Arts

This course offers students an attractive opportunity to pursue a very distinctive, varied and closely integrated programme of study across the fields of Film, Literature and Drama. While Literature and Drama have always been an integral part of human cultural expression and have profoundly shaped the way we think and behave, over the past hundred years film has become an increasingly powerful and dominant cultural form, and there is now much evidence to suggest that the visual has now significantly replaced the written form as the predominant mode of communication in contemporary society. Bringing the study of these arts together, the Film, Literature and Drama programme will provide much material for fruitful interdisciplinary thought and for discussion of the role of these arts in history and culture.

The programme focuses, first and foremost, on teaching students to think critically and creatively about both written and visual texts and to effectively explore the links between them. It provides a thorough grounding in the histories, techniques, and conventions of film, literature and drama, and also in the competing ways in which they are theorised.

As a cultural form in society, cinema has a pervasive influence. Film Studies thus focuses on the medium of film and examines how it enables us to understand and explain the world around us. Analysis of this popular form of visual expression enables students to grasp the way in which cinema makes sense of the world, and also how the medium of film shapes our perception and cultural experience. By studying the narrative language of film in conjunction with contemporary critical theories and methodologies, students gain insights into the construction of subjectivity and socio-cultural identity. The Film Studies modules thus address the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of the cinema. Students study the history of the cinema, the development of its technologies, the operation of film industry, as well as the cinema’s narrative styles, genres and visual conventions. Several practical modules introduce students to the technical aspects of film production; including the teamwork involved in short film production.

The study of literature has changed quite radically in recent times, becoming ever more interdisciplinary in approach and direction, but still the central core of the subject is the study of the effective uses of language: of rhetoric, its persuasive and affective qualities, and above all of the relationship between form and content within a given text. The Literature and Drama stream is therefore designed to enable the student to develop a sensitivity to, and understanding of, technique and form within the three major literary genres of poetry, prose and drama. Students are taught how to then interpret texts within historical and cultural contexts and how to analyse and theorise the ‘pleasure’ they derive from their reading and theatre going. The Literature and Drama element of the course also exploits our location within the Dublin theatre district by placing special emphasis on drama. Drama, with a special emphasis on Irish drama, is the central thread of our literature provision, making up more than a third of the literature modules and linking all years. The modules cover a core of ‘classic’ material and then extend the students’ reading into a range of more contemporary and specialised areas of literary study. In the final year students are also asked to undertake a very specific study of the social, critical and technical contexts of Dublin theatre and produce reviews of plays in performance at that time.

Film, Literature & Drama is designed to provide an exciting and stimulating course of study that can appeal to a range of student interests and ability levels. While the bulk of the course is strictly academic, throughout the programme the emphasis is firmly on the students’ acquisition and development of a range of practical and transferable skills that will be of direct benefit to their future careers and prospects, whether in further academic study or in numerous employment contexts such as teaching, administration and business.

The academic work will provide a thorough training in skills of thinking, analysis, presentation and expression. Successful graduates will be well equipped to progress to teacher training or to further study in the areas of Film Studies, Drama, Literature, Cultural Studies and other text based disciplines. In addition, the very strong emphasis on Irish Film and Drama will thoroughly prepare students for careers in Arts Administration and allow them to pursue opportunities to work with a range of Irish cultural institutions. The course also incorporates a fundamental grounding in practical film production skills. Students will be given supervised access to cameras and editing equipment, which will enable them to further understand the process of making a film, as well as provide them with an opportunity to produce their own projects. This will be of direct benefit to those interested in entering the fields of film, television and theatre production. With the rapid expansion of the visual communications industries in Ireland and the development of digital media and new television stations it is anticipated that this sector will grow significantly over the next decade.

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