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Early Film: Emergence of a Narrative Medium - ENG00147M

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  • Department: English and Related Literature
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Richard Walsh
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

We are all competent ‘readers’ of film narrative and cinematic representations: more or less unwittingly, we have assimilated the conventions and stylistic repertoire of film as an elementary part of our cultural life. It's easy to forget that the modes of representation we take for granted in film are little more than a century old; and that the medium itself scarcely existed before 1900.

This course looks back to the early years of film, and retraces the invention of the medium in order to unthink and rethink its ways of meaning. It explores the historical and contingent origins of what we tend to feel is natural and inherent to film narrative, and resists a simple evolutionary model of the development from ‘primitive cinema’ to the ‘classical Hollywood cinema’ that had established its dominance by 1917.

In the course of the term, we shall look at (among others) the pioneering films of the Lumière brothers and the fantasies of Georges Méliès, the work of early British filmmakers and other European innovators, pre-Hollywood American cinema and the emergence of the narrative cinema of early Hollywood. We shall explore the development of early film from such precursors as magic lantern shows, zoetropes and kinematoscopes, and in relation to contemporary cultural forms: photography, drama and melodrama, music hall and vaudeville shows; we shall place the creative efforts of early film-makers in the context of their technologies, the commercial and corporate structures within which they operated, and the changing circumstances of film exhibition and reception; and we shall consider the generic complexities of early film’s presentation as spectacle, actuality, narrative and fiction. Throughout we shall be concerned to situate the formal properties of films within a multi-faceted historical context.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

The aim of this module is to examine the early years of film, and retrace the invention of the medium and its development from ‘primitive cinema’ to the established conventions of ‘classical Hollywood cinema’ between 1895 and 1917. It will defamiliarize what we tend to feel is natural and inherent to film narrative, and explore the historical and contingent nature of its evolution as a storytelling medium.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module you will be expected to demonstrate:

  • skills in analysing the emergent communicative and creative potential of the medium, as manifest in early films

  • knowledge of critical and historical materials relating to formal developments in cultural context

  • a broad knowledge of the terminology of film analysis

  • an understanding of theoretical issues in the study of early films

  • a grasp of relevant aspects of transmedial narrative theory

Module content

Caserini, M. The Last Days of Pompeii. 1913.

Chaplin, C. Charlie Chaplin: The Essanay Films. 1915-18.

Chaplin, C. Charlie Chaplin: The Mutual Films. 1916-17.

Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers. 1895-1910

Edison, T. Edison - The Invention of the Movies (1891-1918).

Griffith, D.W. Griffith Masterworks, 1909-13.

Griffith, D.W. Griffith Masterworks, Vol. 2.

Griffith, D.W. Monumental Epics (Birth of a Nation; Intolerance; Broken Blossoms; Way Down East; Abraham Lincoln)

Griffith, D.W. The Years of Discovery, 1909-1913.

Landmarks of Early Film, 2 Vols.

Lumière, A. & L. The Lumière Brothers' First Films.

Méliès, G. Méliès The Magician.

Mitchell and Kenyon. Electric Edwardians - The Films of Mitchell and Kenyon.

The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913.

Pastrone, G. Cabiria, 1914.

Paton, S. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. 1916.

Porter, E. Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter.

Salt, B. Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers. 1895-1910.

Sennett, M. Tillie’s Punctured Romance. 1914.

The Slapstick Encyclopedia.

Walsh, R. Regeneration. 1915.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your module tutor, the MA Convenor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours

Indicative reading

Caserini, M. The Last Days of Pompeii. 1913.

Chaplin, C. Charlie Chaplin: The Essanay Films. 1915-18.

Chaplin, C. Charlie Chaplin: The Mutual Films. 1916-17.

Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers. 1895-1910

Edison, T. Edison - The Invention of the Movies (1891-1918).

Griffith, D.W. Griffith Masterworks, 1909-13.

Griffith, D.W. Griffith Masterworks, Vol. 2.

Griffith, D.W. Monumental Epics (Birth of a Nation; Intolerance; Broken Blossoms; Way Down East; Abraham Lincoln)

Griffith, D.W. The Years of Discovery, 1909-1913.

Landmarks of Early Film, 2 Vols.

Lumière, A. & L. The Lumière Brothers' First Films.

Méliès, G. Méliès The Magician.

Mitchell and Kenyon. Electric Edwardians - The Films of Mitchell and Kenyon.

The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913.

Pastrone, G. Cabiria, 1914.

Paton, S. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. 1916.

Porter, E. Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter.

Salt, B. Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers. 1895-1910.

Sennett, M. Tillie’s Punctured Romance. 1914.

The Slapstick Encyclopedia.

Walsh, R. Regeneration. 1915.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.