BA History and French

As host to the largest national film industry in Europe, and one of the most important globally, France has played a pivotal role in the history of cinema. French film has also provided a privileged medium through which representations of gender and sexuality have been constructed, articulated, and contested. Through its exploration of the intersections between these areas, this course helps students acquire detailed knowledge and understanding of French cinema, while also equipping them with analytical means to problematise and challenge notions of gender and sexuality, particular regarding the uses of cinematic genre (e.g. thriller, comedy). By providing an introduction both to French cinema and notions of how gender and sexuality have been represented by filmmakers across time, this course will appeal to students pursuing studies across French, film, history, politics, sociology, and the visual arts.

• to familiarise students with the broad history of French cinema in relation to gender and sexuality;
• to introduce students to concepts of gender and sexuality in order to enable the analysis of French film;

• to provide an overview of the different issues of cultural representation with specific reference to the perception of ‘difference’ in terms of gender and sexuality;
• to provide students with key concepts related to genre in film;
• to encourage and enable students to verbalise and intellectualise their emotional response to representations of gender and sexuality in cultural production;
• to equip students with intellectual and analytical tools to consider the stakes of representation with regard to gender and sexuality in French film.

Some of the lectures for this unit will be delivered online.

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of some of the major aspects of gender and sexuality as represented in French cinema.

Contextualise, analyze and discuss audio-visual material in a structured fashion; apply critically terminology and conceptual frameworks derived from film theory and relevant cultural theories on gender and sexuality.

Demonstrate the ability to carry out individual research for coursework essays, and express ideas and arguments coherently and convincingly in time-limited constraints, using an appropriate level of academic writing and exemplification.

Demonstrate powers of analysis; manage word-count effectively when writing coursework; manage time effectively when planning coursework; participate in seminars; work as part of a group; assess the relevance of existing literature through independent research; seek advice and feedback and develop confidence.

Individual written and oral feedback on a sequence analysis

Individual written and oral feedback on a coursework essay plan

Individual written feedback on coursework essay performance

Hughes, Alex, and James S. Williams, Gender and French Cinema (Oxford: Berg, 2001)

Perriam, Chris, and Darren Waldron, French and Spanish Queer Film: Audiences, Communities and Cultural Exchange (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016)

Rees-Roberts, Nick, French Queer Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008)

Tarr, Carrie, and Brigitte Rollet, Cinema and the Second Sex: Women’s Filmmaking in France in the 1980s and 1990s (London: Bloomsbury, 2001)

Waldron, Darren, Queering Contemporary French Popular Cinema: Images and Their Reception (New York: Peter Lang, 2009)