THE CARNAL SCREEN
In this response paper, you should choose ONE film covered in the historical period we have discussed up until now (1890s-1960s) and analyze its sexual ideologies and theories in respects to one of the themes or discourses or contexts we have discussed in class. What kinds of theories of sexuality does the film present?
You should take into account historical, industrial and technological as well as social contexts such as genre convention, mode of production/industrial status (Hollywood, independent, exploitation, avant-garde), modes of reception, exhibition and circulation, mode of address, as well as its place in a larger socio-cultural framework. Make sure you have a coherent and clear research question and thesis argument from the outset of your essay. You may choose to write about a film that we have watched in full length in class, though you may want to deal with a film we have seen in excerpted form. Films mentioned in the course readings can also be possible sources for examination. Some discourses you may choose to focus on include (but are not limited to) the following:
•Social classification and sexual marginality – sexual typology (engage with Gayle Rubin)
•Sexual Liberation/ Sexual Revolution
•Repression/Censorship (engage with Foucault’s argument)
•Ontology and representation (engage with Bazin’s argument)
•Relationship between Public and Private Spheres in constructing sexuality
•Economies of Production vs. Economies of Consumption
•Procreation and Reproduction vs. Individual Pleasure/Orgasm
•Specific modes of production –choose a single film/object (stag films, early shorts,art cinema, avant-garde cinema)
•Considerations of obscenity and legal contexts – historical contexts of obscenity inrespects to the sexual image
•Personal and Political Definitions of Sex
•What is the relationship between aesthetic form, narrativity and sexual content?
•Sex and Time/Duration, Sex and Narrative Propulsion
•The Hetero-Homo Continuum Please use appropriate bibliographic citation for secondary and primary texts you are paraphrasing or quoting.
You are free to refer to the readings we have dealt with in class up to this point and may look ahead in the course packet for further suggestions. Plagiarism, using someone’s words and ideas as your own without proper citation, will be met with failure and may result in further disciplinary action.
