E 399   GENDER AND GENRE IN FILM

Course Description:
    In order to examine the complex relationship between ideas about gender and their representation in film, we will study three film genres that foreground that relationship: the screwball comedy, film noir, and the so-called woman's film (a.k.a. the chick flick?).  Our first readings will lay the conceptual foundation for the later specific focus on each genre and close readings of sample texts (see below).
     In the case of the screwball comedy and film noir, we will study two or three classical Hollywood films and one or two contemporary examples.  In a limited way, this will enable us to determine how representations of gender and/or how the genres themselves have changed.  I have chosen a different approach to the "woman's film," a problematic label for many reasons.  After studying one classical example, we will turn to three very different contemporary films in order to reconsider the evolving state of gender representation in film, including what might constitute a feminist approach to film making.

Required Text: Reading packet (available at Hilltopper Bookstore)

Film Texts:

Screwball Comedy
     It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934)
     Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 1938)
     His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1941)
     When Harry Met Sally (Reiner, 1989)

Film Noir
     Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)
     Laura (Preminger, 1944)
     Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
     L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 1997)

Woman's Film (?!)
     The Women (Cukor, 1939)
     Thelma and Louise (Scott, 1991)
     Aliens (Cameron, 1986)
     Antonia's Line (Gorris, 1995)

Requirements:
** Regular and punctual attendance
      Since this is primarily a discussion class, absences will jeopardize your success.  The film viewing lab on Thursday afternoons is a regular class meeting.

** Keeping up with all reading assignments

** Informed participation in class discussion

** A Reading Journal
      Our reading assignments (in a reading packet I have put together) provide background on the idea of genre in film, on our three film genres, on gender issues,  and on specific films.  To encourage full engagement with these readings, I require a written response to each day's reading assignment.  In this response you should succinctly identify the essay's over-all purpose and/or argument, and respond to it in some thoughtful way.  For example, you can dis/agree with all or part of the essay (you must, of course, explain why), discuss how certain point(s) apply to films not mentioned in the essay, identify and discuss point(s) you found particularly illuminating or confusing, pose questions the reading raised for you, etc.  Each entry should be clearly identified and should be from one half to one typed page in length.  Do not merely summarize.  The journals will be turned in four times during the semester.

**Three papers (one for each genre), of  4-5 pages each
      You must choose your own topic, but we will discuss possibilities in class.  Your essays may focus on one film, compare two or more films in that genre, or present some sort of overview analysis.   Each essay should have a cogently argued thesis (a focused main claim, persuasively supported with relevant examples).  You may refer to specific ideas and/or quote relevant material from our readings, but use them only to augment your analysis.  When appropriate, use MLA documentation form (see MLA Handbook and/or my web site, "On Using Quotations").

      If you have little experience writing about literature or film (that is, doing textual analysis), please confer with me, especially on your first paper!!  Note: Good writing is essential to a good grade.  If you have any problem areas (fragments, organization, whatever), you can consult with me and/or get assistance at the Writing Center (which is not a correction service).

      You will have to view any film you write about more than once.  You can easily rent most of the films, but remember that a classmate may have rented the only copy.  Collaboration is recommended.  When possible, I will also put the films on reserve in the library (5th floor, adjacent to computer cluster); you can view the film on one of their machines.  Finally, keep in mind that the DVD cut may differ from the video.

** A take-home (essay) final exam

Grade computation:

Attendance and Participation:   50 pts
Reading Journals:                    200 pts (50 each)
Three Papers:                         300 pts (100 each )
Final Exam:                             200 pts
                                               750 pts possible

Paper Guidelines:
    All papers must be either computer-generated or typed (double-spaced, with the usual 1" and NON-justified margins) on NON-erasable paper.  Cover sheets are not necessary, but all essays should have titles.  Please do not put papers in any kind of binder, but do make sure the pages are stapled or clipped together.   I reserve to right to return, unread, papers that have not been adequately proofread.

Conferences:
    At any time during the semester, if you want help with anything connected to this class--the readings, film concepts, papers, exams--I will be glad to provide it.  I am especially committed to helping you become better writers.  You can, of course, come by my office during my regular office hours, but an appointment is the best way to go.  Do not be shy about asking.

                Office hours: MWF  8-9 and 1-2 ;  TR  8-9:30 and 1-2 ;   and by appt.

 SYLLABUS

R   8/24     On reading film (video).    Introduction to film terminology and concepts.
_______
T   8/29     Maltby, "Genre" and "Gender and Genre"

R   8/31     Maltby, "Ideology"
                  American Cinema video: Romantic Comedy
*** It Happened One Night (film viewing, CH 125)
_______
T   9/5       Schatz, "Screwball Comedy" (150-62)

R   9/7       Rowe, "It Happened One Night: A Genre in Need of a Virgin"
*** Bringing Up Baby
_______
T   9/12     Shumway, "Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage"
                  Journals Due (5 entries)

R   9/14     Rowe, "The Professor-Hero by Hawks: Bringing Up Baby"
*** His Girl Friday
_______
T   9/19     Schatz, 162-67

R   9/21     Rowe, "Melodrama and Men in Post-Classical Romantic Comedy"
*** When Harry Met Sally
_______
T   9/26     no reading

R   9/28     Paper # 1 Due          American Film video: Film Noir
*** Double Indemnity
_______
T   10/3      Krutnik, "Film Noir and the Popularisation of Psychoanalysis"
                  Krutnik, "Film Noir and America in the 1940s"

Fall Break
_______
T   10/10     Maxfield, "Something Loose in the Heart: Wilder's Double Indemnity"

R   10/12     No class.  Journals Due (5 entries) at film viewing
*** Laura
_______
T   10/17      no reading

R   10/19      Place, "Women in Film Noir"
*** Chinatown
_______
T   10/24      no reading

R   10/26      Cawelti, "Chinatown and Generic Transformation"
*** L.A. Confidential
_______
T   10/31     Arthur, review of L.A. Confidential

R   11/2       Paper # 2 Due
*** The Women
_______
T   11/7       Election Day

R   11/9       Haskell, "The Woman's Film"
***Thelma and Louise
_______
T   11/14      Journals Due (5  entries)

R   11/16     "The Many Faces of Thelma and Louise"
***Aliens
_______
T   11/21      Doherty, "Genre, Gender, and the Aliens Trilogy"

Thanksgiving Break
_______
T   11/28      Greenberg, "Fembo: Aliens' Intentions"

R   11/30      Paper # 3 Due         Video on women directors
***Antonia's Line
_______
T   12/5         Journals Due (4 entries, inc. one on Antonia's Line)

R   12/7         Discuss Final    (due by       )

Bibliography

Arthur, Paul.  "L.A. Confidential" (review).  Cineaste 23.3 (1998): 41-43.

Cawelti, John G.  "Chinatown and Generic Transformation in Recent American Films."  Grant
       227-45.

Doherty, Thomas.  "Genre, Gender and the Aliens Trilogy." The Dread of Difference: Gender
     and the Horror Film.  Ed. Barry Keith Grant.  Austin: U of Texas P, 1996.  181-99.

Grant, Barry Keith, ed..   Film Genre Reader II.  Austin: U of Texas P, 1995.

 Greenberg, Harvey R.  "Fembo: Aliens' Intentions." The Journal of Popular Film and
      Television 15 (1988): 165-71.

 Greenberg, Harvey R., et al.  "The Many Faces of Thelma Et Louise."  Film Quarterly 45
      (1991-92):  20-31.

Haskell, Molly.  From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies.  2nd ed.
      Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987.

Krutnik, Frank.  In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity.   London: Routledge,
      1991.

Maltby, Richard.  Hollywood Cinema.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

Maxfield, James F.  The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir,
      1941-1991.  Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson U P, 1996.  26-36.

Place, Janey.  "Women in Film Noir."  Women in Film Noir.  Ed. E. Ann Kaplan.  London:
      British Film Institute, 1978, rev. 1998.  47-68.

Rowe, Kathleen.  "Melodrama and Men in Post-Classical Romantic Comedy."  Me Jane:
      Masculinity, Movies and Women.  Ed.  Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim.  New York:
      St. Martin's, 1995.

 ---.  The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter.  Austin: U of Texas P,
      1995.  116-168.

Schatz, Thomas.  Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Hollywood System.
      Austin: U of Texas P, 1981.

Shumway, David R.  "Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage."
      Grant.  381-401.