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Race, Sex and Gender in Early Cinema

ENGL 797.401
also offered as: ARTH793
T 12-2
screenings: CINE793

 

This course will examine the ideologies of race, sex and gender in early cinema, and will consider films from 1895 though the beginning of the sound period.  Though the focus will largely be on films within an American context, we will also consider these issues comparatively. The course will include the work of Edison, Griffith, DeMille, Micheaux, among others; will consider stars like Rudolph Valentino and Anna May Wong; and will examine the cinematic representation of fears regarding such things as white slavery, miscegenation, the new woman, and contagious homosexuality; and will explore the way that interlocking ideologies shape and are in turn shaped by the developing medium of film. Course requirements: short response papers; class participation; attendance at screenings; research paper.

Primary Course Number for this course is ARTH793:401

 

fulfills requirements