ENG 39 Girlhood in World Cinema and Literature
The course provides a critical context and mapping strategies for the study of contemporary works by a diverse group of women writers and filmmakers from various national contexts who focus primarily on the experience of girls. We will focus on the social, political, and cultural relations that shape girls' lives and experiences in various geographical locations, and we will pay attention to the impacts of socialization, representation, marginalization, and inclusion/exclusion of girls and young women. In the process, we will examine constructions of feminism, agency, empowerment, and subjectivity as they relate to girls. The essays that we will read explore how contemporary texts from around the world deploy the figure of the girl in order to reveal aspects of national life that are either unsettling or unacknowledged in other books or films. Students will engage in several areas of inquiry and dialogue, including, but not limited to, subjectivity, consumption, representation, sexuality, colonization, violence, mental health, and their impacts on the lives of girls. Finally, students will explore how intersections of race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity come to bear on girls' lives and experiences. Crosslisted with ENG 139. Meets only one: LACE 5C Global Awareness or 5D Women & Gender.
Cross Listed Courses
ENG 139
Distribution
ENG