勛圖惇蹋

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勛圖惇蹋 College
First-Year Experience

Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Gender Benders

Instructor(s): Michael Mudrovic, Foreign Languages and Literatures

Description: How do novelists and filmmakers depict gender and sexuality? In this sentence, students will compare these themes in the works of two artists from different eras and manifesting distinct aesthetic tendencies, the playwright Federico Garcia Lorca and the filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, who both question the construction of gender in their works. By alternative Lorcas plays with Almodovars films, students in this seminar will examine various aspects of and perspectives on masculinity and femininity. Students will do readings in and discuss issues of modernity vs. post-modernity; the genres of film and theatre; homosexuality, lesbianism, and heterosexuality; parents and family structures; transvestism and transsexuality; dress and gesture; and psychoanalytic theory. Students will also gain a background in modern Spanish history from the Franco era to the present, with emphasis on the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Note: The films we will watch contain scenes of nudity and violence that may be offensive to some students. Also, students must view the films during the fourth hour outside of the classroom.

Course Offered