AAM220 2012 Essay Topics and Instructions

INTODUCTORY NOTES:
 i. Any names that follow the Questions in square brackets are indicative of unit theorists whose work you might choose to cover. The names are neither comprehensivenor required. There are other relevant unit theorists and it is your job to search them out from within the AAM220 Unit library, including textbooks, E/R, HRB, RB and lectures. Each essay is required to reference a minimum of five unit readings.In general, the more unit authors you can show you have read and can apply intelligently, the better you are likely to score. Your tutor can help after you have searched.
ii. Cinema texts to analyze in essays are the Required and Alternative films from the Francophone Northwest Africa and Aotearoa/NZ Māoriregions (Weeks 2-7). Alternative films are listed at the end of each section. The Wk. 1 films are introductory and background. They can be referred to in the analysis, as can any recommended or background films.
iii.Where possible and appropriateuse cinematic languageto analyze short sections of film(s). See Butler Textbook (Ch. 2), Hayward Textbook, Prince (2010) and Corrigan (2012) HRB, for explanations of cinematic language and examples of how to do this. (See instructions below)
iv. Read the instructions following the essay questions (scroll down) very carefully, and consult your tutor if anything is unclear.
v. Teachers will be explaining more in lectures and tutorials. X students feel free to post questions to the Essay discussion thread, and to consult with Lynne by phone after you have decided on your question, film(s), and found some readings and theorists.
vi. Please contact the unit chair should you require an extension of time. Dr Price will not grant extensions. Short extensions will be allowed for unpredictable, pressing circumstances for which you can supply an acceptable supporting certificate. Extensions will not be granted when due dates fall at the same time, for paid work responsibilities, procrastination, failure to plan, not accessing unit resources in good time, not consulting, poor time management, not attending classes, or short-term computer failure. 

 ESSAY QUESTIONS
1.Explain in detail your understandings of Anderson's (2007) 'imagined communities'. Include in your discussion at least 5 unit theorists or researchers who use or explain the idea of 'the imagined community'. Explore how the idea could be appliedto notions of EITHER a 'nation',OR a 'people'/'ethnic group',OR a local community (focus onone). Choose onefilm and in the second half of your essay show how one of the above named imagined communities is represented, across two linked dimensions: geo-political and cultural-historic. Analyze at least one short film sequence. [Anderson 2007(ca. 1983); Appiah 1995; Butler 2006; Hayward 2006; Louw 2005; Seidman 2004; Sissons 2005; Weigman 2000; Young 1995, 2003, (pp. 60-63)]#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
2. Issues of translation – of cultures and languages – remain central to the challenges facing indigenous filmmakers’ to de-colonize the screen, while living in conditions in which the ‘colonial’ is never really over.http://www.400190.com/Essay_Writing/  Read Young on translation (2003, Ch. 7.),Thackway’s(2007) account of the integration of orality in Francophone West African Film, and Naficy’sideas of ‘accented cinema’. Explain your understandings of issues of ‘translation’and ‘decolonising the screen’. In the second half of the essayshow how such ideascan be applied to two sequences from oneFrancophone NW African film.Whom do you think are their intended audiences? Include at least five unit theorists.

3. Read 'Marxism' in Butler (2006), Wayne (2001) on 'political film', and Pramaggiorre& Wallis (2008) on 'ideology' and find two or three additional unit authors who write about these topics in cinema. In the first half of the essay carefully explainyour understanding of these ideas, linking them together and relating them to the authors and to postcolonial cinema. Mention what you think happens to the idea of diverse and active audiences within this framework. In the second half of the essay, focusing on the ideas of 'ideology' and 'political film' examine the representation of one major storyline or theme in one film. Name the film and identify the storyline clearly.

3. Thackway (2003a, 2007), Tomaselliet. al. (2003), Daiwara (1988) and others have suggested that representations of griot/tes have been used by African filmmakers to achieve authenticity and to ‘decolonize the screen’. Find another two or three authors who use these or similar concepts in the context of African cinema. Explain your understanding of their ideas, comparing contrasting and evaluating them.In the second half of the essay apply the above ideas to one film from Francophone NW Africa (e.g. Keita! or Hyenes).

4. Explain what you understand by the ideas of an 'indigenous people', ‘first people’, or an 'indigene'. What do you consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of these terms?  Choose one film from weeks 2-7. Examine in depth how the director and the creative team represent two named local characters. What names are they given and how do they name themselves? Pay close attention to the politics of language in the film - whose words are translated or not, and how they are translated or not, and what languages are used. [Sissons 2005; Phipps 2009;Ashcroft et al. 2008; Murray 2009;Guentheret al. 2006

6. Writing called dialogic or reflexive is processual
At its best it looks at or reveals the processes of meaning construction. Later, in SCCA 300 level units, Honours, or as a graduate student you will be likly be asked to explore this in more depth. If any of you want more reading or discussions please come and ask. At this stage in your assignments I want you to include yourself as the person creating the reading and the argument. Work on becoming more conscious that you are drawing on your socialization into a particular culture and your professional training, in specific times and places to make the world sensible. Try to acknowledge and show how you are drawing on this background just as you draw on other people’s ideas (AAM220) to make your arguments. Reflexive style shows that you use and prefer certain knowledges, languages, beliefs, habits and values that influence what you perceive, emphasize and prefer.  It does not pretend you are an authority whose word is fact, knowledge, or law. Rather you are always a beginner, an artist, a performer, a novelist, a passionate critic.  No matter how expert, in my view it helps to understand ourselves and others this way. Using a dialogic approach, you want to hear from other people and to pool your ideas with theirs. The same goes for classmates and readings.#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#

7. A final caveat
Poststructuralist approaches challenge many commonsense assumptions. It is inevitable that you will sometimes disagree with your readings, the lecturer, peers or study group members. You might feel uncomfortable, confronted, dismissive, that you know more or better. You might feel angry, repulsed, guilty, bored, superior, or confused for example. Try to examine why. Acknowledge what you feel (privately), and remain open-minded, even when you feel passionately you are RIGHT. Agree to disagree, and find evidence to support what you say. Do not get into personally targeted arguments against any individual, group, writer or filmmaker  (ad hominem argument). If you can hang in the present in this un-judgmental sort of way, you will be developing inestimable personal and professional life skills.