SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS
Voyage: Summer 2013 Discipline: Media Studies MDST 3559: Gender & Cinema Division: Upper Division Faculty Name: Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Through an examination of the debates and controversies within feminist film scholarship this course will critically explore the subject of women’s and gender representation in classic and contemporary cinemas of the US, Europe, and the Mediterranean region. In the spirit of international feminist film scholarship our approach to the subject of women, gender and cinema will necessarily be interdisciplinary and transnational.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Through discourses of film genre, representation, psychoanalysis, spectatorship, and feminist theory course participants will explore articulations of sexuality, gender, class, race, female iconography, and identity constructions in cross-cultural contexts. We will analyze and interrogate issues of representation and gender in their historical and social contexts.
Fay Wray in King Kong (1933), and Sofia Coppola directing Marie Antoinette (2006)
There is no textbook assigned for this course: all readings will be available through electronic files. Our most important texts, of course, are the films assigned for class meetings.
Course schedule C1- June 18: Introductions and rules of the game. Opening discussion: “As old as the movies themselves…” Movies, gender, exploitation, and why we study films. In-class screening and discussion: “Trapeze Disrobing Act”; “What Happened on 23rd Street”; “The Gay Shoe Clerk” (Edison/Fleming/Porter 1901-1903).
C2- June 19: Women in the Classical Hollywood Cinema. Reading: Smith, “The image of women in films” in Feminist Film Theory: A Reader, ch.1, pp. 14-19. Film: King Kong (Merian C. Copper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, US 1933).
C3- June 20: Women, stars and star-discourse. Reading: Modleski, “Hitchcock, Feminism and the
1 Patriarchal Unconscious” in Issues in Feminist Film Criticism, pp. 58-74. Film: Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1940).
C4- June 21: Identification and the “problem” of the female spectator. Reading: Doane “The Desire to Desire, chapter 1, pp. 1-22.” Film: The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, US 1983).
June 22-June 25: Casablanca
C5- June 26: Discussion: Feminism and film theory. Reading: Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in Feminist Film Theory: A Reader, ch. 5, pp. 58-69.
C6- June 27: Growing pains: Storytelling as therapy. Reading: Tully, “An Interview with Marjane Satrapi” in Bookslut, October 2004 (PDF). Film: Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronneaud, France 2007).
C7- June 28: Gender issues in contemporary World cinemas. Reading: Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema, chapter 3. Film: Clay Dolls (Nouri Bouzid, France/Morocco/Tunisia 2002).*
June 29- July 2: Tunis
C8- July 3: More gender issues in contemporary World cinemas. Film: The Silences of the Palace (Moufide Tlatli, France/Tunisia 1994).*
C9- July 4: Women as myths and mythology: the Queen of Egypt. Reading: Royster, Becoming Cleopatra, chapter 1. Clips and images from: Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, US 1934). Film: Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz US, 1963).
C10- July 5: Discussion of Cleopatra. In-class sequence analysis: Cleopatra.
July 6-10: Alexandria
C11- July 11: Monsters, Eastern fears, and “the first victim.” Reading: Kawin, Horror and the Horror Film, chapter 2. Film: The Mummy (Karl Freund, US 1932).
C12- July 12: Mid term examination.
July 13-17: Istanbul
C13- July 18: Tradition, modernity, and secularity in Turkish film. Reading: Holden, “Cultures and Sexes Clash in Bliss” in The New York Times 8/06/2009 (Webarchive). Film: Bliss (Abdullah Oğuz, Turkey/Greece 2007).*
C14- July 19: Seeing the East through Western eyes: Women, villains, and Istanbul in the Bond films. Reading: Bold, “Under the very skirts of Britannia” in The James Bond Phenomenon, Christoph Lindner, ed. Film: From Russia, With Love (Terence Young, US/UK 1963).
July 20-23: Piraeus
2 C15- July 24: Archetypes I: “the tart with the heart of gold.” Reading: Campbell, Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema, chapter 12. Film: Never on Sunday (Jules Dassin, Greece 1960).
July 25: Study Day and Sea Olympics
C16- July 26: Archetypes II: “the social inept.” Film: Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece 2010).
July 27-31: Marseilles: (Field Lab 2nd proposal)
C17- August 1: Archetypes III: “Queens and harpies.” Reading: Lee, “Pretty Vacant: the radical frivolity of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette” and Anderson, “The Sun Queen: Kirsten Dunst and the eternal state of girlhood” in Film Comment, v. 42, n.5. Film: Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, US/France 2006).*
C18- August 2: Archetypes IV: “The flâneusse (or the floozie).” Reading: Mouton, “From masquerade to flâneusse: Agnès Varda’s Cléo in the City” in Cinema Journal, vol 40 no 2, winter 2001. Film: Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, France 1961).
August 3-5: Livorno August 6-9: Civitavecchia
C19- August 10: Sex, politics, and history in Italian cinema, I. Reading: Aiken, “Bertolucci’s Gay Images” in Jump Cut, no 16, 1977 (Webarchive). Film: The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/France 1971).
C20- August 11: Sex, politics, and history in Italian cinema, II. Reading: Artle, “Survival, Lina-Style” in Jump Cut, no 15, 1977 (Webarchive). Film: Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmüller, Italy 1975)
August 12-15: Barcelona: Field Lab: Barcelona, August 12.
C21- August 16: Trans/gender and the nation: sexual allegory in contemporary Spanish film. Reading: Acevedo-Muñoz, “The Body and Spain” in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol 21, 2004). Film: All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain 1999).
C22- August 17: The City/Woman allegory. Film: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, US/Spain 2008). Discussion of Field Lab; field lab papers due.
C23- August 18: Of girls and monsters: more allegory in contemporary Spanish film. Reading: Acevedo-Muñoz, “Horror of Allegory” in Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre, Beck and Rodríguez, eds., 2008. Film: Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Spain 2006).
August 19: Study Day
C24-August 20: Final field reports due.
August 21: Packing and Reflection 3
August 22: Southampton
Field Lab (1) (At least 20 percent of the contact hours for each course, to be led by the instructor.) Women and/in the City: The field lab for this course will take place in Barcelona, Catalunya (Spain). After considering the representation of gender and women in cinemas of the European/Mediterranean region, and discussing some of the political and social issues governing and contextualizing gender relations in the region, the class will do a Barcelona city tour emphasizing the major landmarks represented and/or exploited in the films All About My Mother and Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Sagrada Familia, the park and Palace Güell, the ramblas, etc. Since the topic of women’s solidarity and family- making are essential to these films (especially AAMM), the field lab will include a visit to a women’s shelter, school and/or an orientation with organizations working to prevent violence against women, or at-risk single mothers re-integrate into society, (Escola Bressol or Residencia Maternal Santa Eulalia) through a local specialized non-profit group such as the Fundació Maria Raventós.
Field Lab paper: Students will write a 7-9 page paper worth 25% of the course grade (due August 17), exploring and analyzing the city as viewed in these films, and the allegory of “the-city-as-woman” put forth in AAMM, VCB. Specifically, the paper will seek to answer these questions: a) What are the landmarks, atmospheres, and characteristics of the city better represented or exploited in these films? How do these films specifically “characterize” the city itself? b) What is the logic of the “city-as-woman” allegory? In what ways do the films suggest the city of Barcelona as something “gender specific,” as “female?” c) What is the purpose or effect of such representation? d) Are there other cities in our itinerary about which a similar argument can be made, like Bliss and Istanbul; Never on Sunday and Piraeus; Cleo from 5 to 7 and Paris; La Dolce Vita and Rome?
Field report: Students will maintain a field “report,” in the form of an essay, “paper blog,” journal entries, or video/paper combination (due August 20), documenting field experiences in four of the itinerary’s ports of call, also worth 25%. The reports should be 2-3 pages per port (or 1-2 minutes if video format). In the field report students will a) detail and b) analyze their observations regarding the representation of women and/or gender issues seen in any of the following local visual media: billboards, public transport advertising, newspapers, magazines, television, and/or national cinema. What seems to be the “norm” in these visual representations? Is there particular attention (or not) to certain types of images? What, if anything, can these images (negative or positive) tell us about gender relations, the media, or assumptions about femininity or LGBT concerns in the countries in our itinerary? What, if anything, is most visibly present or conspicuously absent?
METHODS OF EVALUATION / GRADING RUBRIC Daily attendance and participation in class:1 20% One “Mid Term” exam on films/theoretical terms: 25% One Field Lab Paper: 25% One Field report assignment: 30% 100%
1 Attendance will be monitored daily. I understand that seasickness is a reality around here. So is medication, when possible. Students are allowed one “unexcused” absence. Final grade will drop one +/- degree per each unexcused absence thereafter. Participation will be assessed by quality/relevance of in-class comments, preparedness to answer direct questions, and by general attitude and demeanor in class. 4 RESERVE LIBRARY LIST
AUTHOR: Erens, Patricia (ed.) TITLE: Issues in Feminist Film Criticism PUBLISHER: Indiana University Press ISBN# 0-253-20610-3 DATE: 1990
AUTHOR: Thornham, Sue (ed.) TITLE: Feminist Film Theory: A Reader PUBLISHER: New York University Press ISBN# 0-8147-8244-2 DATE: 1999
ELECTRONIC COURSE MATERIALS
AUTHOR: Modleski, Tania ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Hitchcock, Feminism and the Patriarchal Unconscious” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. VOLUME: DATE: 1990 PAGES: 58-74
AUTHOR: Mulvey, Laura ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Feminist Film Theory: A Reader VOLUME: DATE: 1999 PAGES: 58-69
AUTHOR: Chaudhuri, Shohini ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Middle Eastern Cinemas” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Contemporary World Cinema VOLUME: DATE: 2005 PAGES: 54-70
AUTHOR: Royster, Francesca ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Introduction: Becoming Cleopatra” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon VOLUME: DATE: 2003 PAGES: 1-32
AUTHOR: Kawin, Bruce ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Chapter 2: The Monster at the Bedroom Window.” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Horror and the Horror Film VOLUME: 5 DATE: 2012 PAGES: 20-32
AUTHOR: Bold, Christine ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Under the Very Skirts of Britannia.” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: The James Bond Phenomenon VOLUME: DATE: 2009 PAGES: 205-219
AUTHOR: Campbell, Russell ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Chapter 12: Happy Hooker.” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema VOLUME: DATE: 2005 PAGES: 230-248
AUTHOR: Mouton, Janice ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “From masquerade to flâneusse: Agnès Varda’s Cléo in the City” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Cinema Journal VOLUME: vol. 40 no. 2 DATE: winter 2001 PAGES: 3-16
AUTHOR: Acevedo-Muñoz, Ernesto ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “The Body and Spain: Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Quarterly Review of Film and Video VOLUME: vol 21 DATE: 2004 PAGES: 25-38
AUTHOR: Acevedo-Muñoz, Ernesto ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: “Chapter 10: Horror of Allegory; The Others and its Contexts” JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre VOLUME: DATE: 2008 PAGES: 202-218
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Films on DVD or BluRay required for class use and/or screening through the ship’s CCTV system are listed per class dates in the syllabus.
HONOR CODE Semester at Sea students enroll in an academic program administered by the University of Virginia, and thus bind themselves to the University’s honor code. The code prohibits all acts of lying, cheating, and stealing. Please consult the Voyager’s Handbook for further explanation of what constitutes an honor offense.
6 Each written assignment for this course must be pledged by the student as follows: “On my honor as a student, I pledge that I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.” The pledge must be signed, or, in the case of an electronic file, signed “[signed].”
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