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This course investigates the changing place of women in film: as a glamorised spectacle and cultural commodity, as spectators and consumers, and also as creators and theorists.
This course investigates the changing place of women in film: as glamorized spectacle and cultural commodity, as spectators and consumers, but also as creators and theorists. We will explore the development of feminist filmmaking and film theory within an international context, focusing specifically on the interrelation between American films and filmmakers and New Zealand, Australian, and French national cinemas. We will address topics that have historically engaged women filmmakers, theorists, and scholars. These include: images of women on the screen; the notion of countercinema; the use of psychoanalytic theories; issues of female spectatorship; women's place in film genres, and issues related to race, class, and sexual preference as they intersect with feminism.We will begin with an introduction to the principles of feminist film analysis. Through close interrogation of the workings of classical Hollywood cinema, we will locate ways that hegemonic culture has defined gender roles, sexual identities, and domesticity in the twentieth century. Our attention to film genres will include a reappraisal of the contributions of Dorothy Arzner, a woman director who was able to constitute a body of work during Hollywood’s classical era. To expand upon this discussion of a feminist countercinema, we will analyze constructions of femininity in national cinemas, addressing the auteurist works of Claire Denis, Agnès Varda, and Jane Campion. The impact of women writers, such as Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva, on feminist film theory and filmmaking will also be addressed. Class discussion will focus on issues of memory and identification, agency and the female voice, friendship between women, auto-portraiture, and the coming-of-age girl. We will closely analyze those films, such as Claire Denis' Chocolat, which complicate our understanding of gender identity by acknowledging its intersection with other kinds of identification - in particular racial, class, national, and that of sexual orientation.
Learning OutcomesAdvanced ability to interpret and critically analyse filmsAbility to evaluate and critique selected concepts and methods of the discipline Advanced ability to analyse the relationship between films and their social, cultural and historical contextsIndependence and confidence in formulating ideas and presenting a critical position, both in oral and written communicationAdvanced ability to produce a detailed, coherent and persuasive argument in the form of an academic essay
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:
Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award
Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.
Subject to approval of the Head of Department.
GEND413, TAFS406, CINE401
Mary Wiles
• Course Reader• Ann Kaplan. Feminism and Film. 2000. (The text is available for purchase through UBS Bookshop and on three-day loan at the Central Library.) Additional required readings will be made available to you.(Image: "Now, Voyager (1942)" by Laura Loveday, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)
Film ListWeek One: Introduction to Feminist Film Theory Week Two: The Clinical Gaze Screening: Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, US 1942)Week Three: When Women Direct: Showgirls and Dorothy ArznerScreening: Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, US 1940)Week Four: The Maternal MelodramaScreening: Stella Dallas (King Vidor, US 1937)Week Five: The Melodrama ReinventedScreening: A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, US 1974) Week Six: The Loss of the Female Voice: Hysteria Screening: The Piano (Jane Campion, NZ-FR 1993)Week Seven: Mothers and LossScreening: Waru (Smith, Gardiner, Cohen, Kaa, Wolfe, Simich-Pene, Whetu-Jones, NZ 2017)Break: April 6 - April 28Week Eight: Distanciation: The Destruction of PleasureScreening: Je/Tu/Il/Elle (Akerman, FR 1974)Week Nine: The Abject LandscapeScreening: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Mungiu, Romania 2007)Week Ten: The Road Movie Reinvented Screening: Vagabond (Agnès Varda, FR 1985)Week Eleven: Post-Colonialism and the Girl Screening: Chocolat (Claire Denis, FR 1988)Week Twelve: The Girl and the Banlieue Screening: Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, FR 1916)
Domestic fee $1,847.00
International Postgraduate fees
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Humanities .