120155 PS Interdisziplinärer Kurs (501) = Proseminar Cultural Studies (2011S)

In this seminar we will look at the intersection of gender studies and visual culture via a focus on the representation of masculinities in popular movies made in Hollywood since the 1990s.

Working on a selection of readings, we will familiarize ourselves with relevant theory regarding the construction of masculinity as gender in and by popular cinema. We will pay particular attention to Laura Mulvey's and Steve Neale's work on the 'male gaze'; to the notion of performativity in its most influential formulation by Judith Butler; and on more recent work on spectatorship in popular cinema. In addition, we will read a selection of critical texts in film studies and cultural studies which, applying these theoretical models, have analyzed Hollywood genres and movies for their constructions of masculinities, esp. on the action cinema (e.g. Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series, 1988-2007), on 'hard body' movies of the 1980s and 1990s (Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger), on authenticity in (anti-)war movies (such as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, 1998, or more recently, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, 2008), but also recent work on masculinity and melodrama (as in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, 2003) and female masculinity (e.g. Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry, 1999, and Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, 2004).

Most importantly, we will put theory to practice by watching and discussing in detail selected excerpts from these exemplary movies, not only to analyze these for their representations of hegemonic or alternative masculinities, but also to test and critique the theoretical notions as well as the critical reviews and analyses we are working with. Doing so, we will arrive at questions such as, are the masculinities represented always necessarily nostalgic and politically conservative? Who has a what kind of vested interest in saying that they are not and that they are? How ambiguous or even problematic is the pleasure we invest as spectators, or even fans, of such movies? What happens when this pleasure enters the classroom? What is at stake critically when we 'study' the 'representation of masculinity' in popular movies?