Female Screens: Representation, Agency and Authorship (EAF3106)

30 credits

In the wake of the Weinstein scandal and the controversial Time’s Up movement, this module will enable you to engage directly with urgent questions of gender, power and representation in screen media. It explores women and British and American screens from the silent era to contemporary media industries, critically examining women’s roles before on and behind the screen. You will consider how women as both creators and subjects of the cinematic and televisual gaze have navigated challenges of representation and creative agency, looking at case studies that range from Lois Weber’s silent film work to Beyoncé Knowles’ 2016 visual album Lemonade. You will encounter chronological case studies of filmmakers, showrunners and female-centred narratives within their respective cultural and industrial contexts, and interrogate interconnected questions of age, ethnicity, and sexuality through a range of classical and cutting edge critical writings.