Courses for 2012-13
HUM-185-01 Film Analysis, Theory & Criticism (formerly HUM 211) Fall
This writing-intensive course examines foundational concepts and methodologies in Cinema Studies, introducing students to a number of theoretical approaches central to the study of film, including semiotics, psychoanalysis, and Cultural Studies. Our focus is not film appreciation but rather the analysis of film as a language and "reading" film texts for their meanings. Since film is a system of representation, the study of gender, sexuality, race and class will be crucial to our interpretive practice throughout. Prerequisite: One course in English, Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies, American Studies, Philosophy, or Art History. T. Geller.
GWS 235 Feminism and Pop Culture
This course critically examines the multiple ways that women have been and are currently portrayed in various popular cultural forms. Through an intersectional and inter-textual investigation of television, film, advertising and popular music, students will explore how representation both reflects and produces socio-cultural phenomena and ideas about the proper role of women in society. Prerequisite: GWS-111. Johnson
GLS/GRM 233 Topics in German Cinema 1920 to Present
The aim of this survey course is to introduce advanced undergraduate students to the history of German film as well as to the themes of gender, sex, and ethnicity as they figure in German film throughout the 20th and early 21st century. The class asks questions in relation to the changing discourses on gender, sex, and ethnicity and how these changes are produced by, reflected in, and elaborated on in German cinema. Social, political, economic, and demographic changes and shifts in Germany of the 20th/21st century have resulted in different perspectives on these themes.
We will investigate these changes. The films to be discussed range from Weimar film to contemporary productions and will be used as case studies in class. Selected films will be watched in clips or in its entirety. The course will be accompanied with excerpts of theoretical as well as secondary readings about the class theme and individual films. For the theoretical framing of gender, sex, and sexuality, excerpts of standard texts include Simone de Beauvoire’s The Second Sex, Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality Vol. I, and Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble. For the theoretical framing of race and ethnicity, readings include excerpts of work by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Gayatri Spivak as well as Étienne Balibar. The films are categorized into periods and will be watched chronologically. The class hopes to display continuities of fantasies and fetishization of the gendered, sexualized, exoticized, and, at times, ethnicized representation of diverse characters in German film.
Students do not need prior knowledge of German cinema. The course aims to give an overview of German cinema as well as of the ruptures and continuities in the intersection of gender, sex, and ethnicity in these films. Gueneli
GLS/CHI 277 Modern China Through Lit and Film
This course examines literature and society in China starting from the turn of the 20th century through the critical study of selected samples of the literary and cinematic products of this tumultuous historical period.
Attention is particularly focused on the political, cultural, and aesthetic messages that the literary and cinematic forms convey and disseminate. All readings and discussion are in English. Prerequisite: None. FENG
CHI-230-01 Chinese Wm: Past & Present
This course will examine literary and cinematic representations of Chinese women, past and present by using gender as a category of analysis. Literary and cinematic focus is on the complex and changing relationship of Chinese women to normative gender codes and conventions over the course of some 2,000 years. Prerequisites: none CHEN
Spring
HUM-290-01 Film Genres
This course will examine the theory, criticism, and history of film genre. We will take a comparative approach, analyzing the stylistic and narrative conventions of specific genres, and their relationship to culture, race, sexuality, gender and national identity. We will discuss various film genres, including the musical, screwball comedy, melodrama, and film noir. The
objective of this course is to explore the question of genre through a range of theoretical rubrics (structuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism and ideological criticism) to address both the social implications and aesthetic properties of cinema. This course requires weekly screenings(usually two films per week) along with the assigned class reading. Prerequisite: Humanities
HUM-295-03 ST: Representations of Gender in Contemporary Films from the Middle East and North Africa
Special Topic: Representations of Gender in Contemporary Films from the Middle East and North Africa. This course will examine representations of gender in contemporary films from the Middle East and North Africa. Topics to be addressed will include gender roles, tradition and modernity, love and marriage, mother-daughter relations, and women and war. Dates: February 5th to February 21. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: Second-year standing. S. Ireland.
AMS-295-01 ST: Placing, Projecting, and Protecting American Identities in Movies
Special Topic: Placing, Projecting, and Protecting American Identities in Movies. This course explores representations of American identities and the binaries generated by these explorations including here/there, foreign/local, abroad/ home, American/Other. Films and readings will highlight the theme of amalgamation as an alchemic process (the melting pot) shaping Americanness and its association with characteristics such as respectability, recognition and respect. Questions to be addressed include: who are the models and what are the multiple meanings of "being AN American," being IN America and imagining these distinctions in different circles and at different moments? Prerequisite: Second-year standing. K. Gibel Mevorach.
SPN-395-01 ST: Studies in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film
Advanced Special Topic: Studies in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film. This course examines Spanish narrative and film from the 20th and 21st centuries to explore the development of a modern, global Spain. Topics discussed may include: Franco's dictatorship, the democratic transition, immigration, and globalization. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPN-311, 312, 314, 315, 317 or any SPN-295 on literature. B. Patrick.
FRN-395-01 ST: Faces of Multicultural France in Film
Advanced Special Topic: Faces of Multicultural France in Film. This short course will explore contemporary France through documentary and narrative films. The instructor is a film studies scholar from France who has served as Programming Manager in the International Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival. The course will cover topics such as the notion of a national identity, diversity, multiculturalism, citizenship, and equality, in what constitutes today's France melting pot. Taught in French. Dates: January 28 to February 20. Short course deadlines apply. Prerequisite: One 300-level course in French taken in Grinnell.
FRN-350-01 Advanced Topics in Lit & Civilization - Masculine/Feminine in French Literature and Film
Masculine/Feminine in French Literature and Film. Explores concepts of the masculine and the feminine from the Romantic era to the present in literature, art and film. Examines topics such as desire, ambition, sexuality, paternity, maternity, and the writing of the self. Authors and directors to be studied include Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Sand, Rachilde, Colette, Godard, Truffaut, Duras, Jaoui, Denis, Toussaint, and Houellebecq. Prerequisites: French 312 or 313; one seminar-level course in the French department and permission of department for Mentored Advanced Project (499). At least one seminar is required for the French major.
JPN/GLS-279-01 Modern Japanese Fiction & Film M. Schimmel See Japanese 279.
This course considers Japanese fiction and film that depict Japan from the mid-19th century through the present day. The work of some major authors and film directors will be introduced to examine Japanese culture and society as well as the characteristics that are unique to Japanese fiction and film. Readings and discussions in English. Prerequisite: none. SHIGATA SCHIMMEL
