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Images Of Women In Mediterranean Film

Center: 
Granada
Program(s): 
Granada - Study in Granada [1]
Discipline(s): 
Women's Studies
Film Studies
Course code: 
WS/FS 321
Terms offered: 
Fall
Credits: 
3
Language of instruction: 
English
Instructor: 
Adelina Sánchez Espinosa
Description: 

Films from Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East are examined with an eye to the role of women in Mediterranean societies.  The course will analyze the most salient current issues on feminist studies and women’s roles in present North and South Mediterranean cultures, looking at how gender, kinship, division of labor, religion, tradition, and sexuality impact women’s lives.

Additional requirements: 

Required Viewings

  • Almodóvar, Pedro. What have I done to deserve this? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?) (Spain 1984).
    • ---. The Flower of my secret. (La Flor de mi secreto) (Spain 1995).
    • ---. All about my mother. (Todo sobre mi madre) (Spain 1999). Bachir-Chouikh. Yamina. Rachida (Algeria 2002).
  • Bollain, Itziar. Take my eyes. (Te doy mis ojos) (Spain 2003).
  • Fouladkar, Assad. When Maryam Spoke Out. (Lamma hikyit Maryam) (Lebanon 2001).
  • Miró, Pilar. Gary Cooper Who is in Heaven. (Gary Cooper que estás en los cielos) (Spain 1981). Rossellini, Roberto. Europe 1951. (Italy 1951).
    • ---. Stromboli. (Italy 1950).
  • Tlatli, Moufida. The Silences of the Palace. (Saimt el Qusur) (Tunisia 1994). Zambrano, Benito. Solas. (Spain 1998).
Method of presentation: 

With the exception of the two introductory units, sessions will consist of brief introductions from the instructor, viewing of a film and interactive discussions where students will contribute with their informed critical comments on the films. Some background reading will be necessary to prepare for film viewing sessions and subsequent discussions. Texts will be facilitated by the instructor before relevant sessions.

Required work and form of assessment: 

Background reading; class attendance and participation (20%); class presentations (25%); 10-12 page paper (25%); final examination (30%).

content: 

The issues will be introduced during two initial sessions and the following 10 sessions will be devoted to watching films and discussing critical literature relevant to each of the topics. Attention will be placed both on the directors’ gaze on the issues and also on our own “gaze” and reaction as viewers/readers.

1.  Introduction:
1.1. Introduction to course contents, teaching methodology and form of assessment.
1.2. Presentation and discussion of main issues concerning women’s studies and feminism: women, economy, work and development: employment policies and conceptual revisions of work and gender; kinship, parenthood, sexualities and homes: power relations and strategies for change; domestic violence; gender and peace; gender, class, ethnicity, immigration: exiled women; labour abuse; self-identities and citizenship; education: sexism and language; education for equal opportunities; coeducation. Health: body, sexuality and gender; women and mental health, women and psychology; the vital cycle: relations and dependencies. Women and politics: power, mainstreaming and positive action; history of women and gender relations: construction of sex; representation of women in history. (Issues will be illustrated with relevant texts.)

2.  Feminism and the visual representation of women:
2.1. Feminist literary criticism, art and culture: the representation of women in literature and the visual arts; images of women in cinema.
2.2. Feminist film theory: “the gaze”; visual language and the concept of “performance”; women viewers and women being viewed; women as camera: women film makers.

3.  Women in Classical Italian cinema: Aesthetic, neo-realist and post-realist views (Visconti, Rossellini and Fellini). The “Solitude Trilogy”: The married environment, the woman as outcast, difference and the search for the self.
Film: Stromboli. (Roberto Rossellini. Italy, 1950.)

4.  Women looking at social change. Women directors during the Spanish Transition: Pilar Miró; feminist autobiography in Miro’s cinema.
Film: Gary Cooper Who is in Heaven. (Gary Cooper que estás es los cielos. Pilar Miró. Spain, 1981.)

5.  Women as subjects and creators: the woman creator as a metaphor for self-discovery.
Film: The Flower of My Secret. (La Flor de mi Secreto. Pedro Almodóvar. Spain, 1995.)

6.  Inequality, domesticity and social oppression in contemporary Spanish cinema: Pedro Almodóvar, Benito Zambrano, Gracia Querejeta and Itziar Bollain.
Film: What have I done to deserve this?. (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?. Pedro Almodóvar. Spain, 1984.)

7.  Home, Kinship and women bonding. Motherhood: Mother Courage and Mater Dolorosas (part 1).
Film: Solas. (Benito Zambrano. Spain, 1998.)

8.  Home, Kinship and women bonding. Motherhood: Mother Courage and Mater Dolorosas (part 2).
Films: All about my mother. (Todo sobre mi madre. Almodóvar. Spain, 1999.) versus Rossellini’s Europe 1951. (Italy, 1951.)

9.  Modern “Angels in the house”, Domestic imprisonment and violence on women.
Film: Take my eyes. (Te doy mis ojos. Itziar Bollain. Spain, 2003.)

10. Women’s  voices  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mediterranean:  Sexual  imprisonment  and  silence.
Film: The Silences of the Palace. (Saimt el Qusur. Moufida Tlatli. Tunisia, 1994.)

11. Patriarchal impositions and the oppression of traditions.
Film: When Maryam Spoke Out. (Lamma hikyit Maryam. Assad Fouladkar. Lebanon, 2001.)

12. Women, war and conflict in the Mediterranean. The role of Women in modern Algeria.
Film: Rachida. (Yamina Bachir-Chouikh. Algeria, 2002.)

Recommended readings: 
  • Ballesteros, Isolina: “La mirada femenina en el cine de la transición: Gary Cooper que estás en los cielos  (1980) de Pilar Miró y Función de noche (1981) de Josefina Molina” Journal of Iberian and Latin  American Studies. V.5/1 (June 1999): 5-26
  • Balonga Fuguerola, Mª Asunción. El mito de la supermujer. Desde el cine con amor. Madrid: Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias, 2003.
  • Benavent, Francisco. Cine Español de los 90. Bilbao: Mensajero, 2000.
  • Bondanella, Peter. The Films of Roberto Rossellini. Cambridge University Press, New York. 1993.
    • ---. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. The Continuum Publishing Company, New York. 1993.
  • Brunetta, Gian Piero. Cent’anni di cinema italiano: 2. Dal 1945 ai giorni nostri. Laterza & Figli Editori, Bari. 1995.
    • ---. Storia del cinema italiano: volume secondo. Editori Riuniti, Roma. 1993.
  • Caughie, John et al. Eds. The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality. London: Routledge, 1992.
  • De Lauretis, Teresa. Alice Doesn’t: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986.
  • Dieckman, Katherine. “Obscure Objects of Desire. The films of Pedro Almodóvar” Aperture. 141 (fall 1990).
  • Doane, Mary Ann. Re-vision: Essays in Feminist Film Criticism. Frederick: U. Publications of America,1984.
  • Dyer, Richard ([1982] 1992a): ‘Don’t Look Now: The Male Pin-Up’. In Caughie et al. (Eds.) op. cit., pp. 265-76; also in Dyer (1992b), op. cit., pp. 103-119.
  • Edwards, Gwynne. Indecent Exposures: Buñuel, Saura, Erice & Almodóvar. New York: M. Boyar, 1995
  • Forbes, Jill. “Ivan the Terrible (Women of the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).” Sight and Sound. LVIII/2. Spring 89. 135
  • Hart, Patricia. “Can a Feminist sit through Kika? Rape, recovery and submission fantasies in the film of Almodóvar.” Anuario de cine y literature en español. V.3 (1997) 73-88
  • Kaplan, E. Ann. Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
    • ---. Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama. 1992; London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
    • ---. Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. 1983; London and New York: Metheun, Inc., 1990.
  • Kuhn, Annette. Cine de mujeres: feminismo y cine. Madrid: Cátedra, 1991.
  • Lizzani, Carlo. Il cinema italiano. Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1992.
  • Mayne, Judith. Cinema and Spectatorship. London: Routledge, 1993.
    • ---. Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women's Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1990.
  • Modleski, Tania. Feminism without Women: Culture and Criticism in a “postfeminist” Age. New York: Routledge, 1991.
  • Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989.
  • Penley, Constance. Ed. Feminism and Film Theory. New York: Routledge, 1988.
  • Shohat, Ella & Stam, Robert. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London: Routledge, 1994.
  • Silverman, Kaja. “Masochism and Subjectivity.” Framework 12 (1980): 2-9.
  • Stacey, Jackie. “Desperately Seeking Audience”. Caughie et al. Eds. op. cit., pp. 244-57.
  • Vernon, Kathleen.“melodrama against itself: Pedro Almodóvar’s “What Have I done to deserve this?” Film Quarterly. v. 46. 3 (Spring 1993): 28 (13 pages)
  • Walker, Lesley Heins. “what did I do to deserve this? The ‘mother’ in the films of Pedro Almodóvar” Modes of Representation in Spanish Cinema. Jenaro Tales & Santos Zunzunegui. Eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998. 273-88
Other Resources: 

www.pedroalmodovar.es [2]
www.almodovarlandia.com [3]
www.miradas.eictv.co.cu [4]
www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm [5]
www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/algeria.html [6]

Source URL: http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/courses/granada/fall-2012/ws-fs-321

Links:
[1] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/programs/granada-study-granada
[2] http://www.pedroalmodovar.es
[3] http://www.almodovarlandia.com
[4] http://www.miradas.eictv.co.cu
[5] http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm
[6] http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/algeria.html