Gender and Genre in American Cinema since 2000

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module focuses on the ways in which cinema functions as a key site for the construction and re-production of social identities. Taking an intersectional approach to the representation of gender, the module explores questions of class, race, age, maternalism, paternalism, and sexuality and their mediation across a range of contemporary US genre films. We use the broad heading of postfeminism as a framing concept from which to understand shifts and continuities in gender discourse and cultural politics in American cinema since 2000. The module will consider questions of text and context in order to explore the ways in which gender and genre intersect with visual cultures, neo-liberalism and cultural politics in contemporary American cinema.