Women in Cinema

Course Details

• (Special Subject, Year 3, Semester 2)
• Credits: 20
• Convenor: Dr L Porter
• Course code: HA3455

Module Aims

This module will examine the history and current status of women in the cinema, both behind and in front of the camera: as directors, writers and producers, as well as actresses and stars.

Content

We will cover early women pioneers such as Alice Guy through to contemporary directors such as Kathryn Bigelow and her recent Oscar success with The Hurt Locker (2009).

Learning and Teaching

Through a series of weekly screenings, lectures and seminars we will look at action heroines past and present; at films made for women from 1940s melodramas and 'women's pictures' to Sex in the City (2010); at iconic women stars from the 1910s to the present; and at women's involvement in key international cinema movements such as the French New Wave, as well as within the British and American film industries. This module will combine theories of representation and spectatorship along with the economics and organisation of cinema as a global industry.

Assessment Scheme

Two essays: a short essay (1,500 words, 30%) and a long essay (3,500 words, 70%).