FACULTY RESOURCES - ENGLISH:
Course Outline - FA 264
| COURSE TITLE: | Women Make Movies | COURSE HOURS PER WEEK: | |
| COURSE NUMBER: | FA 264 | Lecture: | |
| COURSE CREDITS: | 4 | Lec/Lab: | |
| COURSE PREREQUISITES: | Suggested prerequisite: WR 121 or equivalent | Lab: |
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course focuses on women directors around the world and the contributions they have made to film (and video). Students will be introduced to the historical and economic context of film production, as well as to a formalist film vocabulary. They will explore readings in feminist scholarship and analyze women-authored cinema-- narrative, experimental, and documentary-- in the context of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nationality. Films will span the silent period to the present.
GENERAL COURSE OUTCOMES:
| Upon completion of this course, the successful student will be able to: | These outcomes will be verified by the following assessments: |
| A. Explain the importance of women's contributions to cinema | Quizzes, exams, analytical essays, film segmentations and/or shot lists, group work, in-class discussion, and presentations. |
| B. Explain the social and economic forces that have marginalized women directors and excluded women's voices | Same as above |
| C. Describe the ideological implications of films in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, nation, and class | Same as above |
| D. Use a framework and formal vocabulary for thinking and talking about films | Same as above |
| E. Recognize and explain the multiplicity of women's experiences and artistic visions | Same as above |
| F. Analyze film texts for social, aesthetic, and historical concerns | Same as above |
| G. Explain the larger social-historical context from which the chosen films emerge and which helps to shape them | Same as above |
| H. Apply an understanding of film language in the analysis of women's cinema | Same as above |
| I. Write meaningfully about the formal and ideological issues of the films studied during the quarter | Academic essay(s) and/or exams |
Course outline by major topic: (See course calendars for other examples)
- Historical approaches a. Early women directors—the silent period b. The Studio system c. Rise of independent cinema d. Contemporary women directors e. Third cinema
- Film, form and style a. Formalist film theory and film language (mise en scène, the shot, editing, use of sound, Classical Hollywood Style)
- Theoretical approaches to studying women and film a. Theories of spectatorship b. Reception studies and audience analysis c. Critical race theory d. Feminist theory, psychoanalysis and the gaze e. Queer theory f. Star personas g. Marxist/materialist analysis