Thursdays 2-4:50 RTFP 264 Spring 2024

BRITISH CINEMA &

TELEVISION
MRTS 4215/5215

Contact Info:
Instructor: Dr. Tanya D. Zuk

Of ce Hours: Mondays 9-12,

Tuesdays 3-5 and Fridays by
appointment

Of ce: RTFP 266

Email: tanya.zuk@unt.edu

About Me:
I earned my Ph. D. in Moving
Image Studies at Georgia State
Course Description
University. My work at GSU has As with any National Cinema, British Cinema cannot easily
focused on new media and be de ned. The intention of the course is to discuss what
collaborative storytelling, with
we might think/feel is ‘typically British’ and then to delve
a particular emphasis on
LGBTQ self-representations in deeper into the many di erent kinds of Cinema and TV of
transmedia narratives. I use a the modern period. The focus will be almost exclusively on
cultural studies approach that England (rather than Scotland, Wales or N. Ireland) and the
leans heavily on audience most obvious themes will be class, politics race and gender.
reception and fan studies in
This course will o er an insight into the cinema of a
my research, keeping in mind
text and industrial constraints. familiar, yet often misunderstood culture.

Course Goals
By the end of this course you should be able to…

To interrogate how British cinema & TV re ects

and informs the culture that produced it

To encourage an understanding of representation

of race, class, sexuality, gender as they appear in

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Thursdays 2-4:50 RTFP 264 Spring 2024

British cinema and television

To provide an understanding of how British cinema

and TV is informed by and/or in uences other lm or
TV industries

Course Texts
Required readings are available online at the course website.
Assignments Many of the screenings will be as well, but some will have to
be procured on your own.
Participation 10%

Show & Tell 15%

Course Policies
Response Papers 40%
Class Environment
Screening Notes 35%
It is in the best interests of you as an individual and us as a
classroom to create a positive, inclusive, classroom
environment. One of the greatest challenges as an
10%
instructor is to provide an engaging, entertaining, and
intellectual classroom experience. I need your collaboration
40% to create the best educational experience for all involved. By
35% participating in class discussion, being respectful of others
opinions, and preparing for class we can all work together to
15% create a creative and dynamic experience on and o screen.

Accommodations
I endeavor to make this class accessible to every student
Grade Scale and will do my best to make this class t your needs. If you
need special arrangements for a documented disability,
90-100 A 80-89 B please contact the O ce of Disability Access. If you
70-79 C 60-69 D
would like to share pertinent medical information, request
special arrangements for class seating, or need special
assistance in the event of a building evacuation, please
contact me in the rst week of class. I am happy to alter
content formats and provide multiple points of access to
course materials.

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 Thursdays 2-4:50
Screening Notes
Throughout the semester you
will pick 5 screenings to take
notes on and submit as
assignments. (Outside of
response weeks.) Your notes
will take in aesthetic, narrative,
and representational issues
within the screening. Notes
can be informal, but they need
to be detailed. We’ll discuss
how to screening notes in
class.
Show & Tell
Once during the semester you
will select a reading that you
will present to the class. Your
presentation should highlight
one key idea from the reading,
a clip from a media text NOT
included in class, and at least
2 discussion questions for the
class. Remember open-ended
questions work best.
Response Papers
During the semester there will
be 5 short response papers
where you will be asked to
discuss a screening from class
related to the readings from
class. This may ask you to pull
content from multiple weeks
into your response.
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RTFP 264 Spring 2024
Basic Needs & Security Statement
Any student who faces challenges securing their food or
housing and believes this may a ect their performance
in this course is urged to contact the Dean of
Students for support. For immediate food assistance,
visit UNT Food Pantry. For emergency housing
needs, visit here or Cloud 9 Charities. There are
additional Wellbeing and Safety Services through
Student A airs. If you are comfortable, please let me
know what is going on. I am ready and able to make
course accommodations
based on your
circumstances, and
assist in providing
resources. Course
Site(s)
Late Policy
No assignments will be
accepted late unless you
have (a) the permission
of the instructor; (b)
jury duty notice; or (c)
permission from the
Dean of Students.
Appeals
If you wish to appeal a grade: within a week of getting
your assignment back you must hand in, along with the
assignment you want re graded, a typed one page paper
explaining why you believe your grade was incorrect and
should be regraded. I will respond in writing within a
week. Please note, that re-grading does NOT guarantee
a better grade.
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 Thursdays 2-4:50 RTFP 264 Spring 2024

Instructor Availability & Response Time RESOURCES

I will be available for drop-in hours on Mondays 9-12 UNT Writing Center
noon and Tuesdays 3-5 pm where you we can talk face-
to-face or virtually via Zoom. You can make in-person There are several small papers,
appointments with me by following this link or Friday as well as a nal project
required in this class. You may
virtual only appointments here. Please send emails nd over the course of the
directly through Canvas. I wi genera y provide a semester, that you want help
response within 24 hours. revising your work. You can
sign-up for a session at:
Academic Honesty https://writingcenter.unt.edu.
I’ve used writing assistance
Please note that by staying in this class you are agreeing throughout my academic
to abide by all the standards of academic integrity as career. No one gets citations or
found in the Honor Code. Please review the policies on grammar naturally. Use every
AI generated content as developed by the Media Arts resource at your disposal!
department in Canvas. Additionally, you agree to hold to
Media Library
the legal and professional standards set within the media
industries in regard to credits. The Media Library contains the
UNT Libraries’ non-print,
Subject to Change Statement audiovisual, tabletop games,
and video games collections.
The instructor reserves the right to modify the course The Media Library also has The
requirements and other related policies as circumstances Nest, which is an e-sports and
may dictate, and with su cient noti cation to all game design space. The
students. Even the professor can have an unanticipated mission of the UNT Media
emergency, and the university—or the community at large Library is to support the
instructional and research
—may experience an emergency that requires changing
needs of UNT faculty, sta , and
the class schedule or requirements. Any change will also students by collecting,
be posted to Canvas. maintaining, and providing
access to media materials that
represent all academic
REVISE & RESUBMIT disciplines and all genres of
I have a long-standing, open, revise and resubmit lm.
policy for all my classes. I rmly believe that
students are more likely to review and use
feedback if they can apply it immediately.
Therefore, you can revise assignments during the
semester using the feedback provided and
resubmit for an improved grade. To complete the
revise/resubmit, just re-submit the assignment in
its original dropbox.

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Thursdays 2-4:50 RTFP 264 Spring 2024

Course Schedule
All readings, screenings, and assignments are due by the START of class on the date below.

READINGS & MEDIA ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1 1/18 - Course Intro

• Norman, “Is there British Cinema?”

Week 2 1/25 - History: The King’s Speech

• Leach, “The Long Memory: History and Heritage”

Week 3 2/1 - History: Downton Abbey

• Baena & Byker, “Downton English Identity”
• Pötzach, “Nostalgia in Downton Abbey”

Week 4 2/8 - SF/F: Doctor Who Response Paper

• Excerpts from Doctor Who & Race
• Leach, “Formula of Doctor Who”
• DiPaolo, “Political Satire”

Week 5 2/15 - SF/F: Harry Potter

• Watch Harry Potter lm of your choice
• Smith, “Harry Potter and Imperial Nostalgia”
• Eastwood, “Harry Potter and Displaced Nationalism”

Week 6 2/22 - Action: Bond 007

• Watch You Only Live Twice
• Chapman, “ Bond and Britishness.”
• McMillan, “Broken Bond”

Week 7 2/29 - Horror: 28 Days Later (library) Screening Notes

• Conrich, “Traditions of British Horror”
• Decker, “28 Days Later and Transatlantic Horror”

Week 8 3/7 - Children’s Media Response Paper

• Watch Paddington
• Gallagher, “A Very British Migrant Crisis” (Link)
• Brown, “Children’s Film, Nation & Identity”

SPRING BREAK

Week 9 3/21 - Romance: Austen

• Watch Lost in Austen (3 hr mini-series)
• Pennacchia, “Recreating Jane”
• Creeper, “Romance Re-Scripted”

Week 10 3/28 - Romance: Outlander Screening Notes

• Shacklock, “Not Watching Outlander”
• McGucken, “A love letter to Scotland”

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READINGS & MEDIA ASSIGNMENTS

Week 11 4/4 - Mystery: Sherlock

• Watch version assigned in class (there are two)
• Joyce, “Sherlock Evolution”
• Wright, “They Were the Very Model of the Modern
Information Age”

Week 12 4/11 - Mystery: Agatha Christie Response Paper

• Watch: Murder on the Orient Express
• Forshaw, “Heritage Britain Crime Film”
• Ro, “Christie Shaped How the World Sees Britain” (Link)

Week 13 4/18 - TV Comedy

• Watch Selections Online: Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Little
Britain, Fawlty Towers, The IT Crowd
• Neale & Krutnik, “Broadcast comedy and sitcom”
• Landy, “The Flying Circus in a Changing British Culture”
• Mowatt, “Little Britain as Sketch Show”

Week 14 4/25 - Comedy: Hot Fuzz Response Paper

• Hunter, “From window cleaner to potato man: confessions of
a working class stereotype “
• Archer, “Shit Got Real”

Week 15 5/2 - Reality TV Screening Notes

• Watch: Great British Bake-Off, TaskMaster, What Not to Wear
• Casey, “Cookery in Colour”
• Jennings, “Reality TV and the Reinvention of Britishness”

Grad
Students Your term papers are due on May 6th by midnight.

ASSIGNMENT NOTES: Screening notes can be turned in any week that is NOT a response paper week.
Sign-ups for Show & Tell will happed the rst week of class. Show & Tell submission is due before class start
time the day of your presentation.

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