Stardom, Industry, Commerce

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Foundation Core	SCC2FS107	4

Semester and Year Offered: Winter

Course Coordinator and Team: Dr Rajan Krishnan and team

Email of course coordinator: rajan[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

No pre-requisites.

Course Objectives/Description:

The course tries to understand the phenomenon of stardom from the film studies and sociological points of view. It uses a range of theoretical literature discussing the phenomenon. This stardom course has been designed keeping in mind that students are in their dissertation writing semester and will be able to use readings from the course as their initiation into issues of research methodology in cinema studies. The course is divided into film theory, analytical and reflective readings along with excerpts from film magazines, news pieces and digital media. The idea is not only to discuss issues concerning the phenomenal presence of star texts in mainstream cinema but also to critically examine the impact of star images in national and global cinematic imaginations. While film theory understands the star as an imaginary around which several socio-cultural and political issues emerge, the reading components on film industries delve into how star constructions are negotiated for inventing and re-inventing industrial discourses and practices. The arc of the course begins with the emergence of star image in the studio era, articulation of female stardom, shifts in the materialities of cinema, mapping "Bollywood" and "Tollywood" and closes with fandom and digital practices.

Course Outcomes:

Enable students to understand historical and theoretical ways of thinking about cinema. Thus, producing disciplinary knowledge of film studies.
Cinemas are part of the socio-political-cultural habitation in various regions. In asking students to investigate cinematic stardom, this course promotes a rigorous investigation of elements of gender, caste, local nuances etcetera. This in turn produces critical thinking, analytical reasoning and awareness of socio-political-cultural histories.
Given that this course engages with cinematic stardom in relationship to local, regional and national cinemas, it allows for multicultural competence.
This course focuses on the star with a particular bent towards research methods for film studies, promoting research-related skills.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

See reading list below.

Assessment Details with weights:

Class Participation: 20%
Presentation: 30%
Mid Term Paper: 20%
End Term Paper: 30%

Reading List:

Week 1.1- Introduction

Edgar Morin, “Gods and Goddesses” in The Stars: An Account of the Star System in Cinema, 1957. *

Martin Shingler, “Star Quality: In Search of the Prerequisites of Stardom” in Star Studies: A Critical Guide, London: British Film Institute, 2013.

Week 1.2- Star and Materiality

Ranjani Mazumdar, “The Bombay Film Poster”, Seminar 525: Unsettling Cinema, May 2003, 33-41.

Ranjani Mazumdar, Film stardom after Liveness”, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 833-844. 2012*

Week 3-4 Stardom: Issues and Debates

Richard Dyer, “Stars as Social Phenomenon”, “Stars as Images” in The Stars, London: British Film Institute, 1998, 1-47.*

Christine Geraghty, “Re-examining Stardom: Questions of texts, Bodies and Performances” in Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams ed. Reinventing Film Studies. Arnold Publishers: 2000, 183-201.

Film Screening: My Week with Marilyn (2011) Dir. Simon Curtis

Week: 5 Negotiating the Industry

Excerpts from Indian Cinema: Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties. Edited. Samik Bandyopadhyay. Celluloid Chapter. 1993

Niranjan Pal, “India and the Film Industry” in Filmland, May 1931.

Sultan Mirza, “Overflow from the Pen of a Sufferer” in Filmland, February 1931.

A Lady Artiste, “Should Respectable Ladies Join Films” in Filmland, September 1931.

Sabita Devi, “Why Shouldn’t Respectable Ladies Join the Films” in Filmland, September 1931.

Week 6 Negotiating the Industry: Studio Era

Debashree Mukherjee, “Notes on the Scandal: Writing Women’s Film History Against an Absent Archive”, Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, June 2013 4: 9-30.*