Cinema and Cultural Studies

The course aims at introducing the elements of cultural studies to show their crucial role in the development of film studies since the 1970s. Focusing on the English-speaking, French and Italian literature (also with relation to other schools and theories), in the first part the main theoretical, methodological and ideological aspects of cultural studies will be addressed from a historical perspective, as well as their main topics, such as the revaluation of popular cinema, the issues of film reception and the relationship between cinema and identities (of gender, sex and post colonial ethnicity).
The second and third parts will focus on a particular subject chosen as a case study.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired a up-to-date awareness of cultural studies development and main issues involving cinema, and would be able to apply the cultural studies methodology to film history reckoning with the cultural contexts.