CULT206-16S2 (C) Semester Two 2016

From Bambi to Kong: The Animal in American Popular Culture

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 11 July 2016
End Date: Sunday, 13 November 2016
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 22 July 2016
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 7 October 2016

Description

This course provides an introduction to human-animal studies through an analysis of cinematic representations of animals and the environment across horror and science fiction genres, animation, comedy and documentary.

This course provides an introduction to Human-Animal Studies as a field of scholarship. Students learn how to critically engage with popular cultural representations of animals and nature. Topics include the depiction of human-animal relationships in cinema and television (in particular, horror and science fiction genres); the environmental movement and marine mammals; dinosaur iconography; primatology in popular culture; cultural practices such as pet-keeping, dog-breeding and factory farming; and the influence of folklore and were-creatures including werewolves and humanimals.

(Image: "King Kong 1933 Italian Poster". Licensed under public domain.)

Learning Outcomes

  • In this course you will learn:
  • to trace the influence of competing ideas and narratives about nature and animals, and the human relationship with nature and animals, in a range of past and contemporary popular cultural genres, with a special focus on horror, science fiction and fantasy film;
  • to analyze the ways in which popular representations of the ‘natural’, the ‘animal’ and the ‘human’ shift in relation to specific historical periods, cultural and economic events; are constructed in particularly gendered and racialized ways (and in opposition to ideas about ‘culture’); and are variously represented in political discourses (e.g. environmental, feminist etc);
  • to survey the impact upon popular cultural representations of social movements (e.g. the environmental movement) that seek to redefine the relationship between humans and nature, and humans and animals

Prerequisites

Either 15 points of ENGL at 100-level with a B pass, or
30 points of ENGL at 100-level, or
any 45 points from the Arts Schedule

Restrictions

AMST236, AMST331, ENGL243, GEND213, GEND311, and ENGL349

Equivalent Courses

AMST236, GEND213, ENGL243

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Annie Potts

Lecturer

Philip Armstrong

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay 1 45%
Essay 2 45%
Class attendance 10%


There is no final exam for this course.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $717.00

International fee $2,913.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Humanities .

All CULT206 Occurrences

  • CULT206-16S2 (C) Semester Two 2016
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