Comparative Studies Papers

This paper deals with the evolution and structure of a major group of languages, descended from Latin and spoken extensively in Europe and the New World; their role as vehicles of western civilisation scarcely needs stressing. The value and importance of the subject is reflected in the fact that it complements and throws light on a wide range of other Tripos papers. The Romance languages are among the best documented historically, and the most accessible geographically and politically, in the world. This makes them an ideal empirical testing ground, and source of data, for issues in general and historical linguistic theory. The integration of linguistic theory with the detailed structural analysis of the Romance languages is one of the central aims of this paper. The comparative overview provided by this paper also furnishes essential background and context for the study of the histories of individual Romance languages.

The Body paper is comparative in terms of both language areas and media covered: literature, non-literary texts, film, performance, art. It aims to explore, by way of diverse theoretical and interpretative approaches, the way in which bodies and embodiment are presented in these diverse media and the stakes or wider implications of this presentation.

This paper offers the opportunity for comparative study of European Cinema. The paper opens with an introduction to film language and to cinema’s fundamental properties as a medium. Students will learn techniques for close analysis of film texts as well as developing an intellectual understanding of the ontology of film, of film as an indexical medium, and of key aspects of film language. The variety of lecture topics introduce students to key areas in European film history and film theory, through close work on a series of prescribed films and through theoretical reading as well as broader comparative work. The paper is taught in English, all prescribed readings are in English, and all prescribed films are subtitled in English. Should they wish to do so, however, students are welcome, with the advice of their supervisors, to expand their engagement to include materials in language areas in which they have proficiency.

This comparative paper aims to explore pressing political, aesthetic, theoretical and historical questions regarding the nature of cinematic representation. Examining fiction, documentary, mainstream and experimental moving image practice, from 1945 onwards, the paper will engage with a range of issues such as gender and sexuality, race, labour, capitalism, digitality, biopolitics and ecologies. It will address topics including trauma and historical memory, decolonisation (particularly Third Cinema in its Latin American and African iterations), political filmmaking in various contexts (Black, feminist, queer, trans), cinematic representations of AIDS/HIV, and contemporary explorations of identity, disability, precarity and crisis.

The scope of the paper is global. While the major language areas covered will be French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and English, students are encouraged to adopt a global, comparative approach that explores such material alongside cinemas in other languages.

The paper is divided into seven key topics:

• Trauma and decolonisation
• Gender and sexuality
• Labour and class
• Migration and Diaspora
• Cinema of crisis
• Disability
• Ecologies