Swedish Film and Television Culture
Coordinator: Prof. Maaret Koskinen
maaret.koskinen@mail.film.su.se
Office phone: 08-674 76 17
SWEDISH FILM AND TV CULTURE: FINAL EXAM (take-home)
Course Description:
The course provides an overview of the role of the moving image in Swedish culture and society during the last 100 years, a period when moving image culture became increasingly more important. Swedish film and television culture is presented in relation to international trends and developments. Various approaches are considered, including the analysis of formal concerns combined with different socio-cultural perspectives as well as entertainment genres and avant-garde experiment. Industrial practice and film analysis are discussed with a focus on individual artists. Attention is also paid to case studies dealing with questions of criticism and reception.
Course objectives:
After passing the course the student will have acquired:
- knowledge of the different media involved in moving image culture in the Swedish context.
- familiarity with the main methods of critically analysing film and TV output.
- familiarity with the main trends in Swedish film and television studies.
Assessment and Grading:
The course is assessed through two essays (the first essay at the midpoint of the course, the second essay at the conclusion of the course). You may choose to write in English or in Swedish.The grading follows a seven-grade scale: A (excellent), B (very good), C (good), D (satisfactory), E (sufficient), Fx (insufficient), F (entirely insufficient).
Course Requirements:
Film, television, and other media material that are screened within the course framework are considered mandatory, and thereby equated with the reading material. Essays and other written assignments must be presented in electronic form. Delivered texts might be run through the software Genuine Text. Suspected cheating, such as plagiarism, will be dealt with by the University’s Disciplinary Board, after announcement from the Department Chair/Director of Studies.
Location:
The Department of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University is situated in Filmhuset (Borgvägen 1-5) just east of central Stockholm and can be reached either by underground (the stop is Karlaplan on the red line to Ropsten) or by bus (nos. 4, 42, 56, 72, 76).
Required Reading:
Course Book:
Soila, Tytti, Astrid Söderbergh Widding and Gunnar Iversen, Nordic National Cinemas (London and New York: Routledge 1998), 1–6, 142–242 (circa 105 p.)
Course Reader:
[NB: Reader is for sale only in Film House store beside the Reception.]
Alexander, John, ”Reframing Narrative” (chapter 3) in ”Screen Play – Audiovisual Narrative and Viewer Interaction”
Andrew, Dudley, ”Adaptation”, in Mast/Cohen/Braudy (eds), ”Film Theory and Criticism” (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 421-428
Bazalgette Cary and Terry Staples, ”Unshrinking the Kids: Children’s Cinema and the Family Film”, in Cary Bazalgette och David Buckingham (eds), ”In Front of the Children” (London: BFI, 1995), 92-108
Belgrad, Daniel, ”Bepop”, in ”The Culture of Spontaneity: Improvisation and the Arts in Postwar America” (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press 1998), 179-195.
Björkman, Stig, “Film In Sweden: The New Directors” (London: The Tantivy Press/South Brunswick and New York: A S Barnes and Co, 1977), 27-44, 87-94
Bolin, Göran and Michael Forsman, ”Film studies in Sweden: cinema arts and back again”, Screen XXXVII:3 (Fall 1996)
Bolin, Göran och Michael Forsman, ”Readjusting the agenda: Reply to Jan Olsson”, Screen XXXIX: 1 (Spring 1998)
Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin, Remediation. Understanding New Media (Cambridge, Mass and London, Engl: The MIT Press, 2002), 20-50
Buscombe, Edward, “The Idea of Genre in American Cinema”, in Barry Keith Grant (ed) “Film Genre Reader II” (Univerity of Texas Press: Austin, 1997), 11-25
Feuer, Jane, “The Concept of Live Television: Ontology as Ideology”, in “Regarding Television: Critical Approaches – an Anthology” (Los Angeles: University Publications of America, Inc., 1983), 12-21
Foucault, Michel, “Las Meninas”, in The Order of Things (Vintage: New York, 1973), 3-16
Gunning, Tom, ”’A Dangerous Pledge’: Victor Sjöström’s Masterpiece, Mästerman”, Fullerton/Olsson (eds.), ”Nordic Explorations: Film Before 1930” (London: John Libbey, 1999), 204-231
Higson, Andrew, ”The Limiting Imagination of National Cinema”, in Mette Hjort and Scott MacKenzie (eds), “Cinema and Nation” (London and New York: Routledge 2000), 63-74
Janson, Malena, ”Elvis! Elvis!”, in Tytti Soila (ed), ”The Cinema of Scandinavia” (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2006), 171-179
Jarvie, Ian, ”National Cinema: A Theoretical Assessment”, in Mette Hjort and Scott MacKenzie (eds), “Cinema and Nation” (London and New York: Routledge 2000), 75-87
Kleberg, Madeleine, ”The History of Swedish Televison. Three Stages”, in Ib Bondebjerg and Francesco Bono (eds), ”Television in Scandinavia. History, Politics and Aesthetics” (Luton: University of Luton Press, 1996), 182-207
Knight, Arthur, ”Jammin the Blues, or the Sight of Jazz, 1944”, in Krin Gabbard (ed.) Representing Jazz (Durham and London: Duke University Press 1995), 11-47.
Koskinen, Maaret, “Swedish Television Today: Programs, Aesthetics and National Patterns”, in Ib Bondebjerg and Francesco Bono (eds), “Television in Scandinavia. History, Politics and Aesthetics” (London: John Libbey 1996), 208-225
Koskinen, Maaret, ”The Swedish Film of the Eighties and Nineties: A Critical Survey”, in Fransesco Bono and Maaret Koskinen (eds), “Swedish Film Today” (Svenska institutet, 1996), 9-42
Koskinen, Maaret, ”The Typically Swedish in Ingmar Bergman”, in Roger W. Oliver (ed) “Ingmar Bergman: An Artist’s Journey on Stage, on Screen, in Print” (New York: Arcade Publishing 1995), 126-136
Olsson, Jan, ”Remapping: another look at cinema studies in Sweden”, Screen XXXVIII:2, X-X
Olsson, Jan, ”One Commercial Week: Television in Sweden Prior to Public Service”, in Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (eds), ”Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition” (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004), 249-269
Sörenssen, Björn, “Hrafn Gunnlaugsson – The Viking Who Came in from the Cold?”, in Andrew Nestingen and Trevor G. Elkington (eds), “Transnational Cinema in a Global North. Nordic Cinema in Transition” (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005), 341-356
Werner, Gösta, “Vingarna: ritrovato e restaurato il film di Mauritz Stiller” (Italian and English), in Griffithiana 1988 (32/33), 90-92
Wright, Rochelle, “‘Immigrant Film’ in Sweden at the Millennium”, in Andrew Nestingen and Trevor G. Elkington (eds), “Transnational Cinema in a Global North. Nordic Cinema in Transition” (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005), 55-72
Schedule:
Monday 4/2
Screening 1
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 1: Introduction. History, Culture, and National Cinema
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Wednesday 6/2
Screening 2
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 2: Auteurs and Literary Adaptations
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 11/2
Screening 3
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 3: Sex, Politics, and Censorship
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Wednesday 13/2
Screening 4
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 4: Film and the Other Arts
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 18/2
Screening 5
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 5: The Swedsih ‘Childhood Film’
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Wednesday 20/2
Screening 6
Time: 13.00-15.00 in “F-salen”.
Lecture 6: Genre Across Cultures
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 3/3
Screening 7
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 7: Ethnicity and Transnationality
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Tuesday 4/3
Screening 8
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Victor.
Lecture 8: From Peasants to Flappers – Representational Practices in Swedish Silent Cinema
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 10/3
Screening 9
Time: 13.00-14.00 at SLBA.
Lecture 9: Televised Jazz or Jazz on Television? (I)
Time: 14.00-17.00 at SLBA.
Wednesday 12/3
Screening 10
Time: 14.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 10: Televised Jazz or Jazz on Television? (II)
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 17/3
Screening 11
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 11: Hasse Ekman and Classical Hollywood Style in Swedish Films of the 1940s and 1950s
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Wednesday 19/3
Screening 12
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 12: Swedsih Children’s Cinema – Education, Entertainment, Art
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Tuesday 25/3
Screening 13
Time: 13.00-15.00 in Bio Mauritz.
Lecture 13: Film Criticism and Film Culture in Sweden
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Wednesday 26/3
Screening 14
Time: 13.00-15.30 in Bio Victor.
Lecture 14: Representation of Swedish Values in Television and Popular Culture
Time: 15.45-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Monday 31/3
Screening 15
Time: 13.00-15.00 in “F-salen”.
Lecture 15: 1950s Television – Production Structure, Programming, and Public Service
Time: 15.00-17.00 in “F-salen”.
Med reservation för eventuella ändringar.
Redaktör: Marina Dahlquist
Källa: Filmvetenskapliga institutionen
Uppdaterad: 2008-01-23