ASIAN 3331 - Gender and Sexuality in Southeast Asian Cinema

(crosslisted)
(also FGSS 3331, PMA 3431)(GB) (LA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

A. Fuhrmann.

This course examines the new cinemas of Southeast Asia and their engagement withcontemporary discourses of gender and sexuality. It pays special attention to the ways in which sexuality and gendered embodiment are at present linked to citizenship and to other forms of belonging. Focusing on globally circulating Southeast Asian films of the past 15 years, the course draws on current writings from feminism, Buddhist studies, affect theory, queer studies, postcolonial theory, and film studies to ask what new understandings of subjectivity might emerge from these cinemas and their political contexts. Films will be drawn from both mainstream and independent cinema and will include the work of directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Danny and Oxide Pang, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Yau Ching, Thunska Pansittivorakul, Garin Nugroho, and Jean-Jacques Annaud. (SC)