Sex and Cinema

Rani Neutill, PhD

Fall 2014

MW 12-12:50, Sections Thurs12-12:50, Mandel G03

Three film screenings Monday night, 6:30-8 Mandel G03

Office Hours: Rabb, 135 Wednesday1:30-3:30

syllabus subject to change

TFs, office hours TBD

Megan Finch,

Betty Jean Curran,

Brendan Trombly,

Course Description:

Explicit sexuality on screen has titillated viewers and courted controversy since the invention of the silverscreen. This class will provide an historical overview and introduction to the history of sexuality in the cinema through examining the different conditions via which sex, gender, race and sexuality have been made palpable in the moving image. We will follow Hollywood cinema from the pre-production code era to the present in order to examine how sex has shaped its history. Questions to consider: How has the media shaped our conceptions of sex and sexuality? How does race and sexuality determine our desires and expectations of the cinematic screen? What does our fascination and anxieties about pornography tell us about our culture? How does screening sex influence our desires, identifications and even our hatred? How has obscenity contested the freedom of speech? How does cinema “screen” sex?

Course Requirements:

Learning is an active process of exploring, interpreting, analyzing, discussing, and writing; and the grading criteria for this course reflect the importance of both process and product. Thus, the requirements for this course are designed to facilitate this structure and are as follows. Students are responsible for all information disseminated in class and all course requirements, including deadlines and activities. Requirements: All assignments must be completed to pass the course.

Participation/Attendance:

Lecture: As much as possible of the “lecture” time, in addition to the recitation time, of this course will be interactive. During the lecture portion, there will be activities that involve group work and in-class writings. Additionally, there will be events during the lecture time that require your presence. We encourage you to speak up as much as possible during class. We understand that some of you may feel shy about doing so, therefore, there will be activities that are in small groups to encourage your active participation and contribution. Attendance will be taken at lecture – missing more than 3 lectures will jeopardize your grade.

Discussion Sections: Participation and attendance is also required for discussion sections. Discussion sections are an opportunity to engage the readings in small active groups. To improve your learning, you may be asked to summarize articles, share discussion questions, and/or facilitate class. Your teaching instructors will provide further information on your activities in discussion section.

Laptops: Students who feel as though they absolutely need their computers in class (for instance, students with disabilities) you must sit in the front rows. We will be monitoring to make sure that you are actually writing notes and engaging in class discussion. Read this for more information about laptops in the classroom.

Course requirements:

Attendance and participation: 20%

A short (2 pages) response paper to a specific scene in one movie due Sept 23: 15%

A longer (3-5 pages) paper on the Production Code and the representation/construction of sexuality due Oct 30: 20%

A final paper (5-7 pages) that uses two or more of our theoretical readings to address the issue of sex/sexuality/race in two of the movies we have studied due Dec 8: 30%

In class pop quizzes: 20%

Texts (available at the Brandeis bookstore)

Linda Williams, Screening Sex

Films and Secondary Readings

Both the readings and the movies will be available on LATTE; there will also be THREE MANDATORY (Casablanca, 9 ½ Weeks, Jungle Fever)public screenings of three movies on Monday nights, 6:30-8 in Mandel G03.

General information

Please let me know if you go by a name or identity different than the one in the university records.

Academic dishonesty: This includes cheating on assignments, plagiarizing (misrepresenting as your own work any work that has been written by another author), and submitting the same paper or substantially similar paper to meet the requirements of more than one course without the approval of all the instructors concerned. The instructor will report such dishonesty. It is grounds for failure in the course. DO NOT COPY MATERIAL OFF OF WEBSITES ON THE NET. While we live in a interconnected world, what constitutes plagiarism is using other people’s ideas without citation or recognition. For more information you can visit this website:

If you need academic accommodations because of a documented disability you should contact me, and present your letter of accommodation, as soon as possible. Letters of accommodations should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations.Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.

Calendar:

August 28th: Introductions

September 1: No Class

Pre-code and the Vulgar

  • September 3: DeMille, The Cheat (1915); “The Rape Fantasy: The Cheat and Broken Blossoms,” Marchetti
  • Sept 4: in class screening TBD

The Code: Circumventing Sex

  • Sept 8: Capra, It Happened One Night (1934); The Production Code
  • Sept 10: Capra, It Happened One Night (1934)
  • SECTION Sept 11: It Happened One Night (1934); Introduction, Screening Sex
  • Sept15: Curtiz, Casablanca (1942); Chapter One, Screening Sex

Screening of Casablanca, 6:30-8 Mandel G03

  • Sept 17: Curtiz, Casablanca (1942)
  • SECTION Sept 18: Curtiz, Casablanca (1942), Chapter One, Screening Sex
  • September 22: Minnelli,Tea and Sympathy (1956); Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 pgs 1-75
  • SECTION! Thursday Schedule!
  • Sept 23: Minnelli, Tea and Sympathy (1956); Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 pgs 1-75
  • Sept24: Minnelli, Tea and Sympathy (1956)
  • Sept 25: no class
  • Sept 29: Mankiewicz, Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet, selections
  • October 1 :Mankiewicz, Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
  • SECTION, Oct 2: Mankiewicz, Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet, selections, Paper one due
  • October 6: Gordon, Pillow Talk (1959); Meyer, “Rock Hudson’s Body”
  • October 8: Gordon, Pillow Talk(1959)
  • October 9: No Class
  • SECTION, Thursday Schedule! October 13:Powell, Peeping Tom (1960); Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
  • October 15: Powell, Peeping Tom (1960); Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
  • October 16: no class
  • October 20:Hitchcock, Psycho (1960); Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (selections)
  • October 22: Hitchcock, Psycho (1960)
  • SECTION October 23: Hitchcock, Psycho (1960); Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (selections)

Breaking Boundaries/Queering Cinema

  • October 27:Anger, Scorpio Rising (1963); Warhol, Blow Job (1964); Janet Staiger. “Finding Community in the Early 1960s: Underground Cinema and Sexual Politics," in Swinging Single: Representing Sexuality in the 1960s, pp. 38-74.
  • October 29:Anger, Scorpio Rising (1963); Warhol, Blow Job (1964); Chapter 2, Screening Sex
  • SECTION October 30: Anger, Scorpio Rising (1963); Warhol, Blow Job (1964); Janet Staiger. “Finding Community in the Early 1960s: Underground Cinema and Sexual Politics," in Swinging Single: Representing Sexuality in the 1960s, pp. 38-74, paper two due

End of The Code, Swinging Sexuality

  • November 3:The Boys in the Band (1970); William Scroggie, “Producing Identity: From The Boys in the Band to Gay Liberation.” In The Queer Sixties. Ed. Patricia Juliana Smith, pp. 237-254.
  • November 5:The Boys in the Band (1970);Chapter 3, Screening Sex
  • SECTION November 6: The Boys in the Band (1970)William Scroggie, “Producing Identity: From The Boys in the Band to Gay Liberation.” In The Queer Sixties. Ed. Patricia Juliana Smith, pp. 237-254; Chapter 2, Screening Sex

Hardcore, Soft-core

  • November 10:clips from Damiano, Deep Throat (1972); Lyne, 9 ½ Weeks (1986); Kipnis, “How to Look at Pornography,” Andrews, “Soft vs. Hard”

Screening of 9 ½ Weeks, 6:30-8, Mandel G03

  • November 12:clips from Damiano, Deep Throat (1972); Lyne, 9 ½ Weeks (1986); Kipnis, “How to Look at Pornography,” Andrews, “Soft vs. Hard”
  • SECTION November 13: clips from Damiano, Deep Throat (1972); Lyne, 9 ½ Weeks (1986); Kipnis, “How to Look at Pornography,” Andrews, “Soft vs. Hard”

Race, Sex, and the Politics of Desire

  • November 17:Lee, Jungle Fever (1991); Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film, Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1993. 69-111Screening of Jungle Fever, 6:30-8, Mandel G03
  • November 19:Lee, Jungle Fever (1991); hooks, “selling hot pussy”
  • SECTION November 20: November 17: Lee, Jungle Fever (1991); Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film, Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1993. 69-111

Race and Celibacy-core

  • November 24:Vampires/Race/Sex/Taboo: True Blood/Twilight (2008):

Read Latoya, Peterson, “Vampires, and the Slits and Virgins who Love Them,” The Slate. July 10, 2009.

Read Racialicious on vampires and race

November 26: No class

November 27: No class

Classic, Canonical Queer

  • December 1: Lee, Brokeback Mountain (2005); D. A. Miller, “On the Universality of Brokeback Mountain”
  • December 3: Mitchell, Shortbus (2006); Chapter 6, Screening Sex
  • SECTION December 4: Lee, Brokeback Mountain (2005); D. A. Miller, “On the Universality of Brokeback Mountain”

New Media: Disembodied Voice, Disembodied Sex

  • December 8: Her (2013); Lyotard, "Can Thought Go On Without at Body?” final paper due