Film Studies /English – Article writing
The instructions are in the files that I have attached, and the instructions are clear and straight forward. Please pay close attention and follow the instructions to finish the paper, and I have posted the readings and the films that we have watched.
WEEK ONE What is the Status of Women and Gender Bias in Film?
Tuesday, August 29
Introduction to course
No Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm to compensate for screening on 9/7
Thursday, August 31
Read Introduction and Chapter 1 of Political Animals: the New Feminist Cinema
Read: The Report on Women in Film (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
Read also Gender Bias Across Borders (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Choose two articles and prepare concrete issues you would like to discuss in class.
WEEK TWO Ways of Seeing: Is the Gaze Male?
Tuesday September 5
Ways of Seeing, excerpt, by John Berger (on Canvas)
“Visual Pleasure & Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey (FFT 58-69)
NOTE: This is a difficult essay, but try to read it carefully, at least twice; it will form the basis of our discussions for the entire semester.
In-Class Clips of Dream Worlds II: Sex & Power in MTV (Sut Jhally, 1995) & Vertigo
Tuesday Screening at 4:25 pm: Camille (George Cukor, 1936; 108 min.)
Thursday, September 7
Introduction and Definitions of terms by Ann Kaplan (Canvas)
“Patriarchy and the Male Gaze in Cukor’s Camille” by Ann Kaplan (Canvas)
Option #1 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Irene Lutzsig, will screen The Motherhood Archives 9/7 7:00 pm in 32 Shideler. Q & A will follow.
WEEK THREE Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure
Tuesday, September 12
“Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure” by Laura Mulvey (FFT 122-130)
Chapter 2, Political Animals
In-Class Clips of: Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946)
Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Thriller (Sally Potter, 1979; 34 min.) and Wendy and Lucy (Kelley Reichert, 2008; 80 min)
Thursday, September 14
Watch on your own again: Thriller (in Media Gallery)
“Investigating the Heroine: Sally Potter’s Thriller” by Kaplan
“Rethinking Feminist Film Theory: Counter-Narcissistic Performance in Sally Potter’s Thriller” by Elena del Ri
WEEK FOUR The Female Gaze, Postmodernism, and Moulin Rouge!
Tuesday, September 19
Introduction to the Female Spectator in FFT (FFT 109 – 114)
“Film & Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator” by Doane (FFT 131-145)
Afternoon Screening: Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001; 121 min.)
Thursday, September 21
“Consumptive Chic: The Postfeminist Recycling of Camille in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!” by Katie Johnson
“Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility” by Rosalind Gill
In-Class clips from: Moulin Rouge 1952
Guidelines for Midterm Paper distributed
WEEK FIVE Gender in Modern Horror Films: the Final Girl
Tuesday, September 26
Introduction to “Fantasy, Horror and the Body” (FFT 227 – 233)
“Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film,” Carol Clover (FFT 234 -250)
“Horror and Monstrous-Feminine” Barbara Creed (FFT 251- 266)
In-Class Clips from: Texas Chainsaw Massacre I (Tobe Hooper 1974) Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Carrie (dir. Kimberly Pierce, 2013, 133 min.)
Option # 2 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Attend lecture on September 27 @ 5:00 pm in 40 Irvin. Dr. Jen Malkowski; Dying in Full Detail: Mortality and Digital Documentary, published by Duke University Press this year.
Thursday, September 28
Chapter 9, Becoming Animals, “Haunted Houses”
Option #3 for Film Speaker Response Paper: Attend lecture on September 28, 5:00 pm in McGuffey 332: Kevin B. Lee, “Videographic Essay,”
WEEK SIX When Women Take the Wheel: Thelma & Louise
Tuesday, October 3
“Thelma & Louise and the Tradition of the Male Road Movie” by M. Dargis
“Thelma & Louise: ‘Easy Riders’ in a Male Genre” by Carmen Eraso
In-Class Clips: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid; Lethal Weapon Die Hard, & Easy Rider
Afternoon Screening at 4:25 pm: Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1992; 130 min.)
Thursday, October 5
“Chick Flicks as Feminist Texts: The Male Gaze in T & L” by Cooper
“Til Death Do Us Part: Impossible Spaces in T & L,” by Lynda Hart
WEEK SEVEN: Let Them Wear Fashion: Marie Antoinette
Tuesday, October 10
“Marie Antoinette: Fashion, Third-Wave Feminism, and Chick Culture (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” by Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young
View: Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola (2006; 123 minutes); note that our afternoon screening is cancelled to allow you to work on your papers. Please view Marie Antoinette (found in our Media Gallery) before Tuesday’s class.
Fall 2017
Midterm Paper
Due: Thursday, October 12 @ 5:00 pm—upload to Canvas site
Note: Late papers will be docked one grade for each day late.
In this paper, you will analyze a sequence of a film of your choosing to closely read its meaning in relation to the idea of a gendered gaze and psychoanalytic theory. Its purpose is to train you with specific skills to analyze film, noting both camera shots and narrative. To what extent does the film sequence you choose reflect—or contest—the central ideas of a male gaze? Or, a female gaze?
Find a short film sequence (example: the Kim Novak entrance in Vertigo) and analyze it. Your analysis should examine the visual conventions, cinematic technologies, and cultural discourses used by your image and it should employ concepts from our readings that help strengthen your inquiry.
Address the questions below (but rather than answering them one-by-one, seek to achieve a coherent thesis that incorporates these topics):
How does the image of woman signify in the film sequence? Can it be said she connotes a to-be-looked-at-ness? Why or why not?
Is there a gendered gaze in your film clip? If so, please clarify how the camera is working very specifically. Note both shots that assume the character’s point of view and the camera (and thus, implicitly, the audience view—are all 3 male, as Mulvey maintains)
What about the women in the audience? Can women identify with your clip? Consider Mulvey’s point in “Afterthoughts” about identifying with Pearl from Duel in the Sun (who has an unstable sexuality but is the heroine and momentarily masculinized). Does your clip have such a character?
Is there a female gaze? If so, do you proceed from Doane’s analysis of Freud’s theories about femininity? Or do you use another theorization?
Is the woman (or man) in the sequence fetishized in any way? Please specifically describe how this works and reference Mulvey’s or Kaplan’s article about the workings of fetishism in film. (Also implicit in this is how fetishism is a response to castration anxiety).
Do you find instances of voyeurism in this film sequence? Who is watching whom? What role does voyeurism play, according to Mulvey (who is using Freud) in negotiating castration anxiety for male spectators?
Are there instances of postfeminism, as Gill puts it?
Does your clip feature a Final Girl and/or trans-sex identification as specified by Carol Clover?
Do Barbara Creed’s notion of the monstrous feminine or Sophie Mayer’s articulation of haunted homes and bad motherhood find articulation in a recent film?
You will bring a lot of your own analysis but also draw upon and quote at least two of our course readings.
The finished paper should be about 5- 6 pages long. Include the link to your film sequence in your bibliography. Assume your audience is comprised of other interested readers of film and that you are writing for a scholarly film journal. Be sure to use proper MLA or Chicago citation and bibliography. (Please note: titles of films are underlined or italicized.)
Please observe academic honesty and do not plagiarize. Cite all of your sources with proper MLA or Chicago citation and bibliography. Write with joy and integrity.
I am interested in your ideas! Be sure to construct your own argument about the sequence, supported with solid evidence, examples, and concrete citations from critical works. Engage in the scholarly conversation to articulate your own thesis. Most of all, enjoy the writing!
