Course Proposal Details for - From Girls in Uniform to Men in Drag: Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity on the German Screen
(Course code not assigned)
School
School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Course Description
This option will explore how gender, sexuality and ethnicity, central and often contested
categories throughout German history, have been represented in German film from the Weimar
period to the present day. Weimar film introduced cinema audiences to Marlene Dietrich,
famous for her gender-bending, as well as the first feature film with an openly pro-lesbian
storyline; both the innovations of New German Cinema and the effects of post-war immigration
resulted in a variety of ¿other¿ identities on the German screen; and film since the reunification
is increasingly transcultural, featuring multiple ethnicities as well as a high proportion of queer
genders and sexualities.
We will begin by considering ideas from film studies to facilitate students¿ ability to ¿read¿ film,
before examining themes and theories relating to gender, sexuality and ethnicity and applying
these to German film from various periods in order to consider a spectrum of identities
including: masculine; feminine; drag; trans; homosexual; heterosexual; ¿Aryan¿; Jewish;
German; and Turkish.
Although our central focus is German film, many of the ideas covered can be applied to other
disciplines and outside of the German context. Students will, therefore, be encouraged to
discuss the representation of gender, sexuality and ethnicity in films of their choice (i.e. other
German films, World Cinema, and/or Hollywood) as well as those on the course.
Normal Year Taken
Year 4 Undergraduate
Course Level (PG/UG)
UG
Visiting Student Availability
Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits
20
Credit Level (SCQF)
SCQF Level 10
Home Subject Area
European Languages and Cultures - German
Other Subject Area
Course Organiser
Peter Davies
Course Secretary
Fiona Scanlon
% not taught by this
institution
0
Collaboration Information
(School / Institution)
Total contact teaching hours
Any costs to be met by
students
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20
Pre-requisites
Passes in German Studies 1 and 2 with a mark of 50 or above at the first attempt and
completion of the Year Abroad.
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations
Visting Student Pre-requisites
Keywords
Fee Code (if invoiced at
course level)
Proposer
Fiona Scanlon
Default Mode of Study
Classes & Assessment incl. centrally arranged exam
Default delivery period
Semester 2
Marking Scheme to be
employed
Common Marking Scheme - UG Honours Mark/Grade
Taught in Gaidhlig?
No
Course Type
Standard
Summary of Intended
Learning Outcomes/L01
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
demonstrate knowledge of a variety of German films and locate these within their historical and
cultural contexts;
display a nuanced understanding of complex theories relating to gender, sexuality and
ethnicity, and how these relate to film;
use the above categories to critically analyse film, using the appropriate terminology;
analyse and evaluate a range of secondary literature, employing academic work from the fields
of film, gender and sexuality studies in their own arguments;
construct and present a clear, sustained argument on the themes central to the course,
individually and in pairs/groups, in both written and oral form.
Learning Outcome 2
Learning Outcome 3
Learning Outcome 4
Learning Outcome 5
Special Arrangements
Components of Assessment
One course essay of 2500 words (50%)
One 1.5hrs examination essay (50%)
In addition, students will deliver (unassessed) presentations on themes covered during the
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course.
Exam Information
Syllabus
Week-by-week overview of how the course may look (as a research-led course, there could be
some substitutions or additions to secondary literature listed here eg the introduction of
significant new scholarship in the field, including my own):
N.B. The film for each session should be screened the week before the corresponding seminar.
WEEK 1 Introduction to Film Studies in the German Context
Literature:
Extracts from Monaco, James How to Read a Film (via Learn)
WEEK 2 The Male Gaze
Film: Der blaue Engel (von Sternberg, 1930)
Literature:
Mulvey, Laura ¿Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema¿, in Visual and Other Pleasures
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 14-30
Schwarzer, Alice (ed.) ¿Das andere Geschlecht¿, in Simone de Beauvoir ¿ Ein Lesebuch mit
Bildern (Berlin: rtv, 1984), pp. 159 ¿ 188
WEEK 3 Queering Desire
Film: Mädchen in Uniform (Sagan, 1931)
Literature:
Fest, Kerstin (2012) ¿Yesterday and/or Today: Time, History and Desire in Christa Winsloe¿s
Mädchen in Uniform¿, in German Life and Letters, volume 65, issue 4,October 2012, pp. 457 ¿
471
Meyer, Veronika (2012) ¿Lesbian Classics in Germany? A Film Historical Analysis of Mädchen in
Uniform (1931 and 1958)¿, in Journal of Lesbian Studies. Special Issue: Global Lesbian Cinema,
volume 16, issue 3, pp. 340-353.
Rich, B. Ruby (1981) ¿Mädchen in Uniform: From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation¿, in
Jump Cut, volume 24-25, March 1981, pp. 44-50.
WEEK 4 Gender Performativity
Film: Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (Fassbinder, 1972)
Literature:
Butler, Judith ¿Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire¿, in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the
Subversion of Identity (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 1-34
WEEK 5 Colouring in Characters
Film: Angst essen Seele auf (Fassbinder, 1974)
Literature:
Dyer, Richard ¿The Matter of Whiteness¿, in White: Essays on Race and Culture (New York and
London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 1-40
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Neale, Steve ¿Masculinity as Spectacle¿ in Cohan, Steven, and Hark, Ina Rae (eds.) Screening the
Male (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 9 ¿ 20
WEEK 6 Gender and Culture
Film: Yasemin (Bohm, 1988)
Literature:
Anderson, Susan C. (2002) ¿Outsiders, Foreigners and Aliens in Cinematic or Literary Narratives
by Bohm, Dische, Dörrie, and Ören¿, in The German Quarterly, volume 75, number 2, Spring
2002, pp. 144-159.
Gökturk, Deniz ¿Turkish Delight ¿ Migrant Fright: Migrant Identities in Transnational Cinema¿ in
Deniz Derman, Karen Ross and Nevena Dakovic (eds.) Mediated Identities (Istanbul: Bilgi
University Press, 2001)
WEEK 7: Femmeinisation
Film: Aimée & Jaguar (Färberböck, 1999)
Literature:
Dawson, Leanne (2012) ¿Aimée, Jaguar and Butlerian Gender Melancholia¿ in Evans, Owen, and
Harper, Graeme (eds.) Studies in European Cinema, November 2012, pp. 35- 52.
Whatling, Clare ¿Fantastic Desires¿ in Screen Dreams: Fantasising Lesbians in Film (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1997), pp. 53 - 78
WEEK 8: Sexuality and Culture
Film: Lola+Bilidikid (Ataman, 1999)
Literature:
Clark, Christopher (2007) ¿Transculturation, Transe Sexuality, and Turkish Germany: Kutlu¿
Ataman's Lola und Bilidikid¿, in German Life and Letters, volume 59, issue 4, pp. 555-572
Tapinc, Husseyin ¿Masculinity, Femininity and Turkish Male Homosexuality¿, in Modern
Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experience, ed, Plummer, Ken (London:
Routledge, 1992), pp. 39 ¿ 51
WEEK 9: Transculturalism
Film: Auf der anderen Seite (Akin, 2007)
Literature:
De Lauretis, Teresa (1988) ¿Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation¿, in Theatre
Journal, volume 40number 2, May 1998, pp. 155 ¿ 177
Lewis, Rachel (2012) ¿Towards a Transnational Lesbian Cinema¿, in Journal of Lesbian Studies
volume 16, issue 3, pp. 273-290
WEEK 10: Revision
Feed-forward discussion of students¿ responses to fictional exam questions (in place of past
papers); student queries.
Academic Description
Study Pattern
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Transferable Skills
critical/analytical thinking;
presentational skills: oral and written;
research ability and clear presentation of findings;
independent thinking/working and group/collaborative working.
Study Abroad
Reading Lists
Reading Lists
Anderson, Susan C. (2002) ¿Outsiders, Foreigners and Aliens in Cinematic or Literary Narratives
by Bohm, Dische, Dörrie, and Ören¿, in The German Quarterly, volume 75, number 2, Spring
2002, pp. 144-159.
Bergfelder, Tim, Carter, Erica, and Gokturk, Deniz (eds.), The German Cinema Book (London:
BFI, 2002).
Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London: Routledge,
2006).
Butler, Judith Undoing Gender (New York: Routledge, 2004).
Clark, Christopher (2007) Transculturation, Transe Sexuality, and Turkish Germany: Kutlu¿
Ataman's Lola und Bilidikid¿, in German Life and Letters, volume 59, issue 4, pp. 555-572.
Dawson, Leanne (2012) ¿Aimée, Jaguar and Butlerian Gender Melancholia¿, in Studies in
European Cinema, November 2012, pp. 35-52.
De Lauretis, Teresa (1988) ¿Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation¿, in Theatre
Journal, volume 40, number 2, May 1998, pp. 155 ¿ 177.
Dyer, Richard, White: Essays on Race and Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 1997).
Fest, Kerstin (2012) ¿Yesterday and/or Today: Time, History and Desire in Christa Winsloe¿s
Mädchen in Uniform¿, in German Life and Letters, volume 65, issue 4,October 2012, pp. 457 ¿
471.
Gökturk, Deniz ¿Turkish Delight ¿ Migrant Fright: Migrant Identities in Transnational Cinema¿, in
Deniz Derman, Karen Ross and Nevena Dakovic (eds.) Mediated Identities (Istanbul: Bilgi
University Press, 2001).
Isenberg, Noah, Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2009).
Kuzniar, Alice, The Queer German Cinema (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
Lewis, Rachel (2012) ¿Towards a Transnational Lesbian Cinema¿, in Journal of Lesbian Studies
volume 16, issue 3, pp. 273-290.
Meyer, Veronika (2012) ¿Lesbian Classics in Germany? A Film Historical Analysis of Mädchen in
Uniform (1931 and 1958)¿, in Journal of Lesbian Studies, volume 16, issue 3, pp. 340-353.
Monaco, James, How to Read a Film: The world of Movies, Media, and Multimedia: Language,
History, Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Mulvey, Laura, Visual and Other Pleasures (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Neale, Steve ¿Masculinity as Spectacle¿, in Cohan, Steven, and Hark, Ina Rae (eds.) Screening
the Male (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 9 - 20.
Rich, B. Ruby (1981) ¿Mädchen in Uniform: From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation¿, in
Jump Cut, volume 24-25, March, pp. 44-50.
Schwarzer, Alice, Simone de Beauvoir ¿ Ein Lesebuch mit Bildern (Berlin: dtv, 1984).
Tapinc, Husseyin ¿Masculinity, Femininity and Turkish Male Homosexuality¿, in Modern
Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experience, ed, Plummer, Ken (London:
Routledge, 1992), pp. 39 ¿ 51.
Whatling, Clare, Screen Dreams: Fantasising Lesbians in Film (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1997).
LLC BoS 20 March 2013
LLC BoS 20 March 2013