GWS 111
FEMINIST FILM STUDIES: BODIES, GENRES, AND POLITICS
FEMINIST FILM STUDIES: BODIES, GENRES, AND POLITICS
U.C. Berkeley
Summer Session A 2010
Instructor: Cathy Hannabach (channabach@gmail.com)
When: TWTh 1:00 – 3:30 PM
Where: 250 Dwinelle Hall
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM or by appt.m 600 Barrows Hall
Mailbox: 608 Barrows Hall
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course offers an introduction to feminist film studies, particularly focusing on several recent sub-genres, directors, and themes that have become central to feminist film culture and scholarship. Utilizing a transnational feminist cultural studies approach, we will explore questions of what feminist media practices might be at the levels of production, circulation, consumption, and representation. We will explore constructions of sexuality, gender, race, and nation in a variety of media practices in an attempt to understand the stakes that institutions such as law, medicine, and film industries have in such productions. Particular attention will be paid to the role of medium in constructing meaning, as the films we will focus on include those made through celluloid and digital technologies, films critiquing visual surveillance practices, short films involving mixed media, and animated films adapted from graphic novels. As a whole, the course will encourage students to develop a critical understanding of the mutual imbrications of sexuality, race, nation, class, and gender in cinema, and explore the ways cinema cultures both reinforce and critique various hegemonies.
The course is not an introduction to film studies, but does spend time reviewing basic film concepts (editing, cinematography, mise-en-scène, etc.) so that students can apply them to the films we watch. In the course, students will learn to incorporate formal film analysis with an analysis of ideology, production, circulation, and consumption, and will develop the skills to construct compelling arguments about the politics of cinema.
If students have not taken a film course before, the following text might prove useful:
When: TWTh 1:00 – 3:30 PM
Where: 250 Dwinelle Hall
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM or by appt.m 600 Barrows Hall
Mailbox: 608 Barrows Hall
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course offers an introduction to feminist film studies, particularly focusing on several recent sub-genres, directors, and themes that have become central to feminist film culture and scholarship. Utilizing a transnational feminist cultural studies approach, we will explore questions of what feminist media practices might be at the levels of production, circulation, consumption, and representation. We will explore constructions of sexuality, gender, race, and nation in a variety of media practices in an attempt to understand the stakes that institutions such as law, medicine, and film industries have in such productions. Particular attention will be paid to the role of medium in constructing meaning, as the films we will focus on include those made through celluloid and digital technologies, films critiquing visual surveillance practices, short films involving mixed media, and animated films adapted from graphic novels. As a whole, the course will encourage students to develop a critical understanding of the mutual imbrications of sexuality, race, nation, class, and gender in cinema, and explore the ways cinema cultures both reinforce and critique various hegemonies.
The course is not an introduction to film studies, but does spend time reviewing basic film concepts (editing, cinematography, mise-en-scène, etc.) so that students can apply them to the films we watch. In the course, students will learn to incorporate formal film analysis with an analysis of ideology, production, circulation, and consumption, and will develop the skills to construct compelling arguments about the politics of cinema.
If students have not taken a film course before, the following text might prove useful:
- Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 9th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2010. (available on reserve at Doe Library)
- Course Reader (available at Zee Zee Copy: 2431-C Durant)
- Susan Hayward. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.
