as a publication, film, podcast, website, or performance, supported by a shorter essay.

Film & TV optional modules

American Television since 1950

This module examines American television from the 1950s to the current moment. It moves from the emergence of the Classic Network Era through to the Post-Network era of digital television. It places American television in its historical, industrial and cultural context. It considers the formal and aesthetic properties of American television programmes and engages with the organisation and history of network television (for example NBC) and cable television (for example HBO).

American Cinema since 1949: Margins and Mainstreams

This very popular module explores American cinema from 1949 to the present day by looking at different but interrelated areas of production, typically including Hollywood, the independent sector, and the experimental-underground cinema.

International Cinemas II

This module considers a variety of subjects pertaining to the study of international cinemas. Issues and concepts such as slow cinema, New Wave cinema, Diasporic filmmaking and world cinema blockbusters will feature amongst case studies of European, South American and Asian cinemas. While it will pay due attention to film style and form and to the way films engage with socio-cultural and political contexts, it will also examine the policy and film industrial frameworks within which film is produced.

Philosophy optional modules

Wittgenstein and Heidegger

This module introduces you to some of the central problems in contemporary philosophy through an examination of the work of two of the most important philosophers of the 20th Century: Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The overall aim of the module is to encourage you to question and wonder about your experience of the wider world and to show the extent to which answers to the philosophical questions posed by both these philosophers can change the way we think about ourselves and the world in which we live.

Reasons for Action

The aim of the module is to introduce students to selected issues around the general topic: what kind of reasons for acting one way rather than another are good reasons? One possible reason for doing something is the belief that it’s the right thing to do: we ask whether morality can give us a reason for action. But we also consider other reasons for action (e.g. just wanting to do something) and what it is that we should be aiming for in life in general.

Advanced Topics in Applied Philosophy: Emotion and Power

The overall aim of this module is to show how philosophical modes of inquiry can allow you to make sense of the personal experiences, professional practices and contemporary ways of being that have become central to many aspects of human life in western societies today.

Philosophy and Film

This module aims to view film-philosophy via two interconnected perspectives. You'll learn about the specificity of the film medium and its relationship with philosophy.