MEVIT4710 – Screen Histories and Theories

Course content

Of what importance are the histories and theories of screens for understanding our current screen cultures? Screens are now a dominant presence and interface in culture in a number of ways. Screens are no longer defined by their institutional location (the cinema, the living room, the office) but are ubiquitous. They come across as various types and scales, from mobile phones and video games to virtual realities. We carry screens with us, devote our attention to them, navigate our behaviours with them. In return, screens disclose worlds more beautiful and desirable than ours beneath their surface, capturing us into cycles of dreamy consumption.

Although the manifold histories of screen cultures extend much further than the introduction of cinema, in this course we take cinema’s advent as a significant turning point for our contemporary understanding of screen media. Tracing through screen media history we analyse the theoretical positions through which screens, and their cultures, have emerged and evolved over time. That is to say, this is a course that attends to screen histories and theories together. We look at the past to make sense of what is happening at the present, and to come up with critical conceptual tools to understand the various workings of screens - from before early film to the smart phone and to the noisy surfaces that fill today’s lived environments. By charting how we have conceived of different screens in critical moments from before the advent of film through to the present, together we examine and theorise how screens have reacted to, altered, functioned, and informed society and culture.

Learning outcome

Candidates who have completed the Screen Histories and Theories course will have acquired the following knowledge, skills and general competences:

Knowledge

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• has advanced knowledge of the historical development of screen media within wider intellectual, cultural, political and economic contexts
• has advanced knowledge of key critical theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of screens and their histories

Skills

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• can analyse and interpret texts and artifacts pertaining to the field of screen histories independently.
• can assess relevant existing theories and approaches in researching screen-based media, and work independently on practical and theoretical problems.

General competences

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• can analyse and critically assess different sources of information to make scholarly arguments within the study of screen media.
• can use the general competence of scholarly writing about screen-based media in other academic and professional fields.
• can communicate about academic questions, analyses and findings in the field of screen histories and theories, with specialists and society at large.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

Students enrolled in other Master`s Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

• 10 credits overlap with MEVIT4700 – Screen Histories and Theories (discontinued).

Teaching

Nine workshops (lectures/seminars), each for three hours, except for one four hour workshop.

Compulsory activities:

In order to qualify for the exam, the following compulsory activity must be passed:

In pre-assigned groups. students will produce a 7-minute video essay on a topic related to the course materials. Video essays will be screened with introductions in class.

Read more about compulsory activities at the Faculty of Humanities

Examination

Three day take home exam.

Compulsory activity must be passed in order to take the exam.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.