107-470 The Carnivalesque and the Cinema

Formerly available as 107-094. Students who have completed 107-094 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in cinema studies, see Honours entry.

This subject will examine the significance that theories of the carnivalesque have for the analysis of the cinema. The historical context of carnival culture will be considered, as will its continued significance and redefinition in the contemporary era. In particular students should become familiar with various interpretative theoretical issues that drive carnival logic, and the implications behind its capacity to violate generic boundaries, to rupture classical narrative form, and to contest socially and gendered dominant orders. Areas to be explored will include: parallels between comedy, cult and the carnivalesque; the interrelationship between fairy tales and carnival form; the legend of Gilles de Rais; the disruptive and carnival nature of vampire and Gothic cinema; pleasure, the grotesque and liminal nature of the carnivalesque.

Written work totalling 5000 words.

A subject reader will be available.