106-092 Theorising the Spectator

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually admission to fourth year Honours see Honours entry

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The concept of 'the spectator' has been key to many of the major developments in media studies over the past two decades. Whether in psychoanalytic-semiotic theories of the cinematic apparatus; Marxist accounts of ideological interpellation in the mass media; cultural studies models of audience negotiation and subcultural resistance; critical theories about the cultural transformations of modernity; feminist and queer debates about the sexual dynamics of popular culture; or, postmodern accounts of the virtual subjectivities of cyberculture, the question of spectatorship has been a critical - and highly productive - focal point. This subject looks at and evaluates a wide range of competing theories of and arguments about spectatorship. It mobilises spectatorship as a way of profiling and analysing a number of issues and debates within the inter-related fields of cultural, film and television studies. As such, this subject is designed to provide students with a broad over-view of and solid grounding in contemporary media theory.

Assessment

Written work totalling 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.