THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - German

Undergraduate Course: From Girls in Uniform to Men in Drag: Gender, Sexuality and Ethnicity on the German Screen (Ordinary) (ELCG09010)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis 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 student's 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.
Course description 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 e.g. 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

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 student's responses to fictional exam questions (in place of past papers); student queries.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNon-honours and Visiting Students should be enrolled on the SCQF Level 9 course variant. Advanced knowledge of spoken and written German and the ability to study German literature in the original language is recommended. Ideally, prior experience of university-level German literature courses.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
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.
Reading List
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).






Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills critical/analytical thinking;
presentational skills: oral and written;
research ability and clear presentation of findings;
independent thinking/working and group/collaborative working.
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Leanne Dawson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3644
Email: Leanne.Dawson@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Gillian Paterson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3646
Email: Gillian.Paterson@ed.ac.uk
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