How have the makers of British films and TV programmes understood and represented their nation? Starting with Alfred Hitchcock’s early masterpiece The 39 Steps (1935), this course will follow the UK’s transformation from a confident imperial superpower in the 1930s to the globalised, post-Brexit present and analyse how film and TV have represented the dramatic political, social, and personal changes that came with it.

Along the way, we will look at popular culture (the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night); the recurring British social issue of class hierarchy (This is England, Peaky Blinders, Bridgerton); and race and colonialism (The Crying Game, the Small Axe films). We will pay special attention to representations of school life, including the Harry Potter films and Derry Girls. Throughout the course, we will ask how historical contexts are created and how they work for viewers (including the city of Bath itself, both in history and as a filming location for Bridgerton). To conclude, the course will examine how twenty-first-century British artists have re-invented the sitcom (Fleabag), literary adaptations (Sherlock), and black comedy (I May Destroy You).

Visits to the Harry Potter studio in Hertfordshire and the British Film Institute in London will offer valuable insights into the filmmaking process and the ways in which film is curated and presented as part of Britain’s cultural heritage.

Professor: John Hunter, Professor of Comparative and Digital Humanities, Bucknell University, jchunter@bucknell.edu