French Feminisms on Screen

In this course we will investigate the aesthetics and politics of Francophone feminist media. We will examine critical discourses on women’s oppression, including the ways in which such discourses have shaped gender and sexual politics as well as the frameworks of feminist analysis. After an in-depth exploration of some of the foundational concepts of feminist media studies, we will look at non-normative representations of gender and sexuality in modern Francophone visual culture. In the second half of the semester we will turn our attention to the ways in which Francophone feminist media depicts the intersections of gender with race, migration, social class, and reproductive rights with the aim to problematize liberal feminist articulations of consent, agency, and labor. Training and assessment will focus on visual literacy and media analysis in the form of critical and creative assignments.