Film Studies 290 - Topic: Feminist & Queer Theory

We will be reading a number of key feminist texts that theorize the construction of sexual difference, and challenge the oppression of women. We will then address queer theory, an offshoot and expansion of feminist theory, and study how it is both embedded in, and redefines, the feminist paradigms. This redefinition occurs roughly at the same time (1980s/90s) when race emerges as one of feminism's prominent blind spots. We will study these shifts through the analysis of a few moving pictures, or, to put it differently: all you always wanted to know about feminism, but didn't think to ask filmmakers such as Almod'var, Hitchcock, Jarman, Pasolini, Varda, and others.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors