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Unit of Study JUST2008 - Justice Framed: Law in Films and in Graphic Novels/Comics (2022)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    Requires attendance at intensive face-to-face classes.

Unit description

Introduces students to "law and the visual", "law and popular culture" and to the fundamental concepts of visual literacy. Students are invited to consider the intersection of legal and visual discourses and the idea that cinema (fiction, documentary, and other genres and comics) are practices from which it is possible to learn about law and which can problematise legal discourse.  

Unit content

Topic 1: Theoretical introduction to “law and the visual”

Topic 2: Theoretical introduction to “law and popular culture”

Topic 3: Fundamental concepts of visual literacy

Topic 4: Similarities between the different aspects of the cinematic world (the script, the staging, the location, the aesthetics, the performance) and the legal world

Topic 5: Law in cinema and law as cinema

Topic 6: Censorship and cinema

Topic 7: Inner semiotic structure and aesthetic properties of comics and graphic novels

Topic 8: Interpenetration of media, law and (pop) culture in graphic novels/comics

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2022

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

demonstrate knowledge of the theoretical principles of “law and the visual” and “law and popular culture”

explain the set of visual competencies or cognitive skills and strategies one needs to make sense of visual images

demonstrate knowledge of the idea of “law as cinema” and “law in cinema”

analyse the intersection of legal and visual discourses and cinema

analyse the intersection of legal and visual discourses and comics

analyse films and comics as a place of emergence of legal meanings that actually shape law

demonstrate their skills in critical analysis and the written presentation of research and argument.