printer friendly pageFEMGEN 192: Women in French Cinema: 1958- (FILMSTUD 112, FRENCH 192)
Women as objects and subjects of the voyeuristic gaze inherent to cinema. The myth of the feminine idol in French films in historical and cultural context since the New Wave until now. The mythology of stars as the imaginary vehicle that helped France to change from traditional society to modern, culturally mixed nation. The evolution of female characters, roles, actresses, directors in the film industry. Filmmakers include Vadim, Buñuel, Truffaut, Varda, Chabrol, Colline Serreau, Tonie Marshall. Discussion in English; films in French with English subtitles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Alduy, C. (PI)
;
Biffanti, D. (TA)
FEMGEN 205: Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (FRENCH 205)
Analysis of medieval love, satirical and Crusade lyrics of the trouabdours. Study of deictic address, corporeal subjectivity, the female voice, love debates, and the body as a figure of political conflict. Course readings include medieval treatises on lyric and modern translations of the troubadour tradition. Works by Ovid, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, La Comtessa de Dia, Thibaut de Champagne, Raimon Vidal, Dante, and Pound. Taught in English. Course includes a lab component for creation of multi-media translation projects: trobar. stanford.edu.
Last offered: Winter 2018
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 215A: The Queer 20th Century: German LGBTQ Literature and Film (FEMGEN 115A, GERMAN 115, GERMAN 215)
What was it like to be queer in 20th-century Germany? This course examines the rich and sometimes surprising LGBTQ culture of 20th-century Germany, featuring stories that are often left out of traditional seminars. Through literature and film, we will learn about pioneering gay rights activists, persecution under National Socialism, emancipation movements under capitalism and socialism, and debates that are shaping queer life in contemporary Germany. Taught in English; students of all backgrounds are very welcome. Remote synchronous, with plenty of opportunities for breakout rooms, student discussion, Zoom breaks, and off-screen work.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Armstrong, J. (PI)
FEMGEN 236: Literature and Transgression (COMPLIT 236)
Close reading and analysis of erotic-sexual and aesthetic-stylistic transgression in selected works by such authors as Baudelaire, Wilde, Flaubert, Rachilde, Schnitzler, Kafka, Joyce, Barnes, Eliot, Bataille, Burroughs, Thomas Mann, Kathy Acker, as well as in recent digital literature and online communities. Along with understanding the changing cultural, social, and political contexts of what constitutes "transgression" or censorship, students will gain knowledge of influential theories of transgression and conceptual limits by Foucault, Blanchot, and contemporary queer and feminist writers.
Last offered: Autumn 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 258X: Black Feminist Theater and Theory (AFRICAAM 258, CSRE 258, TAPS 258)
From the rave reviews garnered by Angelina Weld Grimke's lynching play, Rachel to recent work by Lynn Nottage on Rwanda, black women playwrights have addressed key issues in modern culture and politics. We will analyze and perform work written by black women in the U.S., Britain and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics include: sexuality, surrealism, colonialism, freedom, violence, colorism, love, history, community and more. Playwrights include: Angelina Grimke, Lorriane Hansberry, Winsome Pinnock, Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan- Lori Parks, Ntzoke Shange, Pearl Cleage, Sarah Jones, Anna DeVeare Smith, Alice Childress, Lydia Diamond and Zora Neale Hurston.)
Last offered: Winter 2018
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 262: Sex and the Early Church (CLASSICS 262, RELIGST 262, RELIGST 362)
Sex and the Early Church examines the ways first- through sixth-century Christians addressed questions regarding human sexuality. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sexuality and issues of gender, culture, power, and resistance. We will read a Roman gynecological manual, an ancient dating guide, the world's first harlequin romance novels, ancient pornography, early Christian martyrdom accounts, stories of female and male saints, instructions for how to best battle demons, visionary accounts, and monastic rules. These will be supplemented by modern scholarship in classics, early Christian studies, gender studies, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. The purpose of our exploration is not simply to better understand ancient views of gender and sexuality. Rather, this investigation of a society whose sexual system often seems so surprising aims to denaturalize many of our own assumptions concerning gender and sexuality. In the process, we will also examine the ways these first centuries of what eventually became the world's largest religious tradition has profoundly affected the sexual norms of our own time. The seminar assumes no prior knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, the bible, or ancient history.
Last offered: Autumn 2018
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 287X: Sex, Gender, and Violence: French Women Writers Today (FEMGEN 187X, FEMGEN 387X, FRENCH 187, FRENCH 287, FRENCH 387)
Long before the 2017 #Metoo campaign, French women writers have explored through powerful fictions and autobiographies the different shades of economic, social, psychological, physical, or sexual violence that is exerted against, but also by and between, women. How does literature - the power of words - address, deconstruct or comfort power dynamics (during sex and between the sexes) that are usually silenced, taboo or unspeakable? Themes explored: sex and gender, sex and power, rape culture, sexual and moral taboos (incest, abortion, pornography, infanticide, lesbianism), the body as social stigma or source of meaning. Special attention given to narrative and descriptive strategies designed to avert, expose, deconstruct or account for specifically feminine experiences (rape, orgasm, pregnancy). Authors include Marie Darrieusecq, Christine Angot, Annie Ernaux, Marie NDiaye, Virginie Despentes, Leila Slimani, Ivan Jablonka along with feminist theory. Taught in French.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FILMSTUD 4: Introduction to Film Study: French Cinema in Focus
This course provides an introduction to film through the lens of French national cinema. We study the historical formation of the moving image in France (and beyond); from its humble beginnings as a novel attraction, to its rise as a major medium in its own right, appreciated for both its commercial and artistic appeal. We examine the work of a number of influential auteurs and key periods in the development of French national cinema: including the work of early masters Jean Vigo and Jean Renoir, members of the French New Wave Jean-Luc Godard and Agnès Varda, as well as contemporary filmmakers Mathieu Kassovitz and Olivier Assayas. In addition to undertaking a historical overview of French cinema, this course familiarizes students with a variety of approaches to the analysis of film style and form: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound, performance, etc. While no prior knowledge of French cinema or film analysis is required, a willingness to engage deeply and critically with film is fundamental.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Cohen, D. (PI)
FILMSTUD 4S: Language of Film
This course familiarizes students with various elements of film language (cinematography, editing, sound, etc.) and introduces them to a range of approaches to cinematic analysis (authorship, genre, close formal reading, socio-historical considerations). Different types of films (narrative, documentary, and experimental) will be surveyed. Classical narrative cinema will be compared with alternative modes of story-telling.
Last offered: Summer 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 6: Introduction to Media (FILMSTUD 306)
What is a medium? This course starts from the assumption that the answer to this question is not as obvious as it might at first appear. Clearly, we know some media when we see them: radio, film, and television are in many ways paradigmatic media of the twentieth century. But what about the computational, networked media of the twenty-first century? Are these still media in the same sense, or has the nature of media changed with the emergence of digital technologies? And what, for that matter, about pre-technical media? Is painting a medium in the same sense that oil or acrylic are media, or in the sense that we speak of mixed media? Is language a medium? Are numbers? Is the body? As we shall see, the question of what a medium is raises a number of other questions of a theoretical or even philosophical nature. How is our experience of the world affected or shaped by media? Are knowledge and perception possible apart from media, or are they always mediated by the apparatuses, instruments, or assemblages of media? What is the relation between the forms and the contents of media, and how does this relation bear on questions of aesthetics, science, technology, or politics? The lecture-based course addresses these and other questions and seeks in this way to introduce a way of thinking about media that goes beyond taken-for-granted ideas and assumptions, and that has a potentially transformative effect on a wide range of theoretical and practical interests.nnnFilm & Media Studies majors and minors must enroll for 5 units.
Last offered: Autumn 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
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