Women and Hollywood

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

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

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

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

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

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.
• Analyse and critique other media, both print and audiovisual, in relation to a primary text's reception.
• Analyse and synthesize primary and secondary research materials.

Teaching methods include:

• A weekly screening of films
• A weekly lecture
• A weekly 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

Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren 1943). Film

Now Voyager (Irving Rapper 1942). Film

*Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Ackerman 1975). Film

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

*Erin Brokovich (Steven Soderbergh 2001). Film

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawkes 1953). Film

*Funny Girl (William Wyler 1968). Film

*Dance Girl Dance (Dorothy Arzner 1940). Film

The Blot (Lois Weber 1921). Film

Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott 1991). Film

*In the Cut (Jane Campion 2003). Film

*Bridesmaids (Paul Feig 2011). Film

Journal Articles

Blodgett, Bridget and Anastasia Slate (2018). ‘Ghostbusters Is for Boys: Understanding Geek Masculinity’s Role in Alt-Right. Communication, Culture and Critique, 11(1), pp. 133-146.

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

Textbooks

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

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

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

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

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

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

Margaret Tally. The Limits of #MeToo in Hollywood: Gender and Power in the Entertainment Industry.

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

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

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

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

Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny.

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

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

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

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

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External