PS56 - We all need a superhero: Looking into popular film texts. How do teenagers read them? What can teachers learn?

Sessions	Dates	Start	Finish
1	08 Sep 2009	05:30 PM	08:30 PM
2	22 Sep 2009	05:30 PM	08:30 PM

Secondary school teachers.

- To explore Science Fiction as a cinematic genre.
- To discuss the textual features of the films: V for Vendetta, Batman Begins and Ironman.
- To discuss the figure of the hero.
- To discover intertextual references with other types of texts.
- To encourage teachers to use these cinematic texts as a springboard for interdisciplinary projects.

This workshop explores the textual characteristics of the popular Science-fiction films, namely V for Vendetta, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Iron Man, which a teenage audience finds very appealing. Knowing about these texts, teachers could profit from the students' command of the topic and encourage them to establish intertextual relations with different literary texts or cross curricular links with other subjects

Session 1: Science Fiction as a cinematic genre.
- Origins. Textual characteristics. Generic conventions.
- V for Vendetta: analysis of the film in the light of the previous discussion.
- Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
- Analysis of the films.
- Suggestions for classwork.

Session 2:
- Iron Man and Lord of War.
- Analysis of the films in the light of the previous session.
- Suggestions for classwork.

- Dick Bernard F. (1998) Anatomy of Film. St.Martin's Press, Inc.
- MacFarlane, R. (1996) Novel to Film: an Introduction to Adaptation Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Monaco, J. (2000) How to Read a film, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Nelmes, J. (ed.) (2003) An Introduction to Film Studies. New York and London: Routledge.
- Neale, S. and Murray Smith, Eds. (1998) Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. New York and London: Routledge.
- Neale, S. (2000) Genre and Contemporary Hollywood, New York and London: Routledge.
- Phillips, P. (2000) Understanding Film Texts. Meaning and Experience, British Film Institute.

The coordinator will briefly present the theoretical background, eliciting information from the audience. Then she’ll move on to cinematic texts, identifying the characteristics presented before and showing the possibilities they offer for teaching purposes. Handouts will be provided.