The pervasiveness of fashion has a strong relation to literature and cinema from a number of perspectives. Whether on a text or the screen, a garment is full of symbolic meaning: it encodes social values and is key to constructing identities, even though its primary function is simply to dress characters. Within the domain of visual culture, clothes are key elements in the construction of cinematic identities. Stella Bruzzi (1997) goes as far as to argue that fashion designs can work as an autonomous discourse in film by disrupting the filmic narrative and speaking directly to the spectator. Within the domain of print culture, many literary texts, especially those from the end of the eighteenth century, articulate the relationship between fashion, social status and sexualities on different levels. The proliferation of fashion magazines from the nineteenth century onwards has encouraged consumption culture and connected readers worldwide, unifying and internationalising fashion so that people’s habits and bodies are controlled and standardised. Furthermore, many literati, directors and movie stars have made and make themselves known by socialising and combining their professional talents with performances in social spaces, where their clothing is a sign of individuality and/or of belonging to a group or artistic movement. This module will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of costume and fashion to explore their relation to class, gender and race through case studies from world cinema, literature and pop culture. It will examine canonical texts, films, videos, key historical and contemporary fashion periodicals and theoretical texts from the field of fashion studies. Students will have the chance to research and work on specific texts and films of their choice while developing a broader understanding of the discipline. 

Aims and Learning Outcomes: 


	Develop a critical understanding of fashion as a cultural phenomenon and how it affects bodies, identities, social relations, cultural narratives, and local/global environments. 
	
	
	Develop analytical, historical, critical and contextual approaches to the study of the relationship between fashion and fiction.  
	
	
	Examine the complex meanings of fashion in diverse cultural and historical contexts. 
	

	Engage with diverse sources and methods — from historical periodicals to TV series — to uncover alternative readings and comparisons of canonicals texts and feature films. 
	
	
	Engage students in the study of the representation of costume and fashion in diverse forms across print and visual culture.  
	
	
	Demonstrate an ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas in the field of fashion studies, and to apply these ideas to literature and film. 
	
	
	Demonstrate an ability to analyse films and literary texts of different periods and cultures and to relate them to their historical and cultural contexts. 
	
	
	Equip students with a wide range of ideas and a vocabulary to talk and write about the fashion. 
	

	Through seminar work and presentations, demonstrate advanced communication skills and an ability to work both individually and in groups. 
	
	
	Through the summative assessment, to demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills to carry close con/textual and comparative analysis of films and texts.  
	
 

Suggested Reading: 

Indicative set texts and films: 

A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde, 1893  

Comedy: American Style, Jessie Redmon Fauset, 1933 

Emma, Jane Austen, 1815 

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton, 1920 

The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1939-1908) 

The Flying Coffin (and selected poems), Natalia Chan, 2007 

The Overcoat and Other Short Stories, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) 

The Painter of Modern Life, Charles Baudelaire, 1863 

The Teddy Bear Chronicles, Xi Xi, 2020 

Treatise on Elegant Living, Honoré de Balzac, 1830 

 

Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, Philippa Lowthorpe, 2006 

Emma, Autumn de Wilde, 2020 

Foxy Brown, Jack Hill, 1974 

Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese, 1990 

In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai, 2000 

Marie Antoniette, Sofia Coppola, 2006 

Neon Bull, Gabriel Mascaro, 2015 

Normal People, Lenny Abrahamson, Hettie Macdonald, BBC Three, 2020 

Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa, 1954 

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Stephan Elliott, 1994 

The Age of Innocence, Martin Scorsese, 1993 

The Devil Wears Prada, David Frankel, 2006  

The Gang’s All Here, Busby Berkeley, 1943 

The Leopard, Luchino Visconti, 1963 