The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

Later

MA-thesis in Film Studies

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Film Studies

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

The course will examine the history and development of documentaries.  Key works and authors will be presented, along with trends that have been throughout the history of documentaries such as direct cinema, cinema vérité, Grierson movement, Kinoks, film-diary.  We will look at how technological developments affected the making of documentaries.

The course is based on teachers' lectures, seminar discussions and specific films will be presented to the students.

The basics of editing will be taught, with students doing one project recorded on a phone and another project where archive material is edited.  The students will be taught how to use Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, reviewing basics such as how to upload content, edit footage, simple audio editing, text insertion and minor color correction.

Students are expected to take an active part in the course and practical projects.

Many students, who finish their studies in the School of Humanities, in particular students from the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, are likely to be employed in the future by media-companies, publishing houses and cultural institutions and asked to write criticism or news about books and art-events. The course focuses on the role and characteristics of cultural journalism in Iceland. Students will get acquainted with most of the genres of cultural journalism, such as interviews, criticism, news-releases and blog. They will work on practical assignments that will be related to specific cultural events in Iceland in the spring of 2018.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

The course discusses the philosophical and theoretical foundations of gender studies, and the critical and interdisciplinary content of the field. The representation and meaning of sex and gender in language, culture, history, science, and society is explored. The analytical perspective of the field is presented, as is its relationship with methodology. Students are trained in applying theoretical concepts and methods independently and critically.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.

The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

Later

MA-thesis in Film Studies

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Film Studies

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

The course will examine the history and development of documentaries.  Key works and authors will be presented, along with trends that have been throughout the history of documentaries such as direct cinema, cinema vérité, Grierson movement, Kinoks, film-diary.  We will look at how technological developments affected the making of documentaries.

The course is based on teachers' lectures, seminar discussions and specific films will be presented to the students.

The basics of editing will be taught, with students doing one project recorded on a phone and another project where archive material is edited.  The students will be taught how to use Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, reviewing basics such as how to upload content, edit footage, simple audio editing, text insertion and minor color correction.

Students are expected to take an active part in the course and practical projects.

Many students, who finish their studies in the School of Humanities, in particular students from the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, are likely to be employed in the future by media-companies, publishing houses and cultural institutions and asked to write criticism or news about books and art-events. The course focuses on the role and characteristics of cultural journalism in Iceland. Students will get acquainted with most of the genres of cultural journalism, such as interviews, criticism, news-releases and blog. They will work on practical assignments that will be related to specific cultural events in Iceland in the spring of 2018.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

The course discusses the philosophical and theoretical foundations of gender studies, and the critical and interdisciplinary content of the field. The representation and meaning of sex and gender in language, culture, history, science, and society is explored. The analytical perspective of the field is presented, as is its relationship with methodology. Students are trained in applying theoretical concepts and methods independently and critically.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.

The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

The course explores psychoanalytic film theory, as well as the question of how and why psychoanalysis is useful for the research and analysis of film. We will delve into key texts in film theory, as well as the psychoanalytic writings most fundamental to psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the course, students will get an overview of the main methods used by psychoanalytic film theorists ever since semiotics caught hold of psychoanalytic film theory in the 1970s, until the present day. Students gain insight into criticism forwarded towards psychoanalytic film theory, as well as solutions to problems posed by such critique. Finally, students will watch films that offer particularly interesting psychoanalytic readings, and practice film analysis through written assignments and in-class discussions.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

This course is done in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum. A few lessons will take place at the Film Museum at Hvaleyrarbraut in Hafnarfjörður, but students will have to get there on their own. Research on Icelandic film history is not very advanced, which is best proven by the fact that Icelandic film history has not yet been published in a book in Icelandic. In order to understand Iceland's film history, a good starting point is needed and this course will be it. An effort will be made to give students a good insight into the museums related to films in Iceland, the Icelandic Film Museum is at the forefront, but also discontinued museums such as the Fræðslumyndasafnið and Litla-Bíó, established by Þorgeir Þorgeirsson. The history of film preservation in Iceland will be discussed, and efforts will also be made to provide students with a good overview of the state of knowledge in film history and to examine some key texts in more detail. As mentioned above the course will be conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum and students will get to know the museum closely and the work that takes place there, but also learn about the possibilities that the museum offers in research and other work related to the nation's film heritage. Projects in the course will be related to research into film history.

Later

MA-thesis in Film Studies

After the defeat of the German Empire in WWI, the German film industry became soon one of the most influential and prosperous in the world, leaving a lasting mark on the film history during the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in the beginning of 1933, they immediately focused on the film industry and started gradually taking control of it all. No film production could be financed if it didn‘t fulfil the ideological demands of the Nazis and no film could be released until the Minister of Propaganda Joseph Göbbels had seen it and accepted its final version. This applied equally to movies, documentaries, newsreels and short films. Göbbels believed that the best way to present the basic ideological values of Nazism to the public would be through various forms of entertainment and emphasized the importance of German films competing Hollywood whereas various other Nazis, including the Führer, Adolf Hitler, himself, were keener on direct political, racial and military propaganda documentary films. Most Jews among German film makers and actors soon lost their occupation when the Nazis came to power and year by year all the way to the outbreak of WWII many managed to escape the country together with various other political dissidents from the film industry. In the coming years and decades, many of these refugees, including for instance Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Emeric Pressburger, joined the ranks of the most influential film makers and actors in the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, many of the most important film makers and actors from the Weimar era were still active within the German film industry under the control of the Nazis or even joined their ranks. Under the Nazi leadership, German film making kept prospering and various pioneering and influential developments, such as the emergence of a TV station in 1935, still took place but with the outbreak of WWII, the Nazis managed also to take control of the film industry in all their occupied countries.

The focus of this course will be on the main themes in films produced under Nazi control and the ideological prerequisites of their propaganda. The themes that will be analysed include Germans as victims, nationalism, racism, gender roles, gender relations, ethical values, euthanasia, death penalty, religion, rural culture, blood and soil, militarism, expansionism, colonialism, anti-communism, anti-democracy, anti-individualism, unconditional submission to authorities and the importance of self-sacrifice for the country, comrades and the leader. This analysis will take place in a historical, cultural, sociological and religious context and questions asked to what extent and in what manner these themes are still present in modern times. Of particular importance in the analysis will be various theories on propaganda, its nature, essence and influence.

Several important films of various genres from this era will be screened either in their full length or in parts, including comedies, romance films, horror films, war films, musicals, thrillers, sci-fi films, westerns, disaster films and political propaganda documentaries. The most important film makers who will be evaluated include Leni Riefenstahl, Thea von Harbou, Veit Harlan, Douglas Sirk, Reinhold Schünzel, Frank Wisbar, Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff, Max W. Kimmich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Gustav Ucicky, Günther Rittau, G.W. Pabst, Arnold Fanck, Helmut Käutner, Carl Froelich, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Karl Hartl, Willi Forst, Luis Trenker and Harry Piel but various influential actors will also be discussed such as Emil Jannings, Renate Müller, Marika Rökk, Heinz Rühmann, Lída Baarová, Hans Albers, Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Olga Tschechowa, Kristina Söderbaum and Sybille Schmitz. Although the emphasis of this course is on film making within the Third Reich, the most important films from some of the occupied contries during WWII will be analysed as well. This includes films from Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Norway, Denmark and Italy and, also, the film co-production of Nazi Germany and the Imperial Japan.

In the course, various forms of fantasy will be discussed, along with their characteristics and roles, drawing on the perspectives of theorists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Tzvetan Todorov, Rosemary Jackson, and Mariu Nikolajeva. Additionally, the discussion will encompass different types of imagined worlds and the interplay between reality and fiction in relation to concepts such as the imagination, possible world theory, and unnatural narratives. Furthermore, attention will be given to the hybrid nature of fantasy. Works examined and analyzed in the course include Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Peter Pan (James Matthew Barrie), selected Moomin books (Tove Jansson), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling), The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman) and selected Goosebumps books (R. L. Stine and Helgi Jónsson).

Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin A. Brabon have described postfeminism as a “concept fraught with contradictions. Loathed by some and celebrated by others“. In this course postfeminism will be analyzed as a response to second wave feminism, as a part of postmodernist consumer culture which is influenced by neo-liberal market theories, and in terms of its expressive sexuality. The students will read central theoretical texts on postfeminism and consumer culture, and works by some of the best known chick lit writers, such as Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Sophie Kinsella, as well as Icelandic counterparts. Chick culture will be analyzed in general through television series such as Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and Sex and the City (1998–2004), through films, talk shows for women, the music industry, glamour magazines and self-help books. We will also ask whether some central narrative structures, motifs and characters, can be traced back to classic writers such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Edith Wharton. Students will be encouraged to approach postfeminism in a critical manner without engaging in the derogatory language which so often characterizes the debate.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Film Studies

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

The course will examine the history and development of documentaries.  Key works and authors will be presented, along with trends that have been throughout the history of documentaries such as direct cinema, cinema vérité, Grierson movement, Kinoks, film-diary.  We will look at how technological developments affected the making of documentaries.

The course is based on teachers' lectures, seminar discussions and specific films will be presented to the students.

The basics of editing will be taught, with students doing one project recorded on a phone and another project where archive material is edited.  The students will be taught how to use Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, reviewing basics such as how to upload content, edit footage, simple audio editing, text insertion and minor color correction.

Students are expected to take an active part in the course and practical projects.

Many students, who finish their studies in the School of Humanities, in particular students from the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, are likely to be employed in the future by media-companies, publishing houses and cultural institutions and asked to write criticism or news about books and art-events. The course focuses on the role and characteristics of cultural journalism in Iceland. Students will get acquainted with most of the genres of cultural journalism, such as interviews, criticism, news-releases and blog. They will work on practical assignments that will be related to specific cultural events in Iceland in the spring of 2018.

Special Theme: Contemporaneity: Social Contexts in Recent Visual Texts

This course will offer an introduction to a range of films from Latin America while examining cinema as a format embedded in the visual culture of the continent. From a sociological standpoint and in light of various strands of influential theoretical models, this course will consider the centrality of movies and television programs as cultural expressions of contemporaneity. This course embraces forms other than feature films or short films, images from media other than scenes from a film, and audience response platforms other than academic articles or reviews from critics. The emphasis is placed on visual texts released in the last decade. The focal points are cross-border / global production and reception, digitization of cinema and recent approaches to cultural identity (identity branding migratory displacement, films as artefacts of contestation, new understanding of gender and ethnicity, memory, neoliberalism and markets, mediatized narcoculture, social inclusion, core-periphery relations, new video cultures and affect). The class will be mainly taught in English

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

The course discusses the philosophical and theoretical foundations of gender studies, and the critical and interdisciplinary content of the field. The representation and meaning of sex and gender in language, culture, history, science, and society is explored. The analytical perspective of the field is presented, as is its relationship with methodology. Students are trained in applying theoretical concepts and methods independently and critically.

What is cultural heritage and what purpose does it serve? Why does it always seem to be endangered? How does it tie together the past and the present? What's it got to do with the nation and the state? Historical consciousness? Globalization? Capitalism? Politics? The course will seek to answer these questions with reference to new research in folklore, ethnology, anthropology, art history, sociology, museology, history and archaeology and with a view to understanding what is going on in this expanding field of study.