University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm Tue

Come to the movies! In this module we'll look at techniques common to poetry and cinema (an ancient art and a very modern one). We'll pay particular attention to Modernism at the movies, looking at works by T.S. Eliot, H.D., Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, Samuel Beckett, Charlie Chaplin and others; we'll also look to the 'golden age' of Hollywood via (among others) the poems of Frank O'Hara and Sylvia Plath. We'll explore how poetry and cinema met and produced newforms by discussing the film-poem from its birth in Surrealism to its flourishing in our digital present, taking in the pioneering work of Germaine Dulac, Man Ray, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. We'll also discuss the different uses of poetry in a range of world cinemas, including Italian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s (Pier Paolo Pasolini and Michelangelo Antonioni), in Soviet cinema (especially Tarkovsky), in US cinema (Terence Malick and Julie Dash), in Iranian new wave cinema (Kiarostami) and in Bollywood. Students will watch a range of movies online and at in-School screenings, and will have the option ofproducing a short film in lieu of a written assessment. No prior knowledge of film is assumed for this module. (Group E)

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass EN2003 and pass EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2-hour seminar and 2 optional consultative hours.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2-hour Written Examination = 40%, Coursework = 60%


Re-assessment: exam = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr E Jones
Module teaching staff: Dr Emma Jones (EJ26)
Module coordinator email ej26@st-andrews.ac.uk