This course is a lively and varied introduction
to the eight disciplines studied in the Faculty of Arts: art history, literature,
music, philosophy, classical studies, history, religious studies, and history of
science and technology. A carefully managed programme of study will equip you with
the skills you will need for study at Levels 2 and 3. These include analysis of
written texts, pictures and pieces of music, ability to write a properly referenced
essay, being effective in exposition and argument, and a range of further study
skills such as time management and note taking.
The course is divided into seven blocks of work.
In Block 1 you will discover the value of close scrutiny of a work, whether it’s a
picture, a poem, a piece of music or a philosophical argument. This will equip
you with the skills to understand and appreciate these arts: skills that you will
be called on to apply later in the course.
Block 2 is an examination, through both art history and classical studies, of the
Colosseum in Rome. You will learn to recognise the elements of classical architecture
as you explore the role of the Colosseum in Roman society.
Block 3 looks at the ideas and events surrounding the French Revolution.
This includes an introduction to history, which will enable you to distinguish
the proper study of the past from mere anecdote. You will also study the
philosopher whose ideas inspired the revolutionaries, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and
be able to assess the relevance of his ideas to present-day democracy and the
politics of the new South Africa. There is an art-historical introduction to the
contrasting styles of Classical and Romantic painting, as exemplified in the works
of Jacques-Louis David (who was for a time the ‘official’ painter of
the revolution) and Caspar David Friedrich.
Religious studies and the history of science comprise Block 4.
You will consider the nature of religion, details of different religions including
a case study of Hinduism, and the problems and insights arising from the study of
such a complicated phenomenon. You will then examine how science came to define and
prioritise its concerns. The problems are vividly illustrated in a case study of
the life of the Victorian scientist Alfred Russel Wallace.
Block 5 returns to the creative arts, with the study of four
very different texts: Shaw’s Pygmalion, Euripides’ Medea,
Strauss’ Don Juan and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.
As well as analysing the form and structure of these works, you will also examine
ideas about convention and tradition, myth and gender.
The opposition between tradition and innovation is a theme
throughout the course, so it is appropriate that Block 6 concentrates on the
decade when that opposition was especially prominent: the 1960s. The history
units introduce some of the themes, such as the rise of the civil rights movement
and the growth of the countercultures. The other disciplines in the block –
history of science, music, religious studies and art history – also
contribute to the discussion of the crucial events and changes, including the
rise of feminist science, innovation in both classical and pop music, the rise of
‘new religious movements’ and the clash of cultures between Mark Rothko
and Andy Warhol.
Block 7 brings together various themes of the course, encourages
you to reflect on what you have learnt and helps you look ahead to your choice of
future courses.
Set books to buy
E. Chambers, A. Northedge The Arts Good Study Guide, The Open University
Euripides Medea and Other Plays trans. P. Vellacott, Penguin
G. B. Shaw Pygmalion, Penguin
Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea ed. Angela Smith, Penguin
A210: Aproaching Literature
Summary
How do we work out what a text means? How does a play move from page to performance?
Study of a variety of texts will give you knowledge and skills with which to tackle
such questions, preparing you for literary studies at Level 3. In The realist novel
you study four well-known nineteenth-century novels. Romantic writings sets some of
the greatest English poetry in its political and cultural context. Then, through
writers such as Louisa May Alcott, Alice Walker and Henrik Ibsen, you explore the
relationship between Literature and gender. In Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the canon,
Shakespeare is studied alongside the first important woman playwright.
Course Content
This course offers a wide-ranging introduction to literary texts and how they
are studied. Fiction, poetry and drama all have a place in the course and there
is a variety of literature to read, study, analyse and enjoy. The texts selected
for study are drawn mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also
include three Shakespeare plays. You will find other familiar names among the
authors – Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Alice Walker, William Blake – and also
some that are less familiar, such as Aphra Behn and Susan Glaspell.
The focus throughout the course is on texts (words on the page or drama in
performance), and the course material is designed to help you to gain a full
understanding of the set texts. We also introduce some of the main ways in which
critics approach literature, so that you can come to an understanding of what it
means to study this subject. By the end of the course you should be equipped with
the knowledge and skills necessary to go on to literary studies at Level 3.
The texts are grouped into four equal sections, either by date of writing or by a theme.
The realist novel
The texts are Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charles
Dickens’s Great Expectations, classic texts that students have always enjoyed,
along with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons.
You study these texts as part of the development of a genre, or literary form,
asking how individual writers use the form and how the form influences them as
writers. How far are writers free to write as they wish? What makes a writer
choose to write a novel rather than, say, a poem?
Romantic writings
Recent scholarship suggests that the fullest understanding of texts is attained
when they are dealt with as part of the study of their cultural and historical
period. Here we look at the period 1780 to 1830 in Britain – the Romantic period
– studying poems by Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley and others (again, writers
considered among the finest in the language), and drawing on recent studies of
European female Romantic writers. The choice of texts and topics is particularly
wide; there is even optional material on short stories by the European writers
Kleist and Hoffmann. Also optional is a consideration of the relationships of
Romantic writings to the exotic and to colonialism.
Literature and gender
You explore one of the most striking developments of recent years in the study of
literature: the discovery of women’s writing, and the reinterpretation of texts
by both women and men to take account of ideas about how gender works in society.
You look at women writers such as the nineteenth-century poets Christina Rossetti
and Emily Dickinson; the fiction writers Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alice Walker,
Jamaica Kincaid and Virginia Woolf; and the dramatists Susan Glaspell and Caryl
Churchill. How men convey both positive and negative images of women is also
considered, through work by authors such as Alfred Tennyson and Henrik Ibsen.
Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the canon
Since the beginnings of literary criticism, many critics have seen their role as
being to select and study the best, most valuable texts. What better way to
introduce this approach to literature than through the work of Shakespeare,
famed not just in Britain but throughout the world? You will work in detail on a
historical play (Henry V), a tragedy (Othello), and a comedy (As
You Like It). Video and audio materials are used extensively throughout the
section. To point up questions about the ‘canonical’ status accorded to
Shakespeare, this section also includes study of The Rover by Aphra Behn, one of
the first women playwrights.
The course’s teaching material consists of four specially written textbooks and
three genre guides; taken together, these offer numerous examples of analysis and
discussion of texts and help you to prepare for the written work you will be doing.
The audio-visual material includes audio performances of the plays and full-length
video productions of The Rover and Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls.
Set Books to Buy
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, Oxford World’s Classics
Caryl Churchill Top Girls, Methuen Student Edition
Charles Dickens Great Expectations, Oxford World’s Classics
Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House, Dover (Constable)
William Shakespeare As You Like It, Penguin Shakespeare
William Shakespeare King Henry V, Penguin Shakespeare
William Shakespeare Othello, Penguin Shakespeare
Mary Shelley Frankenstein, 1818 text, Oxford World’s Classics,(ISBN 019283366 9)
Ivan Turgenev Fathers and Sons, Oxford World’s Classics
Alice Walker The Color Purple, Orion (Phoenix)
W. R. Owens, Hamish Johnson (eds.) Romantic Writings: an Anthology
AA316: The Nineteenth Century Novel
Summary
The course encourages you to enjoy and understand the nineteenth-century novel,
through the study of twelve novels, including some originally published in France
and the USA. The focus is on texts and their contexts, recognising that every
literary work draws from and affects its environment. You will develop your
understanding of the role of the novel in representing and exploring social
and cultural change, the flexibility of the genre, and the aesthetic, stylistic
and structural issues involved in its development. You will also engage with
academic debates appropriate to literary study at Level 3 through the study of
nineteenth-century and present-day critical approaches to the novel.
Course Content:
The course is designed to encourage you to enjoy and understand the
nineteenth-century novel, through study of a carefully selected group of twelve
texts from England (mainly), France and the USA. The focus is on texts and their
contexts, not only in the sense that every literary work inevitably draws from –
as it also affects – its surrounding environment, but also in the sense that
novels in the nineteenth century were particularly engaged with the events,
circumstances, beliefs and attitudes of their time. Of all literary genres,
the novel is probably the best adapted to the representation and exploration of
social change and one of the aims of the course is to provide opportunities for
investigating the ways that novels can function as evidence in enquiries about
the past. An accompanying reader that includes both contemporary and more recent
documents will enable you to engage with critical debates and to appreciate the
aesthetic, stylistic, and structural issues involved in the development of the
novel as a genre.
Book 1:
The first half of the course introduces six nineteenth-century novels: Northanger
Abbey, Jane Eyre, Dombey and Son, Middlemarch, Far From the Madding Crowd and
Germinal. A brief introduction leads to a section on ‘Books and Their Readers’,
which provides a context for the production and consumption of novel texts.
Chapters on the novels follow in two main sections. In the first, Northanger
Abbey, Jane Eyre and Dombey and Son are explored with emphasis on issues of
genre, starting with close readings of the text and moving on to a wider discussion
of relevant issues. A distinctive aspect of this first part is the extent to which
novels are seen to construct their plots in terms of the changing nature of a more
or less settled community – at times, as in Jane Eyre, in terms of the radical
interference of an outsider figure.
In the second part, chapters on Middlemarch,
Far From the Madding Crowd and Germinal examine how fictional conventions
are modified as writers engage with social and political issues, including the extent
to which the novels endorse or contest the circumstances they describe, and the
extent to which they seek a fictional resolution for what are ultimately political dilemmas.
Book 2:
In the first part of this book we look at the problematic constructions of female
identity in Madame Bovary, The Woman in White and The Portrait of a Lady.
The Woman in White has a central position to allow for an interrogation of
‘realist’ methods and effects by means of the subversive and extremely popular
genre of sensationalism, at the same time challenging Flaubert’s and James’s creations.
The second part leads to an examination of the opportunities created by the
decline of the traditional ‘three-decker’ novel form and the profound questioning
of moral certainties evident towards the end of the century in Dracula,
The Awakening and Heart of Darkness. As well as the study of these
six novels from the European, English and American traditions, we consider such
issues as the increasing self-consciousness of novelists and the changing nature
of the relationship between their work and its readers and publishers.
Set Books to Buy
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness
Bram Stoker Dracula
Jane Austen Northanger Abbey, Oxford World’s Classics
Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, Oxford World’s Classics
Kate Chopin The Awakening, Oxford World’s Classics
Wilkie Collins The Woman in White, Oxford World’s Classics
Charles Dickens Dombey and Son, Oxford World’s Classics
George Eliot Middlemarch, Oxford World’s Classics
Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary, Penguin
Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd, Oxford World’s Classics
Henry James Portrait of a Lady, Oxford World’s Classics
Stephen Regan (ed) The Nineteenth Century Novel: a Critical Reader, Routledge
Emile Zola Germinal, Oxford World’s Classics
A173: Start Writing family History
Summary
This short online course helps you to interpret and write about family history.
It offers a guide to the principles of studying history that are a foundation for
more advanced historical studies. You will learn about historical sources,
nterpreting evidence and selecting suitable examples. Using sources from different
historical periods, you will investigate the changing nature of the family and,
putting the principles of historical research into practice, write about your own
family history. Through varied exercises, activities and readings you will develop
your appreciation and understanding of family history and the ways in which the
past is remembered and represented.
Course Description
This 12-week course will help you to interpret and write about family history.
Through interactive exercises, short readings and longer assignments marked by
your tutor you will have an opportunity to practise, improve and reflect on a
range of core skills in historical research, concentrating throughout on family
history. These skills include distinguishing between primary and secondary sources
and interpreting oral and visual sources. The course consists of five blocks:
What is family history?
This introductory block asks the basic questions: why study family history at
all, what is the family and what is history? You will be invited to consider the
difference between genealogy and family history, the value of different kinds of
sources and how they may be used in writing.
From family tree to family history
This block investigates some of the main sources of family history, including
the census and registers of births, marriages and deaths. Through a variety of
online exercises and activities you will be encouraged to reflect on the nature
of these sources and the ways in which they can be used when writing family
history. The block will demonstrate how you might use individual case studies to
make general judgements and arguments about the family in the past.
Writing lives: autobiography, biography and diaries in family history
This block concentrates on diaries, letters and autobiographies. Such first-person
narratives can be rich and important sources for writing family history because
of the insight they give into the way family life was experienced. Through
selected extracts, you will be shown how to critically read first-person
narratives and how to use them as evidence. The block will also introduce some
of the issues involved in reading and writing biography as history.
Picturing the family: photographs in family history
This block looks at some of the ways photographs can reveal, and sometimes conceal,
important information about the past. This block teaches the skills and provides
some of the knowledge needed to interpret such pictorial sources.
Family stories: oral history
This considers how spoken memories can provide information about the past. It
will introduce you to the skills needed to record and interpret oral history.
The course’s audio CD provides examples of oral history that are the basis of
exercises and activities for this block. Through them, students will be encouraged
to consider the many ways that the family is remembered and the importance of
family stories to family history.
T183: Design and the Web
Summary
This ten-week online course, based on a course website, shows how design
principles can be applied to the creation of well-designed web pages and websites.
It explores the elements of web page design, text, colour, images, and assembling
them as layout. The course also covers usability issues such as navigation,
access, interactivity, and designing virtual experiences. You will get to play
the role of a designer commissioned to design a website for the course team for
your final assessment. You will be supported by an intensively moderated online
conference where you can ask for help and advice.
Course Content
This ten-week online course, based on a course website, shows how design principles
can be applied to the creation of well-designed web pages and websites. It
explores the elements of web page design, text, colour, images, and assembling
them as layout. The course also covers usability issues such as navigation, access,
interactivity, and designing virtual experiences. You will get to play the role
of a designer commissioned to design a website for the course team for your final
assessment. You will be supported by an intensively moderated online conference
where you can ask for help and advice.
This course, part of the Technology Faculty’s Relevant
Knowledge programme (http://tscp.open.ac.uk),
is presented online. The course is a multimedia creation with printed workbooks
and interactive programs on CD-ROM.
At the core of the course is a website to which only registered students have
access and through which all the specially prepared teaching, assessment and other
material is presented. There is also an expertly-moderated online forum, where
you can seek help and advice, and discussion groups for exchanging opinions with
fellow students. The course is quite an intensive study experience. If you miss
a week, especially near the beginning of the course, you may find it hard to
catch up.
The course aims to:
- teach design theory and principles and show how they apply to the web
- teach some basic technical skills enabling novices to publish their own web pages
- teach you how to critique web pages and websites from a design perspective
- let you experiment with design principles to create well-designed websites.
This is a course on design, and how design principles can be applied to
the creation of well-designed web pages and websites. The course is intended for
three types of student: those who know little or nothing about design or the
creation of websites; those who may know a lot about design but little about the
creation of websites; and those who may know a lot about creating websites but
little about design. Expert web designers may find the level very elementary,
but still find the discussion of design principles illuminating.
Netscape was used for creating web pages for this course when I took it.
The course is made up of ten lessons, with each lesson lasting eight to ten hours.
In Lesson 1, after students are introduced to some basic design ideas, they create
and publish their own web pages on the World Wide Web. Having novice students
publish their own web page in the first lesson illustrates the philosophy behind
the course – i.e. the belief that design involves a combination of theory
and practical hands-on activities.
Lessons 2, 3 and 4 of the course cover the elements of web page design, text,
colour and assembling them as layout.
Lesson 5 covers images, gives you hands on experience of a basic graphics package,
and explains image formats and optimisation of download times.
Lesson 6 is devoted to the first assignment – a computer-marked assignment (CMA).
Lessons 7 and 8 cover usability issues such as navigation, access, interactivity,
and designing virtual experiences.
Lessons 9 and 10 of the course are devoted to putting the design principles learned
on the course into practice.
T187: Vandalism in cyberspace:understanding and combating malicious software
Summary
Computing is wonderful, but it has a dark side. The downside comes in various
forms including junk email (spam) that clogs your inbox; hoax messages; and
malicious software: electronic viruses, worms and 'Trojan horse' programs that
invade and sometimes destroy your precious data. Most non-technical computer
users feel powerless in the face of these threats, and some are terrified when a
virus strikes.
Starting from the view that fear is generally fear of the unknown,
this course demystifies malicious software by explaining the threats posed by it,
giving you an insight in to how such software works, and teaching you how to
protect yourself in cyberspace and practise safe computing.
Course Content
This ten-week course, part of the Technology Faculty's Relevant Knowledge
programme (http://tscp.open.ac.uk), is presented online. At its core is a
protected website through which all the specially-prepared learning and
assessment materials are presented. There is also an online help and support
service through which you can obtain support from experienced OU moderators.
Vandalism in cyberspace is an introduction to the downside of computing - the
junk email (spam), hoaxes, viruses and other kinds of malicious software
(sometimes called malware) which are making life a misery for internet users.
Working on the basis that the worst kind of fear is fear of the unknown, the
course is designed to demystify these nuisances and to teach you how you can
protect yourself from them. After studying the course you will understand:
- the differences between the various terms usually grouped by the media under the general heading of 'computer virus'
- how viruses, worms and trojans operate
- the driving forces behind spam and how it effects users' perceptions of the internet
- some theories about what motivates the authors of malicious software
- how to combat the problem in relation to your home or office
- how malicious software impacts on businesses in terms of cost, loss of confidence in IT systems, etc
- how legislation is being used to redress the problems caused by malicious software
- how to apply a systematic approach to identifying and addressing the risks to IT systems by malicious software.
There is no set book for this course. Instead your work is primarily centred round
the course website, with some time spent reading the files supplied and carrying
out internet-based activities. Approximately 10 hours study per week will be
required, including time for exercises and assignments. The course is quite an
intensive study experience. If you miss a week, especially near the beginning,
you may find it hard to catch up.
TT280: Web applications: design, development and management
Summary
This twelve-week course is the first of six that together make up the Certificate
in Web Applications Development. It provides a broad exploration of the questions
and issues surrounding technical choice: from the performance of the client-server
architecture of the World Wide Web, to the various technical standards and
recommendations for the creation and distribution of information.
The course also covers issues related to usability and accessibility, navigation, site
structure, and information architecture.
By the end of the course, you should be a confident user of XHTML and CSS. There
will be an online conference where you can ask for help and advice.
Course Content
This twelve-week course is the first of six that make up the Certificate in Web
Applications Development. It provides a broad exploration of the questions and
issues surrounding technical choice: from the performance of the client-server
architecture of the World Wide Web, to the various technical standards and
recommendations for the creation and distribution of information.
The course also covers issues related to usability and accessibility, navigation,
site structure and information architecture. By the end of the course you should
be a confident user of XHTML and CSS.
The course starts with an exploration of core protocols that underpin the basic
client-server model of the World Wide Web, leading to consideration of the various
technical standards and recommendations that determine the tools and techniques
employed for the creation and deployment of digital information. The course
provides a thorough grounding in the use of XHTML elements and attributes for
the creation of static content and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) style rules to
control presentation. The course also examines the technical requirements for
usability and accessibility and explores how different presentational structures
have evolved to meet the requirements of specific applications.
Using a combination of course website, a book, and electronic guides, you
will study a range of techniques for creating static web pages comprising text,
images, image maps, hyperlinks, tables, frames, and forms. This will provide the
knowledge and skills essential for the other Certificate courses. You will be
supported by an intensively moderated online forum where you can ask for help
and advice on any aspect of the course and share your experiences with other students.
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- relate the history of the internet and the WWW and its impact on the deployment of distributed applications.
- explain the client/server model of the WWW and the associated protocols.
- discuss the growth of the internet and examine its impact on personal communication and information resources.
- evaluate a range of web applications in terms of their accessibility, usability and structure.
- create a plan for a website demonstrating:
design, structure and navigation
the development of usable and accessible content
the use of a variety of XHTML tags and CSS style rules to create static web pages.
- combine the above concepts and skills to create a multi-page website incorporating multi-level text, images, and links
.
A215: Creative Writing
Summary
This course takes a student-centred approach to creative writing, offering a range of strategies to help you
develop as a writer, and encouraging you to value your own resources of memory, observation and voice.
The emphasis is highly practical, with exercises and activities designed to ignite and sustain the writing impulse.
The course has a five-part structure
An introduction,
The creative process, shows ways of harnessing the unconscious and building a daily discipline.
This is followed by demonstration and practice of the three most popular forms –
Writing fiction
Writing poetry, and
Life writing, including biography and autobiography.
The concluding part, Going public, aims to demystify the world of agents and publishers, teaching you how to revise and present your work to a professional standard.
Course Content
This course is suitable for new writers as well as for those with some experience who would like to develop their skills.
It will help you to identify your strengths and interests as a writer by giving you the opportunity to write
in a wide range of genres: fiction, poetry, biography, autobiography and travel writing.
The emphasis is on finding your own directions and styles through experiment, practice and constructive feedback.
The course is suitable not only for aspiring writers, but for anyone with a strong enquiring interest
in reading and writing, who would like to deepen their understanding of writing techniques and the creative process.
The course is structured around five parts.
The introductory part, The Creative Process, focuses on how to become a writer by developing good writerly habits.
It examines a range of strategies including clustering, morning pages, and keeping a writer’s notebook,
as well as statements from writers about their own approaches and practices.
Part 2, Writing Fiction, introduces the main aspects of narrative including
- story structure and genre;
- showing and telling;
- character;
- point of view;
- and place and time.
In Part 3, Writing Poetry, the role and function of poetry are discussed,
demystifying the image of poets as romantic geniuses or as wilfully obscure.
The main formal strategies and poetic devices are introduced, including
- lines;
- line breaks;
- enjambment;
- rhyme and half-rhyme;
- varieties of metre;
- stanzas;
- and forms.
Part 4, Life Writing, looks at biography, autobiography, travel writing and autobiographical fiction.
Some of the central issues raised by life writing are discussed, including the nature of
memory and forgetting, the performance of the self, and the representation of others.
There are suggestions for finding subject matter, with an emphasis on the importance
of childhood, early memory and symbols.
The final part, Going Public, outlines the requirement for professional
presentation of manuscripts. You will be encouraged to build up an understanding of audience and market.
At the core of the course is a workbook that takes you week-by-week through the five parts.
The emphasis is very much on practice through guided activities, supported by supplementary
articles and literary examples including poems, prose extracts and complete stories
to illustrate particular methods or strategies.
Four audio CDs contain interviews and discussions with writers talking about their
own inspirations and methods, and with representatives of the publishing industry.
Online tutor-group conferences enable discussion of your own work both by tutors
and other students, in the manner of a writers’ workshop, and the electronic
tuition is supported by two face-to-face day schools.
T189: Digital photography: creating and sharing better images
Summary
Whether you’re new to digital photography or want to improve your existing skills,
this 10 week online course will develop your ability to create and share digital
images you are proud of.
If you’re just starting out, you’ll be able to compare notes with many other
people in the same situation. If you’re already a keen amateur digital photographer,
being part of an active online community will develop your fluency.
Visually focused, with text kept to a minimum, the course will develop your
technical, visual and creative skills. A series of weekly hands-on assignments
allows you to practice the skills you’ll learn.
Course Content
The course is designed to be studied over a ten-week period, with approximately
ten hours of study each week. There are two pieces of work that must be submitted
during the course, however, to get the most out of the course we advise that you
also take part in the weekly photo assignments (not assessed), and if you miss a
week, that you are able to find time to catch up (for example, spend 20 hours the following week).
The course is a creative mix of practice, learning, sharing and reflection:
- Practice: each week you do a practical photographic activity that broadens and strengthens your photographic experience. Together these activities form the basis of your portfolio that you’ll draw upon for your end-of-course assessment.
- Learning: each week you learn about different aspects of photographic techniques, as well as relevant aspects of the technology behind digital photography.
- Sharing and reflection: each week you share your work within the T189 online community of photographers. You’ll steadily develop your ability to reflect upon your own and others’ work, and to write about your increasing visual awareness.
The course will:
- teach you the key principles of capturing digital images and manipulating these with Photoshop Elements (version 5, for PC)
- equip you with basic skills to navigate technological developments in digital photography
- teach you how to critically evaluate your own and others’ work in the spirit of continuous technical and artistic improvement
- encourage you to experiment with the principles of digital photography and imaging as part of a supportive online community
- help you to develop a portfolio to be proud of
.
Software
The image editing software is Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 5 for PC), which
will be provided (and is yours to keep after the course has finished), and by
the end of the course you’ll have a good grasp of it. (There is no requirement
to use this particular software if you already use an alternative photo-editing package).
The course will introduce the full range of basic aspects of digital photography including:
- ‘ways of seeing’ and the elements of composition
- the basic principles of capturing light information digitally (e.g. sensors, memory, file types)
- the digital workflow (capture, organise, edit and share)
- how to control exposure
- how to control focus and Depth of Field
- digital colour management – an introduction
- how to print and project your images
- how to technically and creatively improve your own or others’ images using Photoshop Elements.
AA310: Film and Television History
Summary
This introduction to the various approaches and methodologies in the study of film and television history explores the social role and cultural influence of film in the United States of America, Britain and western Europe. It enables you to analyse a range of film and television texts, and to place them in their contexts of production and reception. You will develop your distance-learning skills through independent work as you prepare a project that requires extensive analysis of selected visual texts. Thirteen feature films and seven television programmes are provided on video.
Course Content
By studying this course you will:
- be introduced to the various approaches and methods involved in the study of film and television history
- explore the social role and cultural influence of film in the United States, Britain and Western Europe
- be able to you to analyse a range of film and television texts, and to place them in their contexts of production and reception
- develop your distance-learning skills through independent work on the preparation of a project that requires extensive
analysis of selected visual texts.
13 feature films and several television programmes, all on video, are included in the
course materials, providing most of the visual sources you will need for the course.
Set Book
Richard Maltby (2nd edition 2003) Hollywood Cinema, Blackwell Publishing, £20.99.
What is this course about?
Written by film historians for people who want to study film and television history,
AA310 is the first full-credit course devoted to film and television to be offered by The Open University.
Big in scope, the course starts with Citizen Kane and the 'golden age' of Hollywood and
ends with a pioneering study of television genres. The course is generously resourced
with materials that include 13 full-length feature films and extracts from many other films, television and radio programmes.
AA310 Film and Television History is – as the name suggests – a course about the
history of film and television. This means you will study a range of films and
TV programmes focusing particularly on the social role and cultural influence
of film in America, Britain and Western Europe. You will be introduced to
various methods involved in the study of film and television history and will
learn to place films and television programmes in their historical contexts.
The course isn't an exhaustive survey of all film in all periods. Nor is it equally divided between film and television. Cinema came into its own in an era increasingly dominated by the USA, so in film history American cinema is of paramount importance. The American films you will study span a broad period, from those made in the 'golden age' of Hollywood, such as Stagecoach and Now, Voyager, to Titanic and the films of the Coen Brothers. You will also study British films of the 1950s and 1960s and West German, French and Italian films since the early 1970s. Your study of television will cover soap operas, single plays, literary adaptations, science fiction, adventure series and mini-series.
Book 1 APPROACHES TO FILM HISTORY
This is an introduction to the course and to the methods of film historians. Each
unit looks at a different approach to the study of film history.
Unit 1 Aesthetic film history
Using Citizen Kane as a case study, you will focus
on the history of film as an art form. Historically this approach has privileged
a few filmic 'masterpieces' with a select number of filmmakers being canonized as
great artists of the medium. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is widely regarded
as 'the best film ever made' and is a prime candidate for this approach to film history.
Unit 2 Social film history
You will watch two versions of Cape Fear and make a comparative exploration of
the relationship between film and society in the sixties and the nineties.
The films, directed by J. Lee Thompson (1962) and Martin Scorsese (1991),
are studied in terms of production, censorship and reception.
Unit 3 Economic film history
This unit focuses on the organization of the film industry and the performance
of films at the box office. Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) – 'the most expensive
film ever made', but also the most commercially successful – will be the
culmination of your study of the history of film as a business.
Unit 4 Technological film history
You will look at the major technological developments in cinema – sound, colour
and widescreen – and at the different ways historians have interpreted these
developments. No set film is used here, but film technology is discussed in
relation to the films you have already studied.
Book 2 HOLLYWOOD
In film history American cinema is of paramount importance. Subtly shaping
American identity and ideology, it has been the foremost purveyor and exporter of
modern myths. This study of American cinema looks chiefly at Hollywood – the
'nerve centre' of the American film industry – its artefacts and its personnel.
Unit 5 The American film industry
This unit looks at the practical operation of the American film industry and its
cultural significance. You will learn about the studio system that prevailed until
the 1950s, how the studios were forced to divest themselves of their movie theatres,
about the infamous anti-communist 'witch-hunts' and about the rise of the New Hollywood.
Units 6 and 7 American film genres
Genre is one of the main approaches that writers have taken to the history of
Hollywood movies. Using case studies of three iconic films, you will look at
three genres, each concerned with very different American myths. You will study
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) for the western, The Godfather (Francis
Ford Coppola, 1972) for the gangster film, and Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942) for the melodrama.
Units 8 and 9 Directors in American cinema
Another principal approach to the history of Hollywood movies has been through
the work of key directors. You will look at directors whose films span the years
from the golden age of Hollywood through the New Hollywood to the present day.
The films you will study are Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), Steven
Spielberg's Jaws (1975) and the Coen brothers' Fargo (1995).
Unit 10 Hollywood and radio
This is a pioneering study of the symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and radio.
You will focus on three popular radio genres, the domestic comedy, the detective
thriller and the wartime melodrama. You will be provided with complete audio CD
recordings of original radio broadcasts of My Favorite Husband, The Maltese Falcon
and Mrs Miniver, and extracts from others.
Book 3 BRITISH CINEMA
Emerging from a state of 'lethargy and stagnation' in the fifties, British cinema
in the sixties proved dynamic, creative and fit to compete with anything American
cinema could offer. By the end of the sixties, however, the industry was in a sorry
condition once more. Using a rich array of sources you will examine films from this
'boom and bust' period of British cinema.
Units 11 and 12 British cinema and society
Taking a comparative approach and using extracts of films from the fifties and
sixties you will study British cinema in terms of gender, youth, class and quality.
You will also look at the 'swinging sixties' through a case study of Alfie
(Lewis Gilbert, 1966).
Units 13 and 14 British film genres
Until quite recently, British popular cinema was largely ignored by genre critics.
These units look at why this was so and explore the place of popular genres in the
British film industry. Using case studies you will look at the war film –
The Dam Busters (Michael Anderson, 1955), the Gothic horror film –
Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958), the spy thriller – The Spy Who Came in
from the Cold (Martin Ritt, 1965) and one of the early James Bond films.
Book 4 EUROPEAN CINEMAS
This book explores the national cinemas of West Germany, France and Italy and
deals principally with the period since the early 1970s. The authors highlight a
number of key films, most of which were deemed to be mainstream in their native
countries but were usually shown on the art-house circuit abroad. You will explore
how far these films represent their national cinemas and the extent to which the
national cinemas are influenced by Hollywood.
Units 15 and 16 West German cinema
Since 1945 and the New German Cinema These units chart the progress of German
cinema from its 'complete destruction' in 1945 to the New German Cinema of the
sixties and seventies. Particular attention is given to the role America played
in the history of German postwar cinema, which, despite the backlash against
'cultural imperialism' by young German filmmakers, contributed to the ultimate
failure of the New German Cinema.
You will study two films in depth, The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer
Werner Fassbinder, 1978) and Rosa Luxemburg (Margarethe von Trotta, 1986).
Extracts from three of Fassbinder's films are included in the video programme accompanying these units.
Units 17 and 18 French cinema from 1974 to 2000
Against a background of competition from Hollywood and challenges to the dominant
view of France's wartime role of resistance, these units look at the main tendencies
in French cinema of the seventies, eighties and nineties. Case studies of nine films
are included and a video programme provides an overview of the main tendencies with
extracts from some of the films. Themes range from the crisis of masculinity and
changes in the areas of identity, gender, class and generation to alternative
views of France's past and postmodernist views of France in the late twentieth century.
Units 19 and 20 Italian cinema from 1965 to 2000
These units outline the development of the Italian film industry from the mid
sixties until the end of the century, and include discussion of the industry's
relations with television and with the international film world. The major
Italian film directors operating during the period are introduced and the main
themes and characteristics of some of the most important Italian films of the
period are discussed. There are case studies of seven films, including the
internationally acclaimed The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974),
Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988) and Life is Beautiful
(Roberto Benigni, 1999). Extracts from three of the films are provided on video.
Book 5 TELEVISION GENRES
Television history has been somewhat neglected in the past but it is now gaining
recognition as a subject within academic circles. This book is groundbreaking in
that it is one of the first studies of television genres to be presented at
university level. There are six units in this block and the main programmes
you will study are as follows:
Unit 21 British drama: the single play
Up the Junction and two Armchair Theatre productions (Scent of Fear and Lena, O My Lena)
Unit 22 The classic serial on British television
Pride and Prejudice
Unit 23 The soap opera in Britain and America
Coronation Street, Brookside, EastEnders, Peyton Place, Dallas and Dynasty
Unit 24 The American mini-series
Roots
Unit 25 The British adventure series
The Avengers (The Cybernauts) and Adam Adamant Lives! (The Last Sacrifice)
Unit 26 The science-fiction series in Britain and America
Dr Who (The Daleks Invasion of Earth) and Star Trek
Course materials
Thirteen full-length feature films
Citizen Kane (USA, Orson Welles, 1941)
Cape Fear (USA, J. Lee Thompson, 1962)
Cape Fear (USA, Martin Scorsese, 1991)
Stagecoach (USA, John Ford, 1939)
The Godfather (USA, Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Now, Voyager (USA, Irving Rapper, 1942)
Rear Window (USA, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Jaws (USA, Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Fargo (USA, Joel and Ethan Coen, 1995)
Alfie (UK, Lewis Gilbert, 1966)
The Dam Busters (UK, Michael Anderson, 1955)
Dracula (UK, Terence Fisher, 1958)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (UK, Martin Ritt, 1965)
Three audio CDs
These contain a discussion of the history of Hollywood and Radio, and complete
original recordings of My Favorite Husband, The Maltese Falcon and Mrs Miniver.
Seven videos containing
- extracts from British films;
- programmes on French and German cinema;
- extracts from Italian films;
- a television documentary-drama production of Up the Junction;
- an episode from each of
The Avengers (The Cybernauts)
Doctor Who (The Daleks Invasion of Earth)
Adam Adamant Lives! (The Last Sacrifice);
- and two Armchair Theatre productions
Scent of Fear
Lena, O My Lena