Schedule

Course Schedule:

Introduction to Feminist Film Studies

Key Concepts: essentialism v. social construction, gender v. sex v. sexuality, feminist film studies,

colonialism & U.S. imperialism, transnationalism, autobiography, critiques of experience, subjectivity & selfhood, giving an account of oneself

May 25            

• Introduction to class & syllabus
• In-class film: Persepolis. Dirs. Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi (2007)

May 26            

• Scott, Joan. “The Evidence of Experience.” The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Michéle Aina Barale Henry Abelove, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 397-415.

May 27            

• Hamid, Rahul. “Review of Persepolis. Cineaste 33.1 (2007): 61-3.
• Web videos: The Making of Persepolis (Parts 1-4): http://www.myspace.com/persepolismovie 
• Due: Blog Post (9 pm) 

FRIDAY MAY 28: 

• Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)

Neo-Noir & the Lesbian Body

Key Concepts: Film noir and neo-noir, femme femininities, butch masculinities, editing, femme

fatale, demobilization films & melodrama, triangulation

June 1                        

• In-class film: Gilda. Dir. Charles Vidor (1946)
• Dyer, Richard. “Resistance Through Charisma: Rita Hayworth and Gilda.” Women in Film Noir. 2^nd ed. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. London: British Film Institute, 1998. 115-22.

June 2                        

• In-class film: Bound. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski (1996)
• Straayer, Chris. “Femme Fatale or Lesbian Femme: Bound in Sexual Difference.” Women in Film Noir. 2^nd ed. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. London: British Film Institute, 1998. 153-61. 
• Due: Blog Post (9 pm) 

June 3                         

• Wallace, Lee. “Continuous Sex: The Editing of Homosexuality in Bound and Rope.” Screen 41.4 (2000): 369-87. 
• Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)

Love & Theft

Key Concepts: criminality & queerness, the penal gaze & black queer bodies, ‘hood film genres,

queerness of form, surveillance & state violence, racial visualities

June 8                        

• In-class film: Set it Off. Dir. F. Gary Gray (1996)
• Keeling, Kara. “What’s Up with That? She Don’t Talk: Set it Off’s Black Lesbian Butch-Femme.” The Witch’s Flight: The Cinematic, the Black Femme, and the Image of Common Sense. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. 118-37 
• Due: Blog Post (9 pm)

June 9                         

• Smith-Shomade, Beretta E. “ ‘Rock-a-Bye, Baby!’: Black Women Disrupting Gangs and Constructing Hip-Hop Gangsta Films.” Cinema Journal 42.2 (2003): 25-40. 
• Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)    
• Due: Research Topics & Bibliography

June 10           

• Class cancelled! Free day to go to the movies!

Documentary & Feminist Bricolage

Key Concepts: gleaning, capitalism & consumer cultures, gender & the aging body, gendered

politics of waste, feminist documentary

June 15           

• In-class film: The Gleaners and I (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse). Dir. Agnès Varda (2000) 
• Smith, Alison. “Who is Agnès Varda?” Agnès Varda. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998. 1-11.
• Benjamin, Walter. “The Collector.” The Arcades Project. Trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. 203-11.

June 16           

• Cruickshank, Ruth. “The Work of Art in the Age of Global Consumption: Agnès Varda's Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse.” L'Esprit Créateur 47.3 (2007): 119-132. 
• Due: Blog Post (9 pm)

June 17           

• Bonner, Virginia. “The Gleaners and ‘Us’: The Radical Modesty of Agnès Varda’s Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse.” There She Goes: Feminist Filmmaking and Beyond. Eds. Corinn Columpar and Sophie Mayer. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2009. 119-31. 
• Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)
  
  
  Citizenship & Mobility
  
  
  Key Concepts: state surveillance, asylum & immigration, transnational mobilities & queer
  citizenship AIDS & the queer body, “authenticity” & the construction of truth in documentary, gender & citizenship, globalization & urban space
   
• June 22
  • In-class film: Wild Side. Dir. Sébastien Lifshitz (2004)
  
  
  • Rees-Roberts, Nick. “Down and Out: Immigrant Poverty and Queer Sexuality in Sébastien Lifshitz’s Wild Side (2004).” Studies in French Cinema 7.2 (2007): 143-55.
  
  
  • Due: Blog Post (9 pm)
  • Due: Writing Workshop—Bring in Rough Draft (for 2^nd half of class)
  
  
  June 23
  • Luibhéid, Eithne. “Queer/Migration: An Unruly Body of Scholarship.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 14.2-3 (2008): 169-90.
  
  
  • Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)
  
  
  June 24
  • In-class films: Asilo Queer and other short films. Dir. Mónica Enríquez-Enríquez
  
  
  • Guest Speaker: Mónica Enríquez-Enríquez
  
  
  • Randazzo, Timothy J. “Social and Legal Barriers: Sexual Orientation and Asylum in the United States.” Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.  30-60.
  
  
  • Due: Movies in the Real World
  
  
  
  
  Queer Diasporic Bodies
  
  
  Key Concepts: Diaspora & diasporic filmmaking, neoliberalism & globalization, class, queering the domestic, public/private divide, rural & urban space
  
  
  June 29
  • In-class film: Fire. Dir. Deepa Mehta (1996)
  
  
  • Gopinath, Gayatri. “Local Sites/Global Sites: The Transnational Trajectories of Deepa Mehta’s Fire.” Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism. Eds. Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé and Martin F. Manalansan. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 149-61.
  
  
  • Due: Blog Post (9 pm)
  
  
  June 30         
  • NO NEW READINGS! Please review Gopinath’s article for discussion today.
  
  
  • Due: 2 Comments (1 pm)
  
  
  July 1
  • Course wrap-up
  • Due: Research Paper