WMN2080

Feminism and Popular Culture: Reading Mainstream Cinema

(ART)

Jane-Maree Maher

6 points + 2 hours per week + Clayton + Second semester + Prohibitions: CLS2240, CLS3240, WMN3080 + Prerequisites: Any first year sequence.

Synopsis: This unit will utilise contemporary Hollywood cinema as a vehicle for examining the impact of feminist ideas, theories and politics on forms of popular culture. The unit explores the complex and contradictory ways in which recent commercial films negotiate important questions contemporary feminism has raised about gender roles, sexual difference and sexual identities. It will also examine how these films produce gendered understandings of careers, marriage, parenthood and romantic love for contemporary cinema audiences.

Assessment: Bibliographic/research skills exercise (1000 words): 20% + Essay (2500 words): 50% + Class test (1 hr, equiv. 1000 words): 20% + Class participation: 10%