Faculty First Year Seminars 197AFA3 - Race and Gender at the Movies
Fall
2017
01
1.00
Traci Parker
M 1:25PM 2:15PM
UMass Amherst
42184
historical, literary, and filmic texts, this course examines major historical transformations that
have shaped the development, performance, and portrayal of identity in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. It focuses on the interlocking relationships and representations of whites
and blacks, as well as the sexes. Beginning with Birth of a Nation (1951), this seminar moves
along chronological and thematic axes to investigate racial and gender formation and the
reproduction of racial and gender ideologies and identities. Racial mixing, cross-racial, and
cross-gender performances (i.e. passing, blackface minstrelsy, and cross-dressing) will be critical
to this course, as they best highlight the fundamental premises and contradictions of identity
formation and thinking. This seminar also will explore historical and contemporary discourses
around sex and sexuality.
have shaped the development, performance, and portrayal of identity in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. It focuses on the interlocking relationships and representations of whites
and blacks, as well as the sexes. Beginning with Birth of a Nation (1951), this seminar moves
along chronological and thematic axes to investigate racial and gender formation and the
reproduction of racial and gender ideologies and identities. Racial mixing, cross-racial, and
cross-gender performances (i.e. passing, blackface minstrelsy, and cross-dressing) will be critical
to this course, as they best highlight the fundamental premises and contradictions of identity
formation and thinking. This seminar also will explore historical and contemporary discourses
around sex and sexuality.
Freshmen Only