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Cinema Sudies: Historiography, Theory, Research Methods & Language

Cinema Sudies: Historiography, Theory, Research Methods & Language

- Prof Ira Bhaskar and Prof Ranjani Mazumdar

This is an advanced level research methodology course in Cinema Studies. Charting out the specific debates linked to the development of film theory and history, the effort is to focus on the research and methodological issues pertaining to the field. Semiotics and Formalism, once the bedrock of Film Studies, faced a serious challenge with the interventions made by film historians and the field of Cultural Studies. This broadened the scope of Film Studies as research methods like archival investigations, ethnography and political economy got incorporated within the discipline. The new historiographic impulses and research modes turned to place film within the realm of production, circulation and consumption. Archival documentation of material produced around film production and ethnographies of film sets, theatrical releases, and star studies made the film text alive as a historical document. Along with this, film was located within other debates on culture and history. This course seeks to focus specifically on this journey of film as art object to film as social text. Students will be encouraged to develop their own innovative research projects through a combination of archival, ethnographic, cultural/historical/ideological discourses and methodologies.

Key Readings:

 


Allen, Robert & Douglas Gomery. Film History: Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc., 1987.

• Appadurai, Arjun. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

• Carroll, Noel. Mystifying Movies: Fads and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

• Gaines, Jane. Ed. Classical Hollywood Narrative: The Paradigm Wars. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992.

• Ginzburg, Carlo. Clues, Myths and the Historical Method. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

• Gledhill, Christine & Linda Williams. Eds. Reinventing Film Studies. London: Arnold, 2000.

• Guha, Ranajit and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Eds. Selected Subaltern Studies New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

• Jaikumar, Priya. Cinema at the End of Empire : A Politics of Transition in Britain and India. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2006.

• Rosen, Philip. Ed. Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

• Stam, Robert & Toby Miller. Eds. Film and Theory: An Anthology. London: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

• Stam, Robert & Toby Miller. Eds. A Companion to Film Theory. London: Blackwell Publishers,1999.

 

 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.