2014
HL 316/HL3016—Gender and Sexuality Studies
(Cinema and Embodiment)
Instructor Information
Module Coordinator: Brian Bergen-Aurand
Office: 14 Nanyang Ave. (HSS 03-60)
Telephone: 6790-5381
Email: brian@ntu.edu.sg
Office Hours: Monday & Thursday 12:30-2:30
Module Description
This course addresses the intersection of gender, sexuality, embodiment, and the cinema
through a functional (rather than representational) framework. It approaches this intersection
through the functions of desire & disgust, ideals and norms, sex, carnality, anatomy, pathology,
location in time & place, ability, status, race, class, ethnicity, and transnational relations between
bodies in film and on film. Throughout the semester, we will consider the rhetoric of mainstream
and independent, transnational and local filmmaking and other visual arts in order to ask after the
wondrous, the sentimental, the exotic, the realistic, the inscrutable, and the repulsive in regard to
different bodies and embodiment. More than just looking at “images of…” and “identities,” we
will concentrate on theories of the production and perpetration of the bodies we see and how we
see them in the light of the personal and institutional structures that regulate which bodies matter
and which do not matter. Our goal is to put these concepts and conceptualizations into play and
learn from their intersections rather than pre-determine and dictate how they should behave.
Print Texts
Required Readings:
Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan, 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies (Sage, 2004).
Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film (Longman, 2010).
Recommended Readings:
Chris Beasley, Gender & Sexuality: Critical Theories, Critical Thinkers (Sage, 2005).
Recommended Readings with Local Focus:
WTF! Zine.
Mandakini Arora, ed., Small Steps, Giant Leaps: A History of AWARE and the Women’s
Movement in Singapore (AWARE, 2007).
Jerome Kugan and Pang Khee Teik, eds., Body 2 Body: A Malaysian Queer Anthology
(Matahari, 2009).
Ng Yi-Sheng, Dominic Chua, Irene Oh, and Jasmine Seah, eds., GASPP: A Gay
Anthology of Singaporean Poetry and Prose (The Literary Centre, 2010).
Ng Yi-Sheng, Jason Wee, ed., SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (Oogachaga,
2006).
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2014
Additional Readings may be excerpted from the following texts:
Michele Aaron, ed., New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader (Rutgers, 2004).
---, Spectatorship: The Power of Looking On (Wallflower, 2007).
Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Duke, 2006).
Rachel Adams and David Savran, eds., The Masculinity Studies Reader (Blackwell,
2002).
Bad Object-Choices, ed., How Do I Look: Queer Film and Video (Bay Press, 1991).
Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin, Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film
in America (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006).
Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, eds., Queer Cinema, The Film Reader (Routledge,
2004).
Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (California,
1995).
Steven Bruhm and Natasha Hurley, eds., Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children
(Minnesota, 2004).
Rosemary Buikema and Iris Van Dertuin, eds., Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture
(Routledge 2007/2009).
Paul Burston and Colin Richardson, eds., A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and
Popular Culture (Routledge, 1995).
Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (Routledge, 1993).
---, Gender Trouble (Routledge, 1999/2006).
---, Undoing Gender (Routledge, 2004).
Tina Chanter, The Picture of Abjection: Film, Fetish, and the Nature of Difference
(Indiana, 2008).
---, Time, Death, and the Feminine: Levinas with Heidegger (Stanford, 2002).
Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Signs (1976).
---, The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia
(Nebraska, 1994).
Eli Claire, Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation (South End, 1999).
Julie F. Codell, ed., Genre, Gender, Race, and World Cinema (Blackwell, 2007).
Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty, eds., Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer
Essays on Popular Culture (Duke, 1995).
Richard Dyer (and Julianne Pidduck), Now You See It: Studies in Lesbian and Gay Film
(Routledge, 1990/2003).
Lee Edelman, Homographesis: Essays in Gay Literary and Culture (Routledge, 1994).
---, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Duke, 2004).
Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body (Basic Books, 2001).
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vintage, 1978).
Kenny Fries, Body, Remember: A Memoir (Wisconsin, 2003).
Terry Galloway, Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir (Beacon, 2010).
Sam B. Girgus, Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption: Time, Ethics, and the Feminine
(Columbia, 2010).
Elizabeth Grosz and Elspeth Probyn, eds., Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of
Feminism (Routledge, 1995).
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2014
Judith Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives
(NYU, 2005).
Donald E. Hall, Reading Sexualities: Hermeneutic Theory and the Future of Queer
Studies (Routledge, 2009).
Ellis Hanson, ed., Outtakes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film (Duke, 1999).
Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (Routledge,
1990).
Cressida J. Heyes, Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies
(Oxford, 2007).
Thea Hillman, Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) (Manic D, 2008).
Luce Irigaray, Ethics of Sexual Difference (Cornell, 1993).
Claire Katz, Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine (Indiana, 2003).
Julia Kristeva, “Women’s Time,” Signs (1981).
Tanya Krzywinska, Sex and the Cinema (Wallflower, 2006).
Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, eds., The Gender/Sexuality Reader:
Culture, History, Political Economy (Routledge, 1997).
Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, eds., Critical Terms for Literary Study
(Chicago, 1990/1995).
Fran Martin and Larissa Heinrich, eds., Embodied Modernities: Corporeality,
Representation, and Chinese Cultures (Hawai’i, 2006).
Robert McRuer, Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (NYU, 2006).
Robert McRuer and Abby L. Wilkerson, eds., GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay
Studies (Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies) Vol. 9,
numbers 1-2, 2003.
Phil Powrie, Anne Davies, and Bruce Babbington, eds., The Trouble with Men:
Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema (Wallflower, 2004).
Geetha Ramanathan, Feminist Auteurs: Reading Women’s Films (Wallflower, 2006).
The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality (Routledge, 1992).
Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell, Cultural Locations of Disability (Chicago,
2006).
Jackie Stacey and Sarah Street, eds., Queer Screen: A Screen Reader (Routledge, 2007).
Kathryn Bond Stockton, Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame: Where “Black” Meets
“Queer” (Duke, 2006).
Susan Stryker, The Transgender Reader (Routledge, 2003).
Nikki Sullivan, A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory (New York University, 2003).
Matthew Tinkcom, Working Like a Homosexual: Camp, Capital, Cinema (Duke, 2002).
Patricia Waugh, ed., Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford, 2006).
Film Texts
The following films may be considered whole or in part throughout the semester:
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994).
All About Eve (USA, Joseph L. Makiewicz, 1950).
All About My Mother (Spain/France, Pedro Almodovar, 1999).
All that Heaven Allows (USA, Douglas Sirk, 1955).
Angels in America (USA, Mike Nichols, 2003).
As Good As It Gets (USA, James L. Brooks, 1997).
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2014
The Ballad of Little Jo (USA, Maggie Greenwald, 1993).
Bhaji on the Beach (UK, Gurinder Chadha, 1994).
Boys Don’t Cry (USA, Kimberly Peirce, 1999).
Bringing Up Baby (USA, Howard Hawks, 1938).
Brokeback Mountain (Canada/USA, Lee Ang, 2005).
Bugis Street (Singapore, Yonfan, 1994).
By Hook or by Crook (USA, Harriet “Harry” Dodge and Silas Howard, 2001).
The Celluloid Closet (USA, Robert Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, 1995).
The Crying Game (Ireland/UK/Japan, Neil Jordan, 1992).
East Palace, West Palace (China/France, Zhang Yuan, 1997).
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (USA, Lisa Ades & Lesli Klainberg, 2006 ).
Far From Heaven (USA, Todd Haynes, 2002).
Farewell My Concubine (China/Hong Kong, Chen Kaige, 1993).
Finding Nemo (USA, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, 2003).
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (USA, Howard Hawks, 1953).
Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (USA, Andrew Repasky McElhinney, 2003).
Ghost in the Shell (Japan, Mamoru Oshii, 1996).
Gilda (USA, Charles Vidor, 1946).
Go Fish (USA, Rose Troche, 1994).
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (USA, John Cameron Mitchell, 2001).
I Just Wanted To Be Somebody (USA, Jay Rosenblatt, 2006).
Inception (USA, Christopher Nolan, 2010).
Kiss of the Spider Woman (Brazil/USA, Hector Babenco, 1995).
The Lavender Lens: 100 Years of Celluloid Queers (USA, David Johnson, 1995).
Looking for Langston (UK, Isaac Julien, 1989).
Lust, Caution (China/Taiwan, Lee Ang, 2007).
M. Butterfly (USA, David Cronenberg, 1993).
Man with a Movie Camera (USSR, Dziga Vertov/Elizaveta Svilova/Mikhail Kaufman,
1929).
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japan/New Zealand/UK, Oshima Nagisa, 1983).
Moolaadé (Senegal, Ousmane Sembene, 2004).
Parama (India, Aparna Sen, 1984).
Paris is Burning (USA, Jennie Livingson, 1991).
Period Piece (USA, Jay Rosenblatt & Jennifer Frame, 1996).
Pulp Fiction (USA, Quentin Tarantino, 1994).
Sati (India, Aparna Sen, 1989).
Shortbus (USA, John Cameron Mitchell, 2006).
The Smell of Burning Ants (USA, Jay Rosenblatt, 1994).
Solos (Singapore, Kan Lume and Loo Zhan, 2008).
Some Like it Hot (USA, Billy Wilder, 1959).
Spider Lillies (Taiwan, Zero Chou, 2007).
Taboo (Japan/France/UK, Oshima Nagisa, 2000).
Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back (USA, David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder, 1995).
Xala (Senegal, Ousmane Sembene, 1974).
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2014
Course Assessment
Continuous Evaluation
Engagement
Responses
Discussions
Final Exam
50%
50%
100%
Engagement
The bulk of your continuous assessment in this course will be based on your
engagement with the material and the ideas of your colleagues in class. This module is
not a lecture-based module. Rather, it is structured around short
reading/screening/research/discussion assignments due each week. You will choose the
question(s) that most interests you, select readings and screenings to concentrate on, write
concise responses to those readings and screenings, and then discuss your responses in
the light of others’ responses during class time.
A reading/screening/research/discussion template will be made available to help
guide you through the process.
This structure means that you will determine a good deal of the content and
direction of the course. The more you engage in that cooperative determination, the
more you will get out of this course. Good Luck!
Final Exam
Exam specifics will be discussed later in the semester.
Plagiarism and collusion are not acceptable. Evidence of undocumented use of sources or
unauthorized collaboration will incur heavy grade penalties and may result in failure of this
module.
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2014
Module Schedule
[You should prepare to respond to any 1 reading and any 1 screening per week.]
Week
Topic
Desire and Embodiment

Readings and Screenings
WTF! Zine.





Casablanca
Bringing Up Baby
Some Like it Hot
The Crying Game
Farewell my Concubine
1
2
3
Gender:

Female/Feminine/Femininity


Gender:
Male/Masculine/Masculinity


Leonardo & Lancaster, “Introduction: Embodied
Meanings, Carnal Practices”
Rose, “Sexuality in the Field of Vision”
Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and
Excess”
Butler, “Desire”
Bordo, “Unbearable Weight”





Craig’s Wife
All About Eve
All that Heaven Allows
Far From Heaven
All About My Mother



Adams & Savran, “Introduction to Masculinity
Studies”
Tuss, “Deconstructing and Reconstructing
Masculinity”
Fausto-Sterling, “How to Build a Man”
Powrie, Babington, and Davies, “Introduction:
Turning the Male Inside Out”
Dowsett & Carbado, “Differences”
Connell, “History of Masculinity”





Kiss of the Spiderwoman
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
M. Butterfly
Brokeback Mountain
Tasuma (Great African Films—Vol. 2)



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2014
4—5—6
Sexuality: Heterosexuality & 
Homosexuality




Race, Class, and Nation





Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Love, Actually
Lust, Caution
Moolaadé

Heng & Devan, “State Fatherhood: The Politics
of Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race in
Singapore”
Gopinath, “Nostaligia, Desire, Diaspora: South
Asian Sexualities in Motion”
Boellstrorff, “The Perfect Path: Gay Men,
Marriage, Indonesia”
Marchetti, “The Wedding Banquet: Global
Chinese Cinema and the Asian American
Experience”
7








8
Foucault, “We Other Victorians”
Rich, “Form Repressive Tolerance to Erotic
Liberation”
Kinsman, “The Creation of Homosexuality as a
‘Social Problem’”
Sullivan, “Queering ‘Straight’ Sex”
Smelik, “Lara Croft, Kill Bill, and the Battle for
Theory in Feminist Film Studies”
Babel
Smoke Signals
The Wedding Banquet
Bhaji on the Beach
My Magic
Reading Week
7
2014
9
Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies, and 
the Post-Human


A Queer Time
10
A Queer Place
11
Haraway, “Cyborg Manifesto” and other
selections (see website)
Wolfe, from What is Posthumanism?
Boomen, “Hacking Barbie in Gendered
Computer Culture”






Man with a Movie Camera
Ghost in the Shell
T2
Blade Runner
Aliens
Inception



Doty, “There’s Something Queer Here”
Dyer, “From and For the Movement”
Erhart, “Laura Mulvey Meets Catherine Tramell
Meets the She-Man”





The Celluloid Closet
Fabulous!: The Story of Queer Cinema
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
My Beautiful Laundrette
Spider Lilies


Edelman, from No Future
Hall, from Reading Sexualities

The Lavender Lens: 100 Years of Celluloid
Queers
Looking for Langston
Go Fish
Poison
East Palace, West Palace
Solos





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2014
In a Trans Time and Place
12




Disability Studies
13
Crip Theory





Finding Nemo
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Boys Don’t Cry
By Hook or By Crook
Bugis Street





Davis, “Enforcing Normalcy”
Snyder and Mitchell, “Body Genres and
Disability Sensations”
Enns, from Screening Disability
Norden, from Cinema of Isolation
Chivers and Markotic, from The Problem Body





Angels in America
Freaks
The Elephant Man
The Idiots
Be with Me

Shapiro, “Introduction: You Just Don’t
Understand”
McRuer, “As Good as it Gets”
Fries, “Disability Made me do it, or Modeling
for the Cause”
Luczak, “It’s All in the Eye: A Deaf Gay Man
Remembers His Icons”
14








15-17
Halberstam, “Boys Will Be Bois”
Sullivan, “Transsexual Empires and
Transgender Warriors”
Benshoff & Green, from Queer Images
Bruhm & Hurley, Curiouser: On the Queerness
of Children
As Good as it Gets
Vital Signs
Breaking the Waves
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Sea Inside
Revision & Examination
9