Film Women in South Asia

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In 2012, following the brutal gang rape and murder of the woman who came to be known as “Nirbhaya” in New Delhi, a wave of public protests engulfed India, as women demanded their constitutional right to access and occupy public space without threat of violence. In that moment, many strands of the history of women in South Asia were shown into sharp relief: their struggles against patriarchal state and private institutions and the violence to which it routinely subjects women, but also the maturation of the feminist movement in India and its visibility in the public sphere. This course will explore women’s history in South Asia through the lens of film, one of the most important technologies in modern South Asia in creating publics. South Asia’s early enthusiasm and adoption of film as a medium, the enormous scale of production and consumption of film in the region, and the crucial role women played in film makes the medium a fascinating lens with which to trace women’s struggles in the subcontinent. Students will be introduced to a women’s history of South Asia from the colonial period to the present, basic elements of feminist and film theory and some aspects of South Asian film history. The course will require students to watch one film a week, apart from assigned readings.