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Australian Cinema Studies: How the Subject Is Taught in Australian Univer- Sities This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Ryan, Mark David (2017) Australian cinema studies: How the subject is taught in Australian univer- sities. Journal of Australian Studies, 41(4), pp. 518-535. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/100139/ c Consult author(s) regarding copyright matters This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the docu- ment is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog- nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to [email protected] Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2017.1380685 Australian cinema studies: how the subject is taught in Australian universities Mark David Ryan1, Film, Screen, Animation, Queensland University of Technology Abstract Since the mid-1970s, the subject Australian Cinema, and its various synonyms and neologisms, has been studied in humanities, social sciences and the arts in Australian higher education, and research in the field has played an important role in informing the critical and empirical approaches underpinning curriculum. Yet to date there is limited insight into the types of subjects offered, their approaches to curriculum and syllabus, and their alignment with research. This article maps Australian cinema studies in higher education at an undergraduate level, and provides insight into common curriculum and syllabus models. Findings are drawn from an online survey of university course handbooks for relevant subjects; content and thematic analysis of study guides and weekly syllabus; and correspondence with coordinators. Twenty-seven universities offered subjects with a dominant Australian cinema focus. Australian cinema studies is firmly embedded in national cinema curriculum, and three common curriculum models include: 1) a historical chronology of Australian cinema; 2) a text-dominant approach organised around the weekly study of a key film; and 3) an approach predominately structured around Australian cinema discourses and critical theory. Despite the increasing importance of transnational approaches to Australian screen in research, transnationalism rarely functions as a dominant organising logic for curriculum in its own right. 1 [email protected] 1 Keywords: Australian cinema studies, curriculum, film studies, national cinema, transnational cinema 2 Introduction Since the early to mid-1970s, Australian Cinema and its various synonyms and neologisms—Australian Film, Australian National Cinema, Australian Film and Television, and Australian Screen—have been units or subjects2 of study in film, media, English, sociology and cultural studies’ disciplines in the Australian higher education system. Research in the field has played an important role in informing the theoretical paradigms, critical and empirical approaches, and discourses underpinning curriculum. In broader film studies, keystone subjects such as Introduction to Film Analysis or Global Cinema, for example, are well understood in terms of curriculum models, syllabus and pedagogical approaches, in part because a suite of textbooks inform teaching and learning. In the case of Australian cinema studies, there is no foundational textbook for teaching; and although published in 1996, Tom O’Regan’s Australian National Cinema remains an influential text.3 Periodicals such as Screen Education only occasionally publish articles addressing tertiary education curriculum (one example is Andrew Zielinski’s Australian National Cinema curriculum series4). This study’s findings suggest that Australian cinema studies curriculum 2 An individual academic unit of study in Australian higher education is variously referred to as a unit, subject, study option or course by different universities and across the different states. This article uses the terms unit or subject interchangeably; course refers to a program of study comprising numerous individual units or subjects. 3 Tom O’Regan, Australian National Cinema (London: Routledge, 1996). 4 Andrew Zielinski, “Constructing an Australian Space: Newsfront and Authorship, Social History and Identity,” Screen Education 58 (2010a): 89–93. Andrew Zielinski, “Interventionist Spaces,” Screen Education 58 (2010b): 84–88. Andrew Zielinski, “Alternative Spaces: The Quirky and the Arthouse,” Screen Education 55 (2009a): 90–93. Andrew Zielinski, “Jane Campion and Urban Anxiety,” Screen Education 54 (2009b): 100–103. 3 is characterised by a diverse range of largely undocumented approaches informed ostensibly by a unit coordinator’s own research activities, experience and surveys of the field. Consequently, to date there is limited insight into the types of Australian Cinema subjects offered, approaches to curriculum and syllabus, and their alignment with research. In recent years, scholars have advocated shifts in the foci of research and curriculum: away from nationally defined, production-centred enquiry to audience-oriented5 and comparative modes of analysis.6 Yet, without an understanding of the current terrain of Australian cinema studies, it is difficult for academics to position their own curriculum in relation to common approaches in other subjects, to evaluate what they teach and to develop innovative approaches to teaching. This article argues that Australian cinema studies is firmly embedded Andrew Zielinski, “Two Breakthrough Spaces: Crocodile Dundee and Picnic at Hanging Rock,” Screen Education 52 (2008a): 130–134. Andrew Zielinski, “A Government Space: The South Australian Film Corporation,” Screen Education 52 (2008b): 124–129. Andrew Zielinski, “Alternative Spaces: Indigenous Films,” Screen Education 51 (2008c): 113–117. Andrew Zielinski, “Parking Spaces: Visitors Films,” Screen Education 49 (2008d): 118–124. Andrew Zielinski, “Australian Cinema in the 1930s and 1940s: The Persistence of the Bush Myth,” Screen Education 45 (2007a): 135–139. Andrew Zielinski, “A Case Study of Two Silent Films,” Screen Education 45 (2007b): 133–134. Andrew Zielinski, “Silent Cinema: Archetypes and Cliches,” Screen Education 45 (2007c): 130–134. Andrew Zielinski, “An Overview of Contrasting Spaces in Australian Feature Films,” Screen Education 43 (2006): 92–101. 5 Kate Bowles, “‘Three Miles of Rough Dirt Road’: Towards an Audience-Centred Approach to Cinema Studies in Australia,” Studies in Australasian Cinema 1.3 (2007): 245–260. 6 Adrian Martin, “Ozploitation Compared to What? A Challenge to Contemporary Australian Film Studies,” Studies in Australasian Cinema, 4.1 (2010): 9–21. 4 in national cinema curriculum, and while approaches to curriculum are diverse three common models could be described as: 1) a historical chronology of Australian cinema; 2) a text- dominant approach organised around the weekly study of a key film and corresponding themes; and 3) an approach predominately structured around Australian cinema discourses and critical theory. Despite the increasing importance of transnational debates and approaches for the study of Australian screen in research, transnationalism is largely examined from the perspective of a national cinema rather than functioning as a dominant organising logic for curriculum and syllabus in its own right. In an Australian first, this article maps Australian cinema studies in higher education at an undergraduate level, and provides insight into how the subject Australian Cinema—an umbrella term for the aforementioned terms—is taught in terms of curriculum and syllabus models. Though the subject is taught internationally, often within Australian studies or global cinema subjects, this context falls outside the study’s scope. The findings are drawn from a national study undertaken between June 2013 and December 2014. The study involved an online search of Australia’s thirty-nine universities study guides for relevant subjects; content and thematic analysis of unit outlines and study guides; and key informant interviews. As curriculum for any academic subject is dynamic, the findings of this study represent a snapshot of Australian cinema studies in tertiary education in 2014 and offers insight into the shape of Australian cinema studies curriculum. Australian cinema studies: trends in research and curriculum Since the 1970s and until quite recently, there has been a discernible alignment between developments in the local production industry, research and curriculum. For Noel King, Constantine Verevis and Deane Williams, in one of the most comprehensive accounts of film theory and criticism’s development in Australia, film studies emerged as an academic field of 5 enquiry during the first half of the 1970s.7 While the discipline’s growth corresponded roughly with the advancement of film studies internationally, two key developments were unique to the Australian
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