Subject Librarian
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Introduction
This page looks at researching "themes" in film. For example, if you wanted to research how "minorities" are portrayed in movies or look at "death", this page will give you tips.
Definition for "theme"
In film studies, a theme is a central message within a narrative of a film or television show. In general, themes fit into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what the audience "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject of the story." As you can imagine, these vary based on the film, characters, director, and writer.
[Source: No Film School, 05/27/2022]
In the Library's collections
The online catalog is always a great place to start your research. Do the search for "motion pictures" as a subject in the online catalog. Another subject heading you can use in the catalog is "motion pictures plots, themes, etc." You also see "[topic] in motion pictures." These are your themes. Click on any one of those and you see what we have in our collection.
- ... in motion picturesIf you want to see how a theme is handle in movies, you put the word in front of "in motion pictures." An example is "sex in motion pictures."
A Selected list of themes in movies
This is a short, selected list of subject headings in the online catalog that are themes in films:
- city and town life in motion picturesCall number range PN 1995.9 .C513 on Baker Level 4.
- homosexuality in motion picturesCall number range is PN 1995.9 .H55 on Baker Level 4.
- lesbianism in motion picturesCall number range is PN 1995.9 .L48 on Baker Level 4.
- minorities in motion picturesCall number range is PN 1995.9 .M56 on Baker Level 4.
- national characteristics ... motion picturesInsert a country's adjective to make the search more specific.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.