Women and Hollywood

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Organise and structure materials and knowledge to write clearly and confidently.
• Contribute productively to group discussion through active listening, critical questioning and offering peer feedback.
• Analyse and synthesize primary and secondary research materials.
• Construct a proposal for audience research using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Key approaches to audience research.
• The genres most associated with female audiences: romantic comedies, the woman’s film, melodrama.
• The latest research on women’s production in early Hollywood and contemporary theories of women’s popular cinema.
• Key women filmmakers and stars of Hollywood and key Hollywood films that have been popular amongst female audiences.
• Selected feminist film theories and feminist film histories of Hollywood.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Synthesize an analysis of a women’s film with the historical and cultural context.
• List key women filmmakers, female stars of Hollywood and discuss the significance of their films.
• Evaluate critically the theoretical and methodological approaches to spectatorship and audience research.
• Differentiate amongst and compare representations of women in Hollywood cinema and alternative (independent/art) cinemas.
• Articulate, evaluate and apply feminist film theories of authorship, genre and representation.

Teaching methods include:

• A weekly screening of films
• A weekly hour-long lecture
• A weekly hour-long seminar
• Lecturer-led analysis and discussion of sources Learning activities include:
• Preparatory reading before each seminar
• Participation in group and class discussion
• Independent reading of the sources provided and of related secondary works
• Independent research of additional information and source materials
• Short group presentation
• Field trip to local cinema to see a recently released women’s film or film by a female director. Participation on this trip is not a formal requirement of the module, though you are strongly encouraged to attend.

Lecture elements will provide you with general knowledge and understanding about chronology, sources and key concepts. This will be consolidated through readings and seminar discussions of primary and secondary source material. Discussion in seminars will help you to develop your own ideas about a topic, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• workshops that combine tutor input with practical writing exercises
• small group interaction, to generate constructive feedback from peers
• lectures and workshops led by industry professionals.

Learning activities include

• generating material and ideas for a specific piece of writing
• planning and implementing a strategy for completing a professional piece of work
• peer review and feedback
• editing and revising pieces of writing (and production, eg a promo tape or a website).

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott 1991). Film

*In the Cut (Jane Campion 2003). Film

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren 1943). Film

*Bridesmaids (Paul Feig 2011). Film

*Funny Girl (William Wyler 1968). Film

*Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Ackerman 1975). Film

The Blot (Lois Weber 1921). Film

*Dance Girl Dance (Dorothy Arzner 1940). Film

Making an American Citizen ( Alice Guy Blaché 1912). Film

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawkes 1953). Film

Now Voyager (Irving Rapper 1942). Film

*Erin Brokovich (Steven Soderbergh 2001). Film

Journal Articles

Grant, Catherine (2001). Secret Agents: Feminist Theories of Women’s Film Authorship. Feminist Theory, 2(1), pp. 124.

Textbooks

Bean, Jennifer M. and Diane Negra (2002). A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema. London: BFI.

Kaplan, E. Ann (1983). Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd..

Thornham, Sue (1999). Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. London: Routledge.

Radner, Hilary (2010). Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks, and Consumer Culture. Durham: Duke University Press.

Negra, Diane (2008). What a Girl Wants: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism. London: Routledge.

Kuhn, Annette (1982). Women’s Pictures. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Basinger, Jeanine (1994). A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-60. London: Chatto & Windus.

Lane, Christina (2000). Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Rich, B. Ruby (1998). Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement. London: Routledge.

Stacey, Jackie (1993). Stargazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship.

Tasker, Yvonne (1998). Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Mayne, Judith (1990). The Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women’s Cinema. London: Routledge.

Brunsdon, Charlotte, ed (1986). Films For Women. London: Routledge.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal feedback:

• You will engage in small group exercises, focusing on specific formative tasks, which will be reviewed in class
• You will be encouraged to discuss preparation for your formal assessment with your tutor
• You will have the opportunity to seek individual advice on your work in progress from your tutor
• Guidance and advice in class on preparation, completion and presentation of assignments will be available to you

The formal assessments will promote skills of analysis and critical thinking. They will also reinforce organisational, planning and writing skills.

Summative

Summative assessment description

Referral

Referral assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External