Special Topic: Sex in the Cinema

Catalog description

For this learning community, we present an historical, cultural, and cinematic examination of how gender and sexuality have come to be represented in international cinema. To this end, we will screen a wide variety of films (American and international, classic and contemporary, mainstream and experimental), which we will examine as thematic vehicles, artistic creations, commercial products, and cultural artifacts. How has the cinema itself, as well as our responses to it, contributed to the depiction of gender roles and erotic practices? In addition, we will explore what it means to enter into and participate in such cultural conservations, using the screenings and readings as evidence for our discussion and essays. As students will discover there is both art and craft involved in analyzing, developing and articulating a reasoned perspective of your own.