Graduate Office - Literature and Criticism Course Offerings By Semester

Course schedules are subject to change.  Please see Cathy Renwick for more information.

SUMMER 2005 SESSION I (June 6-July 8)

ENGL 765 Topics in Literature as Genre: Masculinities in Film

Dr.  Tom Slater

M-F 10:15-12:15

With this class, we are going to examine gender issues in film and culture by focusing on masculinities in film, a topic of increasing scholarly attention over the past few years.  The emphasis on masculinity will allow us to cover a great amount of film history, starting with American silent film, spending some time on the studio era, and then continuing into the present.  We will also examine narrative and stylistic elements in order to gain an understanding of how to read film.  Finally, the class will also incorporate a number of genres and a variety of theoretical approaches including gay/lesbian and queer theory.

Along with short focused responses to films, students will also write two short essays, do a class presentation (either individually or in a small group), and write a major research paper.  Some of the figures to be included in our study will be Rudolf Valentino, Lon Chaney, Gene Kelly, and perhaps Clark Gable, Michael Caine, or Hugh Grant.  Consideration of race and class, male figures such as fathers and superheroes, and male relationships with family and others will also be important.

Required books will include The Trouble With Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema, edited by Phil Powrie, et al.; This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age, by Gaylyn Studlar; and Film, Form, and Culture, 3^rd ed., by Robert Kolker.

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