IT314 ITALIAN CINEMA: INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVES
ESSAY TOPICS, 2014-15
You are required to write an essay of EITHER 2,500 words, worth 50% of your overall mark for the module (plus a onehour written exam in summer 2015, also worth 50%)
OR 5,000 words, worth 100% of your overall mark for the module.
One word-processed copy of your essay must be uploaded via Tabula, and a hard copy
handed in to Harpal Singh, the Italian Departmental Secretary (H405), by
4pm on Monday 5th January 2015 (term 2, week 1).
See your handbook and the Department’s Guide to Essay Writing
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/italian/current/resources/) for full details of how
to produce and submit an assessed essay. You are reminded of the penalty for late
submission of assessed course work:
5% of the total mark attainable (100%) per day of late submission will be deducted from
the mark awarded for the work, up to a maximum of 20% deducted from work
submitted on Friday of the week of the deadline. Work submitted after Friday will be
awarded a mark of zero.
Please also note that plagiarism will be penalized. For guidance, see the relevant section
in the Department’s Guide to Essay Writing and the plagiarism statement from the
University Calendar, displayed on the Italian Department's noticeboard.
Questions for 2,500-word essays:
You may wish to devise your own essay question; if so, please see me before the end of
term to agree the question.
1. Outline and discuss the ways in which Bellissima AND/OR another of the films
you have studied offers a series of reflections on cinema as creative practice and
as popular cultural product.
2. ‘[The] domain of the irrational is, for Fellini, the ultimate source of artistic
inspiration and creativity’ (BONDANELLA). Discuss, with close reference to Otto e
mezzo AND/OR to another film you have studied for this module.
3. ‘If there is essentialism in Antonioni, it is the essentialism of the unconscious, of
the absolute impenetrability that qualifies the most intimate core of the subject’
(VIGHI). Discuss the representation of subjecthood with close reference to Il
deserto rosso AND/OR to another film you have studied for this module.
P.T.O.
Jennifer Burns
H4.11
j.e.burns@warwick.ac.uk
IT314 ITALIAN CINEMA: INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVES
4. Outline and discuss the impact of gender roles on constructions of the self, as
expressed in ONE OR MORE of the films which you have studied for this module.
5. Outline and discuss the representation of friendship, and/or the absence of it, in
ONE OR MORE of the films which you have studied for this module.
6. Outline and discuss the motif of adventure as expressed in ONE OR MORE of the
films which you have studied for this module.
7. Outline and discuss the representation and function of space (interior and/or
exterior, urban and/or rural, built and/or natural environments) in relation to
individual consciousness in ONE OR MORE of the films which you have studied
for this module.
8. With close reference to ONE film studied for this module, analyse ONE of the
following aspects of film form and style:
mise-en-scène
cinematography
sound
editing.
Topics for 5,000-word essays:
For the longer essay, you are expected to devise an essay title of your own, which you
should develop with the advice of the module tutor. The following offer some
suggestions of areas you may wish to consider, but are by no means exhaustive. Please
identify a topic of interest (either one of those below or one of your own making) and
then arrange an appointment with me to discuss it.
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autobiography and/or memory
dream and fantasy
gender and sexualities
innocence and/or corruption
psychoanalysis and/or neurosis
self-referentiality
intertextuality and intermedia citation
point of view
the interaction between subjectivity or individual consciousness and objective
reality
detailed sequence analysis of a number of sequences from one or more films
Jennifer Burns
H4.11
j.e.burns@warwick.ac.uk