Spotlight on Feminist Media Studies
This year for Women’s History Month, we are highlighting feminist media studies. Feminist media studies is a discipline that applies feminist approaches to the fields of media and communication studies. This guide will provide you with resources for researching in this field—we have curated journals, academic books, and textbooks in the area. We have also created overviews of some common, related media studies terms that you might use in your everyday life including the Bechdel Test, the Male Gaze, and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Explore this guide to lean about the origins of these concepts alongside criticism of these terms.
We have also included non-academic sources such as blogs, substacks, films, and television. These sources, along with scholarly selections, often incorporate intersectional approaches to the field of Feminist Media Studies including queer theory and critical race theory.
See below for a list of events/ways to experience (feminist) media at IU and in Bloomington:
- IU Cinema:
- Cicada Cinema: a pop-up movie theater in Bloomington, IN with the mission of providing high-quality screenings of underrepresented cinema—the old, the new, and the locally created. Volunteer run and community driven, Cicada Cinema aims to create an independent space for film and film lovers.
Images: Filmmakers/directors (from left to right), Jessie Maple, Greta Gerwig, Ava DuVernay, Chloé Zhao, and Jane Campion.
Feminist Media Studies by
Feminist Media Studies provides a transdisciplinary, transnational forum for researchers pursuing feminist approaches to the field of media and communication studies, with attention to the historical, philosophical, cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions and analysis of sites including print and electronic media, film and the arts, and new media technologies. Feminist Media Studies especially encourages submissions based on original, empirical inquiry of the social experiences of audiences, citizens, workers, etc. and how these are structured by political, economic and cultural circumstances. The journal invites contributions from feminist researchers working across a range of disciplines and conceptual perspectives.
Camera Obscura by Camera Obscura provides a forum for scholarship and debate on feminism, culture, and media studies. The journal encourages contributions in areas such as the conjunctions of gender, race, class, and sexuality with audiovisual culture; new histories and theories of film, television, video, and digital media; and politically engaged approaches to a range of media practices.
differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies first appeared in 1989 at the moment of a critical encounter—a head-on collision, one might say—of theories of difference (primarily Continental) and the politics of diversity (primarily American). In the ensuing years, the journal has established a critical forum where the problematic of differences is explored in texts ranging from the literary and the visual to the political and social. differences highlights theoretical debates across the disciplines that address the ways concepts and categories of difference—notably but not exclusively gender—operate within culture.
Another Gaze by Another Gaze is a feminist film journal, founded in January 2016 to provide nuanced criticism about women and queers as filmmakers, protagonists and spectators. See also: Another Gaze Editions, a new publishing imprint created by Missouri Williams and Daniella Shreir, the editors of Another Gaze. The imprint focuses on new translations and editions of works of fiction and non-fiction by women filmmakers, by women writers whose texts were the basis for well-known films, collections of writing by women film critics from around the world, and monographs of single films and filmmakers
Feminist Media Histories by Feminist Media Histories publishes original research, oral histories, primary documents, conference reports, and archival news on radio, television, film, video, digital technologies, and other media across a range of historical periods and global contexts. Inter-medial and trans-national in its approach, Feminist Media Histories examines the historical role gender has played in varied media technologies, and documents women’s engagements with these media as audiences, users and consumers, creators and executives, critics, writers and theorists, technicians and laborers, educators, activists, and librarians.
Feminist Encounters : A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics Founded in 2017, Feminist Encounters is a journal committed to argument and debate, in the tradition of historical feminist movements. In the wake of the growing rise of the Right across the world, openly neo-fascist national sentiments, and rising conservative populism, we feminists all over the world are needing to remobilise our energies to protect and advance gender rights. Feminist Encounters provides a forum for feminist theorists, scholars, and activists to communicate with each other, to better educate ourselves on international issues and thus promote more global understanding, and to enhance our critical tools for fighting for human rights.Women: a cultural reiew
Women: a cultural review explores the role and representation of gender and sexuality in arts and culture, with a particular focus on the contemporary world. The journal analyses the theory and politics of sexual difference in literature, the media, history, education, law, philosophy, psychoanalysis and the performing and visual arts. The journal has two Special Issues a year, and one Open Forum. In addition to articles, each issue has a substantial review section and a listings section for new and recent titles in the field of gender and culture. The journal also regularly features interviews with figures who have made particularly significant interventions in current debates about gender and feminism. Articles are invited for Special Issues and the Open Forum from both male and female contributors.Women's Studies in Communication
Women's Studies in Communication ( WSIC ) provides a feminist forum for diverse research, reviews, and commentary addressing the relationships between communication and gender. WSIC invites contributions that advance our understanding of the intersections of gender and race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, sexuality, and class, as well as the articulations between gendered performances, power, and representation in public culture. Topically and methodologically inclusive, WSIC publishes quantitative, qualitative, and critical communication scholarship drawing from a variety of areas including but not limited to interpersonal, organizational, performance, rhetoric, media, and cultural studies. The editor is committed to promoting the best work that falls within these parameters and also to encouraging the development of new voices and new projects that challenge conventions guiding communication scholarship. Feminist studies concerning queer and transgender politics, masculinity, dis/ability, labor, transnationalism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory are especially encouraged at this time.Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory
Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory publishes scholarly essays from interdisciplinary feminist perspectives. For us, “women” and “performance” denote not simply what we study but how we study it—that is, not preconceived objects of analysis, but rather an open assembly of political, ethical, and aesthetic orientations, feminism chief among them. We encourage dialogues among various fields of performance scholarship, including theater and performance studies, dance studies, music history and criticism, ethnography, new and digital media, cinema studies, and cultural studies; as well as queer, critical race, and post- and decolonial theory. Working with/in this disciplinary hybridity, we explore critiques of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, dis/ability, technology, nation, and capitalism.Media Report to Women
Media Report to Women stands alone in providing information on all types of media—television, cable, film, radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the Internet and other emerging media—and the way in which they depict women and issues of interest to women. Founded in 1972, Media Report to Women pioneered discussion of the ways in which advertising, print and TV journalism, and entertainment programming depict the lives of women. We also report on how audiences respond to those images, and what effects these images have on women and girls, men and boys.
Feminist Film Theory by ISBN: 0814782442Publication Date: 1999-04-01Maps the major developments and debates in feminist film theory. For the past twenty-five years, cinema has been a vital terrain on which feminist debates about culture, representation, and identity have been fought. This anthology charts the history of those debates, bringing together the key, classic essays in feminist film theory. Feminist Film Theory maps the impact of major theoretical developments on this growing field-from structuralism and psychoanalysis in the 1970s, to post-colonial theory, queer theory, and postmodernism in the 1990s. Covering a wide range of topics, including oppressive images, "woman" as fetishized object of desire, female spectatorship, and the cinematic pleasures of black women and lesbian women, Feminist Film Theory is an indispensable reference for scholars and students in the field.
Feminist Media Studies by ISBN: 9781509524471Publication Date: 2019-12-04Feminist Media Studies is a cutting-edge introduction to the core and emerging theories, methods, and approaches in a field that has blossomed over the past twenty-five years. Adopting an intersectional approach—a framework concerning the interconnected character of oppression based on gender, race, class, and other constructed identities—Alison Harvey takes a global view of gendered practices in and around the media. She provides an accessible overview of classical and contemporary issues in media culture by exploring the past, present, and future of feminist media studies, accounting for changes in the media landscape, from digital technologies and globalized media systems to emergent inequalities, discourses, and practices. By engaging with research from a diverse body of scholarship, this book situates feminist media studies as vital to researching and analyzing a range of significant issues. The go-to textbook for a new generation of students, as well as an important resource for scholars, Feminist Media Studies is both an exciting invitation to the field and a passionate call to arms.
Women Artists, Feminism and the Moving Image: Contexts and Practices by ISBN: 9781350203112Publication Date: 2020-11-26A diverse range of leading scholars, activists, archivists and artists explore the histories, practices and concerns of women making film and video across the world, from the pioneering German animator Lotte Reiniger, to the influential African American filmmaker Julie Dash, and the provocative Scottish contemporary artist Rachel Maclean. Opening with a foreword from the film theorist Laura Mulvey and a poem by the artist filmmaker Lis Rhodes, the book traces the legacies of early feminist interventions into the moving image and the ways in which these have been re-configured in the very different context of today. Reflecting and building upon the practices of recuperation that continue to play a vital role in feminist art practice and scholarship, contributors discuss topics such as how multiculturalism is linked to experimental and activist film history, the function and nature of the essay film, feminist curatorial practices and much more. This book transports readers across diverse cultural contexts and geographical contours, addressing complex narratives of subjectivity, representation and labour, while juxtaposing cultures of film, video and visual arts practice often held apart.
Feminist Film Studies by ISBN: 9780415575287Publication Date: 2012-08-27Feminist Film Studies is a readable, yet comprehensive textbook for introductory classes in feminist film theory and criticism. Karen Hollinger provides an accessible overview of women's representation and involvement in film, complemented by analyses of key texts that illustrate major topics in the field. Key areas include: a brief history of the development of feminist film theory the theorization of the male gaze and the female spectator women in genre films and literary adaptations, the female biopic feminism and avant-garde and documentary film, women as auteurs, lesbian representation, women in Third Cinema. Each chapter includes a "Films in Focus" section, which analyzes key texts related to the chapter's major topic, including examples from classical Hollywood, world cinema, and the contemporary period. This book provides students in both film and gender/women's studies with a clear introduction to the field of feminist film theory and criticism.
Feminist Media by ISBN: 9783837621570Publication Date: 2012-09-27While feminists have long recognised the importance of self-managed, alternative media to transport their messages, to challenge the status quo, and to spin novel social processes, this topic has been an under-researched area. Hence, this book explores the processes of women's and feminist media production in the context of participatory spaces, technology, and cultural citizenship. The collection is composed of theoretical analyses and critical case studies. It highlights contemporary alternative feminist media in general as well as blogs, zines, culture jamming, and street art.
Independent Female Filmmakers by ISBN: 9780815373049Publication Date: 2019-01-11Independent Female Filmmakers collects original and previously published essays, interviews, and manifestos from some of the most defining and groundbreaking independent female filmmakers of the last 40 years. Featuring material from the seminal magazine The Independent Film and Video Monthly—a leading publication for independent filmmakers for several decades—as well as new interviews conducted with the filmmakers, this book, edited by Michele Meek, presents a unique perspective into the ethnically and culturally diverse voices of women filmmakers whose films span narrative, documentary, and experimental genres and whose work remains integral to independent film history from the 1970s to the present. Independent Female Filmmakers also includes a biographical profile of each filmmaker, as well as an online resource with links to additional interviews and a sample course syllabus.
Current Perspectives in Feminist Media Studies by ISBN: 9780415540117Publication Date: 2012-09-27Current Perspectives in Feminist Media Studies features contributions written by a diverse group of stellar feminist scholars from around the world. Each contributor has authored a brief, thought-provoking commentary on the current status and future directions of feminist media studies. Although contributors write about numerous, discrete subjects within the field of feminist media studies, their various ideas and concerns can be merged into six broad, overlapping subject areas that allow us to gain a strong sense of the expansive contours of current feminist communication scholarship and activism which the authors have identified as generally illustrative of the field. Specifically, authors encourage feminist media scholars to engage with issues of political economy, new ICTs and cybercultures as well as digital media policy, media and identity, sexuality and sexualization, and postfeminism. They stress that feminist media scholars must broaden and deepen our theoretical frameworks and methodologies so as to provide a better sense of the conceptual complexities of feminist media studies and empirical realities of contemporary media forms, practices and audiences. This book was originally published as a special issue of Feminist Media Studies.
Latin American Women Filmmakers by ISBN: 9781784537111Publication Date: 2017-03-23Latin American women filmmakers have achieved unprecedented international prominence in recent years. Notably political in their approach, figures such as Lucrecia Martel, Claudia Llosa and Bertha Navarro have created innovative and often challenging films, enjoying global acclaim from critics and festival audiences alike. They undeniably mark a 'moment' for Latin American cinema.Bringing together distinguished scholars in the field—and prefaced by B. Ruby Rich—this is a much-needed account and analysis of the rise of female-led film in Latin America. Chapters detail the collaboration that characterises Latin American women's filmmaking—in many ways distinct from the largely 'Third Cinema' auteurism from the region—as well as the transnational production contexts, unique aesthetics and socio-political landscape of the key industry figures. Through close attention to the particular features of national film cultures, from women's documentary filmmaking in Chile to comedic critique in Brazil, and from US Latina screen culture to the burgeoning popularity of Peruvian film, this timely study demonstrates the remarkable possibilities for film in the region. This book will allow scholars and students of Latin American cinema and culture, as well as industry professionals, a deeper understanding of the emergence and impact of the filmmakers and their work, which has particular relevance for contemporary debates on feminism.
Films and Feminism: Essays in Indian Cinema by ISBN: 8131607127Publication Date: 2015-08-01Cinema/film reaches a much wider audience than literature, as it moves across the barriers of class, literacy, religion, and language. Not only does it reflect reality, it also constructs reality. The reach and impact of cinema/film makes it imperative to work through the rhetoric and melodrama of the medium to unearth the subtleties and ambiguities which lie within. Films and Feminism: Essays in Indian Cinema explores both mainstream and parallel cinema for an analysis of 'the woman' image, the idea of romance, the imposition and defiance of the patriarchal order, and a woman's journey towards self-definition. With a new introduction, this second edition captures the shifts that have taken place since the original publication. With four new essays supplementing the earlier twenty four, the book examines the shifts in film techniques and film audiences, the blurring of the line between alternative and commercial cinema, and women's image of themselves. Largely focusing on Hindi cinema, there is also a reflection of Bengali and Kannada cinema. The volume enlarges the scope of inquiry into feminist concerns and feminine representation, making a significant contribution to film, gender, and literary studies, as it opens up multiple dimensions of inquiry.
Networked Feminisms: Activist Assemblies and Digital Practices by ISBN: 9781793613790Publication Date: 2021-11-16The collection of essays outlines how feminists employ a variety of online platforms, practices, and tools to create spaces of solidarity and to articulate a critical politics that refuses popular forms of individual, consumerist, white feminist empowerment in favor of collective, tangible action. Including scholars and activists from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, these essays help to catalog the ways in which feminists are organizing online to mobilize different feminist, queer, trans, disability, reproductive justice, and racial equality movements. Together, these perspectives offer a comprehensive overview of how feminists are employing the tools of the internet for political change. Grounded in intersectional feminism—a perspective that attends to the interrelatedness of power and oppression based on race, class, gender, ability, sexuality, and other identities—this book gathers provocations, analyses, creative explorations, theorizations, and case studies of networked feminist activist practices. In doing so, this collection archives important work already done within feminist digital cultures and acts as a vital blueprint for future feminist action.
Media Crossroads: Intersections of Space and Identity in Screen Cultures by ISBN: 9781478010616Publication Date: 2021-03-26The contributors to Media Crossroads examine space and place in media as they intersect with sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, class, and ability. Considering a wide range of film, television, video games, and other media, the authors show how spaces—from the large and fantastical to the intimate and virtual—are shaped by the social interactions and intersections staged within them. The highly teachable essays include analyses of media representations of urban life and gentrification, the ways video games allow users to adopt an experiential understanding of space, the intersection of the regulation of bodies and spaces, and how style and aesthetics can influence intersectional thinking. Whether interrogating the construction of Portland as a white utopia in Portlandia or the link between queerness and the spatial design and gaming mechanics in the Legend of Zelda video game series, the contributors deepen understanding of screen cultures in ways that redefine conversations around space studies in film and media.
Gender, Race, and Class in Media by ISBN: 9781544393421Publication Date: 2020-08-27Gender, Race, and Class in Media provides students a comprehensive and critical introduction to media studies by encouraging them to analyze their own media experiences and interests. Editors Bill Yousman, Lori Bindig Yousman, Gail Dines, and Jean McMahon Humez explore some of the most important forms of today's popular culture—including the Internet, social media, television, films, music, and advertising—in three distinct but related areas of investigation: the political economy of production, textual analysis, and audience response. Multidisciplinary issues of power related to gender, race, and class are integrated into a wide range of articles examining the economic and cultural implications of mass media as institutions. Reflecting the rapid evolution of the field, the Sixth Edition includes 18 new readings that enhance the richness, sophistication, and diversity that characterizes contemporary media scholarship.
The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication by ISBN: 9781119429128Publication Date: 2020-10-20The first major reference work on gender and media—covering a broad range of gender-focused topics. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication comprises more than 250 entries by an international team of both established and emerging scholars in the field. This innovative resource explores how gender is represented in media, who produces the content, and the ways in which audiences receive and understand media messages. The contributors offer original insights on diverse aspects of gender in film, television, visual media, social and digital media and more. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the encyclopedia places gender at the center of both historical and contemporary debates in the broad field of media and communication. This unique work presents contemporary scholarship on a vast array of topics including film biographies, TV, film and radio histories and genres, gender representation in news, and screen-based entertainment media. Includes essays which range from women film producers to the boy detective, from queer cinema to political communication, from gender and news to the racialized body, and many things in between. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication is an indispensable reference for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, instructors, and scholars in media, communication, gender studies, and related fields.
Lesbian Potentiality and Feminist Media in The 1970s by ISBN: 9781478018025Publication Date: 2022-03-18In Lesbian Potentiality and Feminist Media in the 1970s, Rox Samer explores how 1970s feminists took up the figure of the lesbian in broad attempts to reimagine gender and sexuality. Samer turns to feminist film, video, and science fiction literature, offering a historiographical concept called "lesbian potentiality"—a way of thinking beyond what the lesbian was, in favor of how the lesbian signified what could have come to be. Samer shows how the labor of feminist media workers and fans put lesbian potentiality into movement. They see lesbian potentiality in feminist prison documentaries that theorize the prison industrial complex's racialized and gendered violence and give image to Black feminist love politics and freedom dreaming. Lesbian potentiality also circulates through the alternative spaces created by feminist science fiction and fantasy fanzines like The Witch and the Chameleon and Janus. It was here that author James Tiptree, Jr./Alice B. Sheldon felt free to do gender differently and inspired many others to do so in turn. Throughout, Samer embraces the perpetual reimagination of "lesbian" and the lesbian's former futures for the sake of continued, radical world-building.
Selfie Aesthetics: Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art by ISBN: 9781478018148Publication Date: 2022-04-22In Selfie Aesthetics Nicole Erin Morse examines how trans feminine artists use selfies and self-representational art to explore transition, selfhood, and relationality. Morse contends that rather than being understood as shallow emblems of a narcissistic age, selfies can produce politically meaningful encounters between creators and viewers. Through close readings of selfies and other digital artworks by trans feminist artists, Morse details a set of formal strategies they call selfie aesthetics: doubling, improvisation, seriality, and nonlinear temporality. Morse traces these strategies in the work of Zackary Drucker, Vivek Shraya, Tourmaline, Alok Vaid-Menon, Zinnia Jones, and Natalie Wynn, showing how these artists present improvisational identities and new modes of performative resistance by conveying the materialities of trans life. Morse shows how the interaction between selfie creators and viewers constructs collective modes of being and belonging in ways that envision trans feminist futures. By demonstrating the aesthetic depth and political potential of selfie creation, distribution, and reception, Morse deepens understandings of gender performativity and trans experience.
Incomplete: The Feminist Possibilities of the Unfinished Film by ISBN: 9780520381476Publication Date: 2023-06-06This field-defining collection establishes unfinished film projects—abandoned, interrupted, lost, or open-ended—as rich and under-appreciated resources for feminist film and media studies. In deeply researched and creatively conceived chapters, scholars join with film practitioners in approaching the unfinished film as an ideal site for revealing the lived experiences, practical conditions, and institutional realities of women's film production across historical periods and national borders. Incomplete recovers projects and practices marginalized in film industries and scholarship alike, while also showing how feminist filmmakers have cultivated incompletion as an aesthetic strategy. Objects of loss and of possibility, incomplete films raise profound historiographical and ethical questions about the always unfinished project of film history, film spectatorship, and film studies.
A Queer Way of Feeling: Girl Fans and Personal Archives of Early Hollywood by ISBN: 9780520299658Publication Date: 2023-02-07Gathering an unexplored archive of fan-made scrapbooks, letters, diaries, and photographs, A Queer Way of Feeling explores how, in the 1910s, girls coming of age in the United States used cinema to forge a foundational language of female nonconformity, intimacy, and kinship. Pasting cross-dressed photos on personal scrapbooks and making love to movie actresses in epistolary writing, adolescent girls from all walks of life stitched together established homoerotic conventions with an emergent syntax of film stardom to make sense of mental states, actions, and proclivities self-described as "queer" or "different from the norm." Material testimonies of a forgotten audience, these autobiographical artifacts show how early movie-loving girls engendered terminologies, communities, and creative practices that would become cornerstones of media fan reception and queer belonging.
Violated Frames: Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli's Sexploits by ISBN: 9780520380097Publication Date: 2022-03-22When Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli began making sexploitation films together in 1956, they provoked audiences by featuring explicit nudity that would increasingly become more audacious, constantly challenging contemporary norms. Their Argentine films developed a large and international fan base. Analyzing the couple's films and their subsequent censorship, Violated Frames develops a new, roughly constructed, and "bad" archive of relocated materials to debate questions of performance, authorship, stardom, sexuality, and circulation. Victoria Ruétalo situates Bó and Sarli's films amidst the popular culture and sexual norms in post-1955 Argentina, and explores these films through the lens of bodies engaged in labor and leisure in a context of growing censorship. Under Perón, manual labor produced an affect that fixed a specific type of body to the populist movement of Peronism: a type of body that was young, lower-classed, and highly gendered. The excesses of leisure in exhibition, enjoyment, and ecstasy in Bó and Sarli's films interrupted the already fragmented film narratives of the day and created alternative sexual possibilities.
Their Own Best Creations by ISBN: 9780520300798Publication Date: 2022-01-04A rich account that combines media-industry history and cultural studies, Their Own Best Creations looks at women writers' contributions to some of the most popular genres of postwar TV: comedy-variety, family sitcom, daytime soap, and suspense anthology. During the 1950s, when the commercial medium of television was still being defined, women writers navigated pressures at work, constructed public personas that reconciled traditional and progressive femininity, and asserted that a woman's point of view was essential to television as an art form. The shows they authored allegorize these professional and personal pressures and articulate a nascent second-wave feminist consciousness. Annie Berke brings to light the long-forgotten and under-studied stories of these women writers and crucially places them in the historical and contemporary record.
Recollecting Lotte Eisner by ISBN: 9780520388147Publication Date: 2022-11-08Recollecting Lotte Eisner provides the first in-depth examination of the remarkable transnational career of film journalist, archivist, and historian Lotte Eisner (1896-1983). From her early years as a film critic in interwar Berlin to her escape from prison in occupied France and from her role as chief curator at the Cinémathèque française to that as the mythic "collective conscience" of New German Cinema, Eisner was a prolific writer and lecturer and a pivotal voice in early film and media studies. Situated at the juncture of feminist media historiography and disciplinary intellectual history, this groundbreaking book is based on extensive multilingual archival research and the excavation of a rich corpus of previously overlooked materials. Introducing samples of Eisner's writing in translation, this volume makes some of the most important contributions of a foundational scholar in the field of film studies accessible for the first time to an English-language readership.
In and Out of Sight by ISBN: 9780190690168Publication Date: 2018-01-04In a post-digital media landscape tracked endlessly by streams and feeds of images, it is clearer than ever that photography is an art poised between arresting singularity and ambiguous plurality. Drawing on work in visual culture studies that emphasizes the interplay between still and moving images, In and Out of Sight provides a provocative new account of the relationship between photography and modernist literature—a literature which has long been considered to trace, in its formal experimentation, the influence of modern visual technologies. Making pioneering claims about the importance of photography to the writing of Gertrude Stein, Jean Toomer, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alix Beeston traverses the history of photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In a series of richly detailed literary analyses, Beeston argues that the gaps and intervals of the composite literary text model the visual syntax of photography—as well as its silences, absences, and equivocations. In them, the social and political order of modernity is negotiated and reshaped. Moving in and out of these textual openings, In and Out of Sight pursues the fleeting, visible and invisible figure of the woman-in-series, who recasts absence and silence as forms of presence and witness. This shadowy figure emerges as central to the conceptual space of modernist literature—a terrain not only gendered but radically constructed around the instability of female bodies and their desires.
Ambiguous Cinema: from Simone de Beauvoir to feminist film phenomenology by ISBN: 9781399504232Publication Date: 2022-05-31Simone de Beauvoir's notion of ambiguity became a cornerstone of her philosophy and influenced a radical rethinking of freedom well into the twenty-first century. In Ambiguous Cinema, Fuery examines Beauvoir's notion of ambiguity in relation to film experience, exploring both the legacies and limits of her existentialist ethics through a range of films by independent women filmmakers, including Joanna Hogg, Liliana Cavani, Debra Granik, Cheryl Dunye, Claire Denis, Lucrecia Martel, Lynne Ramsay and Céline Sciamma. In doing so, Fuery deftly demonstrates the currency and relevancy of Beauvoir's ideas to contemporary debates in film-philosophy and feminist thought by examining how these women filmmakers navigate turbulent themes such as moral choice, power, adolescence, love, trauma and motherhood. Reimagining Beauvoir's idea of ambiguity within the context of film studies, Fuery asks that we confront and embrace difficult emotional situations so that we might realise an authentic, if indeterminate, freedom through our cinematic experiences.
Gender and Relatability in Digital Culture: Managing Affect, Intimacy, and Value by ISBN: 9783319915142Publication Date: 2018-08-03This book explores the practices and the politics of relatable femininity in intimate digital social spaces. Examining a GIF-based digital culture on Tumblr, the author considers how young women produce relatability through humorous, generalisable representations of embarrassment, frustration, and resilience in everyday situations. Relatability is examined as an affective relation that offers the feeling of sameness and female friendship amongst young women. However, this relation is based on young women's ability to competently negotiate the 'feeling rules' that govern youthful femininity. Such classed and racialised feeling rules require young women to perfect the performance of normalcy: they must mix self-deprecation with positivity; they must be relatably flawed but not actual 'failures'. Situated in debates about postfeminism, self-representation and digital identity, this book connects understandings of digital visual culture to gender, race, and class, and neoliberal imperatives to perform the 'right feelings'. Gender and Relatability in Digital Culture will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including gender studies, cultural studies, sociology, and media studies.
Feminist Media Histories Book Series by The Feminist Media Histories book series publishes feminist histories of film, radio, television, video, playable media and digital culture across a range of periods and global contexts. Inter-medial and trans-national in its approach, the series features historical scholarship on an array of 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century media, examining the historical roles gender and sexuality have played in film, video, audio, and digital technologies, while documenting the engagement of women and LGBTQ communities with these media as audiences and consumers, as creators and executives, as critics, writers and theorists, as technicians and laborers, and as educators, activists and librarians. The series takes as its premise the idea that gender and sexuality have been instrumental, but overlooked, ingredients in both the evolution of modern media and their cultural influence, and that feminist histories of the role gender and sexuality have played in the cultural production and circulation of these media are essential to understanding their social, industrial and aesthetic impact.
The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood by ISBN: 9780807033456Publication Date: 2020-02-04A brutally honest look at the systemic exclusion of women in film—an industry with massive cultural influence—and how, in response, women are making space in cinema for their voices to be heard. Generation after generation, women have faced the devastating reality that Hollywood is a system built to keep them out. The films created by that system influence everything from our worldviews to our brain chemistry. When women's voices are excluded from the medium, the impact on society is immense. Actor, screenwriter, and award-winning independent filmmaker Naomi McDougall Jones takes us inside the cutthroat, scandal-laden film industry, where only 5% of top studio films are directed by women and less than 20% of leading characters in mainstream films are female. Jones calls on all of us to act radically to build a different kind of future for cinema—not only for the women being actively hurt inside the industry but for those outside it, whose lives, purchasing decisions, and sense of selves are shaped by the stories told. Informed by the journey of her own career; by interviews with others throughout the film industry; and by cold, hard data, Jones deconstructs the casual, commonplace sexism rampant in Hollywood that has kept women out of key roles for decades. Next, she shows us the growing women-driven revolution in filmmaking—sparked by streaming services, crumbling distribution models, direct-to-audience access via innovative online platforms, and outside advocacy groups—which has enabled women to build careers outside the traditional studio system. Finally, she makes a business case for financing and producing films by female filmmakers.
Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, feminism, genre by ISBN: 9781978805118Publication Date: 2020-09-30"But women were never out there making horror films, that's why they are not written about—you can't include what doesn't exist." This is what you get when you are a woman working in horror, whether as a writer, academic, festival programmer, or filmmaker. These assumptions are based on decades of flawed scholarly, critical, and industrial thinking about the genre. Women Make Horror sets right these misconceptions. Women have always made horror. They have always been an audience for the genre, and today, as this book reveals, women academics, critics, and filmmakers alike remain committed to a film genre that offers almost unlimited opportunities for exploring and deconstructing social and cultural constructions of gender, femininity, sexuality, and the body. Women Make Horror explores narrative and experimental cinema; short, anthology, and feature filmmaking; and offers case studies of North American, Latin American, European, East Asian, and Australian filmmakers, films, and festivals. With this book we can transform how we think about women filmmakers and genre.
Feminism in Play by ISBN: 9783319905389Publication Date: 2018-10-10Feminism in Play focuses on women as they are depicted in video games, as participants in games culture, and as contributors to the games industry. This volume showcases women's resistance to the norms of games culture, as well as women's play and creative practices both in and around the games industry. Contributors analyze the interconnections between games and the broader societal and structural issues impeding the successful inclusion of women in games and games culture. In offering this framework, this volume provides a platform to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter-narratives to the post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption of games culture.
Female Action Heroes: A guide to women in comics, video games, film, and television by ISBN: 9780313376122Publication Date: 2010-06-08This book offers 25 profiles of some of the most popular female action heroes throughout the history of film, television, comic books, and video games. Female action heroes, like other fictional characters, not only reveal a lot about society, but greatly influence individuals in society. It is no surprise that the gradual development and increase in the number of female action heroes coincides with societal changes and social movements, such as feminism. Nor is it a surprise that characteristics of female action heroes echo the progressive toughening of women and young girls in the media. Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television brings to the forefront the historical representation of women and girls in film, television, comic books, and video games. The book includes profiles of 25 of the most popular female action heroes, arranged in alphabetical order for easy reference. Each chapter includes sections on the hero's origins, her power suit, weapons, abilities, and the villains with whom she grapples. Most significantly, each profile offers an analysis of the hero's story—and her impact on popular culture.
Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by ISBN: 9780374539184Publication Date: 2022-06-14In 2014, on the side of a Los Angeles freeway, a One Direction fan erected a shrine in the spot where, a few hours earlier, Harry Styles had vomited. "It's interesting for sure," Styles said later, adding, "a little niche, maybe." But what seemed niche to Styles was actually a signpost for an unfathomably large, hyper-connected alternate universe: stan culture. In Everything I Need I Get from You, Kaitlyn Tiffany, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a superfan herself, guides us through the online world of fans, stans, and boybands. Along the way we meet girls who damage their lungs from screaming too loud, fans rallying together to manipulate chart numbers using complex digital subversion, and an underworld of inside jokes and shared memories surrounding band members' allergies, internet typos, and hairstyles. In the process, Tiffany makes a convincing, and often moving, argument that fangirls, in their ingenuity and collaboration, created the social internet we know today. "Before most people were using the internet for anything," Tiffany writes, "fans were using it for everything." With humor, empathy, and an insider's eye, Everything I Need I Get from You reclaims internet history for young women, establishing fandom not as the territory of hysterical girls but as an incubator for digital innovation, art, and community. From alarming, fandom-splitting conspiracy theories about secret love and fake children, to the interplays between high and low culture and capitalism, Tiffany's book is a riotous chronicle of the movement that changed the internet forever.
The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture by ISBN: 9781250760142Publication Date: 2021-06-01From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman. Today's gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan's fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl," country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell. Throw on your Von Dutch hats and join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the aughts, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance—a time not so long ago, which many seem to forget.
All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns by ISBN: 9781250795786Publication Date: 2022-09-06Oh. Hi. *takes six long gulps of water during which you're like, may I help you?* My name is Betty. I have depression. I have passion. I have tits the size of printers. And also: I have a brain full of women. There's Blanche VonFuckery, Ingrid St. Rash, and a host of others--some cowering in sweatpants, some howling plans for revolution, and one, oh God, and one . . . slowly vomiting up a crow? Worried for her. These women take turns at the wheel. That's why I feel like a million selves. With a raised eyebrow and a soul-scalpel, I'd like to tell you how I got this way. Because maybe you feel this way too. Let's hop from wild dissections of modern womanhood to boarding school musings to the glossy cringe of Hollywood. Let's laugh at my failures and then quietly hope with me for the dream. Whether that dream is love or liberation or enough IMDB credits to taze the demon snapping at my ankles, we won't know until the shit-fanning end. As a dear friend said after reading this book, it's "either a masterpiece, or it's...completely..." and then she glazed over into a haunted stare. Reader? This book is my opus and it is chaos. Welcome to All the Women in My Brain.
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by ISBN: 9780593132715Publication Date: 2022-04-19American pop music is arguably this country's greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country's founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story—from "one of the generation's greatest, most insightful, most nuanced writers in pop culture" (Shea Serrano). A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith's intimate history of Black women's music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to "Midnight Train to Georgia" on the family stereo. Smith's detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley. Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.
Thick: And other Essays by ISBN: 9781620974360Publication Date: 2019-01-08In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom—award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed—is unapologetically "thick": deemed "thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less," McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work. Thick "transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women" (Los Angeles Review of Books) with "writing that is as deft as it is amusing" (Darnell L. Moore). This "transgressive, provocative, and brilliant" (Roxane Gay) collection cements McMillan Cottom's position as a public thinker capable of shedding new light on what the "personal essay" can do. She turns her chosen form into a showcase for her critical dexterity, investigating everything from Saturday Night Live, LinkedIn, and BBQ Becky to sexual violence, infant mortality, and Trump rallies.Collected in an indispensable volume that speaks to the everywoman and the erudite alike, these unforgettable essays never fail to be "painfully honest and gloriously affirming" and hold "a mirror to your soul and to that of America" (Dorothy Roberts).
Bad Feminist by ISBN: 9780062282712Publication Date: 2014-08-05A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation. In these funny and insightful essays, Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.
Women on Ice: Feminist Essays on the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle by ISBN: 0415911508Publication Date: 1995-12-07The attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships set the stage for a Winter Olympics spectacle: Tonya versus Nancy. Women on Ice collects the writings of a diverse group of feminists who address and question our national obsession with Tonya and Nancy and what this tells us about perceptions of women in twentieth century America.
A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) by Publication Date: 2017-11-27A woman's life is thrown into turmoil following the death of her partner. Mourning the loss of the man she loved, she finds herself under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy.The Forty-Year-Old Version by
Publication Date: 2020-01-25A down-on-her-luck playwright thinks the only way she can salvage her voice as an artist is to become a rapper at 40. Available on Netflix.Shirkers by
Publication Date: 2018-1-21In 1992 teenager Sandi Tan shoots Singapore's first road movie with her enigmatic American mentor, Georges, who then absconded with all of the footage. The 16 mm film is recovered 20 years later, sending Tan, who is now a novelist living in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' footprints. Available on Netflix.Unpregnant by
Publication Date: 2020-10-10A pregnant teen and her former best friend embark on a life-changing road trip from Missouri to New Mexico. Available on Max and Amazon Prime Video.The Love Witch by
Publication Date: 2016-01-31Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, and she ends up with a string of hapless victims. When she at last meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of murder.Tangerine by
Publication Date: 2015After hearing that her boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was in jail, a transgender sex worker and her best friend set out to find him and teach him and his new lover a lesson.This Changes Everything by
Publication Date: 2018-09-07Told first-hand by some of Hollywood's leading voices behind and in front of the camera, This Changes Everything uncovers what is beneath one of the most confounding dilemmas in the entertainment industry—the under-representation and misrepresentation of women. It takes an incisive look at the history, empirical evidence, and systemic forces that foster gender discrimination and thus reinforce disparity in our culture. Most importantly, the film seeks pathways and solutions from within and outside the industry, and around the world.
Television
Featuring shows written by and starring women.
A League of Their Own by Publication Date: 2022-A League of Their Own is an American period sports comedy drama television series co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, who also stars. It is an adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name with new characters and storylines, about the formation of a World War II-era women's professional baseball team.nThe series, set in 1943, is about the formation of the Rockford Peaches, a women's team in the nascent All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. While her husband is away at war, Carson Shaw leaves her small town life to pursue her dream of playing professional baseball. Maxine Chapman is an African-American woman obsessed with baseball, who cannot even get people to allow her to try out and struggles to get considered for any baseball team. Available on Amazon Prime.I May Destroy You by
Publication Date: 2020I May Destroy You is at once brave and delicate, untangling the trauma of sexual assault with dark humor and moments of deep discomfort all held together on the strength of Michaela Coel's undeniable talent. Available on Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
Work in Progress by Publication Date: 2019-Abby is a 45-year-old self-identified fat, queer dyke whose misfortune and despair unexpectedly lead her to a vibrantly transformative relationship. Chicago improv mainstay Abby McEnany co-created and stars in this uniquely human comedy series. Available on Fubo.Feel Good by
Publication Date: 2020-2021A semi-autobiographical comedy series from comedian Mae Martin, Feel Good is a deeply personal and poignant story about the unique pressures of navigating the modern-day landscape of gender and sexuality. It follows recovering addict and comedian Mae, who attempts to control the addictive behaviors and intense romanticism that permeate every facet of her life. Things become even more complicated for her, as she gets into an all-consuming relationship with her new girlfriend, George. Available on Netflix.We Are Lady Parts by
Publication Date: 2021-Geeky biochemical engineering Ph.D. student Amina Hussein becomes the unlikely lead guitarist of Lady Parts, an all-female Muslim punk band on a mission to get a proper gig. Saira, the band's fierce and enigmatic frontwoman, sees something in Amina the others can't. Saira leverages Amina's desperation to find a husband and offers to set her up with potential matches if she agrees to join. Torn between her straitlaced university friends and members of Lady Parts, Amina tries to find her voice. Available on Peacock.
Shrill by Publication Date: 2019-2021A struggling young journalist (played by Aidy Bryant) is determined to change her life without changing her body. While dealing with an unreliable boyfriends, sick parents and a perfectionist boss, she begins to understand that she's just as good as everyone else. Available on Hulu.Betty by
Publication Date: 2020-2021Betty is an American teen comedy television series created by Crystal Moselle. The series is based on Moselle's 2018 feature film Skate Kitchen, which was in turn based on her 2016 short film That One Day. It includes most of the cast of the original feature film, and focuses on the Gen Z all-girl group's efforts to stand out in New York's predominantly male world of skateboarding. Betty follows "a tight-knit group of girl skaters and follows their everyday lives as they navigate the male-dominated world of skateboarding. The title comes from the derogatory nickname sometimes thrown at them by men." Available on HBO.
Additional Resources
Explore the lists below for more recommendations. For help accessing a film through IU Libraries see our guide "Finding Online Streaming Videos" or check Kanopy.
- The 100 Best Feminist Films of All Time (Joshua Rothkopf and Abbey Bender, TimeOut)
- The Feminist Movies Everyone Needs to Stream Right Now (Leah Thomas and Leah Marilla Thomas, Cosmopolitan)
- 24 Essential TV Shows For Every Pop Culture-Loving Feminist (Rachel Paige, Refinery29)
- 10 great films about queens and empresses (Georgina Guthrie, BFI)
Below you will find resources for exploring feminist media studies through film reviews, substacks, and non-peer-reviewed channels.
Another Gaze publishes reviews on a wide variety of films from scholars, staff writers, freelances, and film critics. Follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook to keep up with publications. Another Gaze also runs Another Screen, an "irregular streaming platform, bringing you week-long programmes of films by women across modes of production and geographies, with new writing and translations about these works."
T.V. Dinner (Substack) by Maddy Court
Maddy Court writes about television and queer relationships. You might know her as the author of the book and zine series titled "The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend." Check out her recaps and commentary of The L Word: Gen Q, Tampa Baes, A League of Their Own, And Just Like That, and more.
Featured posts:
- The L Word Gen Q SEASON 3 FINALE: G Flip and Chrishell attend Bette and Tina's wedding
- I'm in Pain! I'm Watching The L Word! 📺
- A League of Their Own ⚾
Reappropriate by Jenn Fang
Jenn Fang is a proud Asian American feminist, scientist and nerd who currently blogs at Reappropriate.co, one of the web’s oldest AAPI feminist and race activist blogs. Reappropriate focuses on Asian American feminism, politics, and pop culture.
Paging Dr. Lesbian (Substack) by Kira Deshler
"Here you will find articles and essays primarily about lesbian or sapphic pop culture, but anything else that strikes my fancy is fair game. This newsletter will cover anything I deem of sapphic importance that occurs in the realm of pop culture. It could be something obvious, like why there are so many lesbian period pieces, or something less so, like the eternal star power of Patrick Swayze or my obsession with the exceptional heterosexual angst of TV procedurals. My fascination with pop culture can generally be boiled down to a single question – what moves people, and why? Whatever unexpected directions this question takes me, I’ll hope you’ll join me along the way."
Featured posts:
- Katie McGrath: Anatomy of a Lesbian Icon
- How 'NCIS: Hawaii' Gained a Legion of Sapphic Fans
- What Do We Do With Bad Lesbian Art?
The Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC)
"The Crunk Feminist Collective will create a space of support and camaraderie for hip hop generation feminists of color, queer and straight, in the academy and without, by building a rhetorical community, in which we can discuss our ideas, express our crunk feminist selves, fellowship with one another, debate and challenge one another, and support each other, as we struggle together to articulate our feminist goals, ideas, visions, and dreams in ways that are both personally and professionally beneficial."
Borrow The Crunk Feminist Collection from IU Libraries!
Articles and Thinkpieces
- What the Movies Taught Me About Being a Woman (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times)
- A womb of one’s own: a short history of abortion on film (Violet Lucca, BFI)
- The Autostraddle Encyclopedia of Lesbian Cinema (Drew Burnett Gregory, Autostraddle)
Introduction
Advancements in the field of Feminist Media Studies have not come only from academic journals and scholars. In fact, one of the most popular and widely-known concepts in contemporary media studies comes from a 1985 comic strip called Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel.
Image: Dykes to Watch Out For (Alison Bechdel).
The Bechdel Test, also known as the Bechdel-Wallace Test or Mo Movie Measure, is a measure of the representation of women in film. The test asks whether a film features at least two named women talking to each other about something other than a man. The test first appeared in Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, a weekly comic strip which ran from 1983 to 2008 and was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture. Bechdel credited the idea to her friend Liz Wallace and the writings of Virginia Woolf.
Passing or failing the Bechdel Test is not necessarily indicative of how well women are represented in any specific work. Rather, the test is used as an indicator for the active presence of women in the field of film and other fiction and calls attention to gender inequality in media. Additionally, the test is not a way to evaluate whether or not a movie or good or feminist, rather, it allows us to consider who movies are made by and for. Through the use of the Bechdel Test, and other tests that have been inspired by it, we can reflect on how women and other marginalized groups are portrayed, how much depth-of-character they are afforded, and what kinds of plot lines they are allowed.
Check out the Dykes to Watch Out For strip archive online and continue exploring below for more details about the Bechdel Test, its variants, and online resources.
Adapted from: Bechdel Test (Wikipedia).
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by ISBN: 9780618968800Publication Date: 2008-11-12From the author of Fun Home—the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others. For twenty-five years Bechdel's path-breaking Dykes to Watch Out For strip has been collected in award-winning volumes (with a quarter of a million copies in print), syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, and translated into many languages. Now, at last, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For gathers a "rich, funny, deep and impossible to put down" (Publishers Weekly) selection from all eleven Dykes volumes. Here too are sixty of the newest strips, never before published in book form. Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it "half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel") of the lives, loves, and politics of a cast of characters, most of them lesbian, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Her brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends—academics, social workers, bookstore clerks—fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culture—from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory—in a serial graphic narrative "suitable for humanists of all persuasions."
A Room of One's Own by ISBN: 9780156787338Publication Date: 1989-12-27Bechdel credits the idea of the Bechdel Test to her friend Liz Wallace and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister—a sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different. This imaginary woman never writes a word and dies by her own hand, her genius unexpressed. If only she had found the means to create, argues Woolf, she would have reached the same heights as her immortal sibling. In this classic essay, Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have a steady income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.
- Bechdel Test Movie ListThis crowd-sourced website contains an ever-growing list of movies and whether or not they pass the Bechdel Test.
- Women in Fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test Results for the Highest-Grossing Movies of the Last Four DecadesAuthors: Markus Appel and Timo Gnambs
We analyzed female characters in the 30 worldwide highest grossing movies per year, for the past 40 years, amounting to 1,200 movies. Our study was based on the Bechdel Wallace test: Are two or more named women present in a movie, and do they talk to each other about something besides a man? We used data from an impromptu online citizen science project (bechdeltest.com) and complemented the data with analyses of movies that were not covered by this database. Our results show that only half of the most popular movies (49.58%) pass the test. Almost all movies (95.31%) pass the reverse BWT (movies featuring named men who talk to each other about something besides a woman), as indicated by an analysis of a subset of 341 movies. Time trends indicate that the percentage of movies passing the BWT is on the rise for the past 10 years. - The Bechdel Test and the Social Form of Character NetworksAuthor: Scott Selisker
Variations of the Bechdel Test
As previously mentioned, the Bechdel Test doesn't provide information on the quality or feminist nature of a film or work of fiction. The test also does not take into account the presence of characters of color or LGBTQ+ characters in a film, nor does it look at the number of women working behind the scenes. This test does allow us to think critically about media representation and the construction of characters with marginalized identities. There have been many variations of the test that aim to consider other identities that have historically been left under-portrayed by mainstream media. Explore some of these variations below:
The Reverse Bechdel Test: Asks the same three questions, but about male characters to examine the prevalence of men who talk to men about something other than a woman as a point of comparison to the Bechdel Test.
Chart: The Bechdel Academy: How Recent Best Film Oscar Nominees (1994-2013) do on the Bechdel Test. Matt Isherwood (2013).
The Mako Mori Test: pertains to the representation of female characters within a film or other work of fiction.
This test is named after the character Mako Mori from the 2013 film Pacific Rim and its 2018 sequel Pacific Rim Uprising. The requirements are that at least one female character has an independent plot arc and that the character or her arc do not simply exist to support a male character's plot arc.
The DuVernay Test: Asks whether or not African-Americans and other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories. This test comes from film critic Manohla Dargis. Nadia Latif and Leila Latif of The Guardian also suggested this series of five questions:
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Are there two named characters of color?
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Do they have dialogue?
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Are they not romantically involved with one another?
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Do they have any dialogue that isn't comforting or supporting a white character?
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Is one of them definitely not a magical negro?
The Vito Russo Test: Created by GLAAD and named after celebrated film historian Vito Russo, this set of criteria analyzes how LGBTQ+ characters are represented in a fictional work. Criteria are listed below:
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The film contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender.
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That character must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity (i.e. the character is made up of the same sort of unique character traits commonly used to differentiate straight characters from one another).
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The LGBTQ+ character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect. Meaning they are not there to simply provide colorful commentary, paint urban authenticity, or (perhaps most commonly) set up a punchline; the character should matter.
FiveThirtyEight: 12 New Ways of Measuring Hollywood's Gender Imbalance: FiveThirtyEight asked 12 filmmakers for tests that go beyond the Bechdel Test. Some tests mentioned in the article include:
- The Waithe Test: The film features a Black woman who is in a position of power and in a healthy relationship
- The Ko Test: The film features a non-white, female-identifying person who speaks in five or more scenes and speaks English
- The Villalobos Test: The film has a Latina lead and the lead or another Latina character is shown as professional or college educated, speaks in unaccented English, and is not sexualized.
The May Test: Evaluates transgender representation in film and TV. This test looks at whether or not a transgender character is/has:
- portrayed by a transgender actor
- safe, stable, and secure (not homeless, assaulted, or victimized—no more bloody noses!)
- thriving, healthy, and happy
- in love, loveable, and dating (not a lonely romantic pariah)
- a trans identity not used as a joke or “surprise reveal” gag
- an occupation that isn’t sex worker, dealer, or thief
- a storyline that is not solely about their transition or surgery, or their struggle with their identity
Additional commentary on this test can be found here: “Trans Bechdel Test” is Assimilationist.
Citations: Lauren Le Vine, Refinery29, The Bechdel Test, The DuVernay Test, & More: What You Need To Know (2018); Bechdel test,
(Wikipedia).
Introduction
The male gaze refers to the act of depicting women in visual arts and literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective which presents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of heterosexual men. The male gaze contains three perspectives which originate from:
- The man behind the camera
- The male characters within the film
- The viewer of the visual art/film
The term "male gaze" was first used by the art critic John Berger as part of his analysis of the treatment of women as objects in advertising and nudes in European painting. The British film critic Laura Mulvey coined the term as we know it when she used it to critique traditional media representations of female characters in cinema in her article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (pp. 58-69 in Thornham, Sue; Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. New York, NY ; New York University Press; 1999.):
Image: Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
The male gaze establishes a dominant male and dominated female by representing the female as a passive object upon which the active male viewer can gaze. This gaze has implications not only in film and television but in art, literature, marketing, journalism, communication, and everyday life.
Images (from left to right): Elvis and Judy Tyler in Jailhouse Rock (1957) from TikTokers Won't Stop Calling Out The Male Gaze And It's Quality Content; Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque, oil on canvas, 1814, 88.9 x 162.6cm, Louvre, Paris; Katy Flanagan, Representation of Women Research—Advertising Images (2015); Die Another Day (2022) starring Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan; Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Adapted from: Wikipedia, Male gaze.
Ways of Seeing by ISBN: 0140135154Publication Date: 1990-12-01Ways of Seeing is a 1972 television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. It was broadcast on BBC Two in January 1972 and adapted into a book of the same name.
The series was intended as a response to Kenneth Clark's Civilisation TV series, which represents a more traditionalist view of the Western artistic and cultural canon, and the series and book criticise traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images. According to James Bridle, Berger "didn't just help us gain a new perspective on viewing art with his 1972 series Ways of Seeing—he also revealed much about the world in which we live. Whether exploring the history of the female nude or the status of oil paint, his landmark series showed how art revealed the social and political systems in which it was made. He also examined what had changed in our ways of seeing in the time between when the art was made and today.- Feminist Film Theory by ISBN: 0814782442Publication Date: 1999-04-01Maps the major developments and debates in feminist film theory. For the past twenty-five years, cinema has been a vital terrain on which feminist debates about culture, representation, and identity have been fought. This anthology charts the history of those debates, bringing together the key, classic essays in feminist film theory. Feminist Film Theory maps the impact of major theoretical developments on this growing field-from structuralism and psychoanalysis in the 1970s, to post-colonial theory, queer theory, and postmodernism in the 1990s. Covering a wide range of topics, including oppressive images, "woman" as fetishized object of desire, female spectatorship, and the cinematic pleasures of black women and lesbian women, Feminist Film Theory is an indispensable reference for scholars and students in the field.
Video: In Conversation With Laura Mulvey (Interview). Another Gaze Journal (2017).
The Male Gaze in Cinema
The male gaze is most often discussed in the realm of cinema. There are innumerable examples of the male gaze in film, from the trophy-like nature of the "Bond Girls" to Megan Fox leaning over the hood of a car in Transformers, images created of women by men and for men are all around us. Mulvey's development of the male gaze are grounded in the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, both of which provide a lens through which Mulvey interpreted the "primordial wish for pleasurable looking" satisfied through the cinematic experience. Typical examples of the male gaze include close-up shots of women from over a man’s shoulder, shots that pan and fixate on a woman’s body, slow-motion shots of women, and scenes that frequently occur which show a man actively observing a passive woman, often from afar and without her knowledge.
Illustration: Mikaela Banes, portrayed by Megan Fox from Transformers. Bijou Allard (2007).
The Male Gaze in Fine Art
In Ways of Seeing, where the term male gaze was first used, John Berger addressed the sexual objectification of women in the arts and advertising by emphasizing that men look and women are looked at as the subjects of images. For art-as-spectacle, men act, and women are acted-upon according to the social conditions of spectatorship. An example of this can be seen below (left) in Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass), a large oil on canvas painting that depicts a nude woman on a picnic with two fully dressed men and a scantily-dressed bather behind them. Mickalene Thomas' Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: les trois femmes noires (right) is painting that both critiques and references Manet's painting. Thomas' piece portrays three Black women whose positioning and posing is reminiscent of the subjects of Manet's piece, but the gazes of all three women are fixed on the viewer.
Images: (Left) Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Édouard Manet (1863). Oil on canvas, 208x264.5cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.; (Right) Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, Mickalene Thomas (2010). Rhinestone, Acrylic, and Enamel on Panel, 120×288×2in, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle.
The Female Gaze
The female gaze describes the gaze of the female spectator, character or director of an artistic work, generating a representation of women as subjects that have agency. All genders can create films with a female gaze if it is defined as a gaze that opposes the male gaze. It is similar to the Matrixial gaze, coined in 1985 by Bracha L. Ettinger. In contemporary usage, the female gaze has been used to refer to the perspective that a female filmmaker (or screenwriter/director/producer) brings to a film which might differ from a male view of the subject.
Additionally, much theorization of the male gaze has remained inside the heteronormative paradigm concerning relationships between men and women. Scholars like Karen Hollinger and Patrick Shuckmann have extended gaze theory to include queer cinematic representation, including a lesbian gaze (a mutual gaze extended between two women) and the homoerotic gaze.
Additional Reading
- The Renegades Queer culture and the arts would be much poorer without the presence and contribution of butch and stud lesbians, whose identity is both its own aesthetic and a defiant repudiation of the male gaze (Kerry Manders, T Magazine)
- The ‘Female Gaze’ in Fashion Photography (Angelica McKinley, The New York Times)
- ‘Look Up Here!’: 5 Female Directors Reject the Male Gaze (John Anderson, The New York Times)
- Personal Photography and the Male Gaze (Emil Prakertia Raji, Medium)
- How Women See How Male Authors See Them (Katy Waldman, The New Yorker)
- Does The Female Gaze Exist? Feminist theory takes on Tik Tok (Kira Deshler, Paging Dr. Lesbian Substack)
- Thirsty Classics: “Vampyros Lesbos” Invites Us Into the Male Gaze, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Is a Staggering Work of Lesbian Gaze Isabel Sandoval on “Lingua Franca,” Sex Scenes, and the Trans Female Gaze (Drew Burnett Gregory, Autostraddle)
Adapted from: Wikipedia, Le Déjeuner sur l'herb and Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: les trois femmes noires; Rebecca McInerney, The Male Gaze, Art History Perspectives.
Introduction
A Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a stock character type in films. Coined by the film critic Nathan Rabin, who coined the term in his 2007 review "The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File #1: Elizabethtown" which was published in a volume titled My Year of Flops. Of Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005), Rabin said:
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, like some other stock characters such as the Magical Negro, Damsel in Distress, Gay Best Friend, or Girl/Boy Next Door seems to exist only to help the protagonist. The MPDG has no discernible inner life, instead, her central purpose is to provide the protagonist with important life lessons.
Image: Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom as Claire Colburn and Drew Baylor in Elizabethtown (2007).
My Year of Flops by ISBN: 9781439153123Publication Date: 2010-10-19In 2007, Nathan Rabin set out to provide a revisionist look at the history of cinematic failure on a weekly basis. What began as a solitary ramble through the nooks and crannies of pop culture evolved into a way of life. My Year Of Flops collects dozens of the best-loved entries from the A.V. Club column along with bonus interviews and fifteen brand-new entries covering everything from notorious flops like The Cable Guy and Last Action Hero to bizarre obscurities like Glory Road, Johnny Cash's poignantly homemade tribute to Jesus. Driven by a unique combination of sympathy and Schadenfreude, My Year Of Flops is an unforgettable tribute to cinematic losers, beautiful and otherwise.
Criticism
There has been much criticism of the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl, even coming from Nathan Rabin himself (see our section on the Bechdel Test for a similar phenomenon with another massively popular media term). In 2014, Rabin published a piece titled: I'm sorry for coining the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl." In the piece, Rabin notes that the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is useful when discussing how writers treat the interior lives of women, and notes, like the Bechdel Test, when women are being used only to further a man's narrative. Rabin echoes the sentiments of other media critics when he discussed the misuse of the term, for example, when it is being used to describe a real person (for example, Zooey Deschanel) or the actors who play these characters. Ultimately, Rabin called for the term to be retired:
I would welcome its erasure from public discourse. I’d applaud an end to articles about its countless different permutations. Let’s all try to write better, more nuanced and multidimensional female characters: women with rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy, who might strum ukuleles or dance in the rain even when there are no men around to marvel at their free-spiritedness. But in the meantime, Manic Pixies, it’s time to put you to rest.
Video: The Misuse of the Term—Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Trope Anatomy (2017).
Algorithm-defined Fantasy Girl
A similar trope to the MPDG, the Algorithm-defined Fantasy Girl is a robot or artificial intelligence, with the same function as the MPDG: to fulfill the desires of the male character and to help him in his journey without having any desires or journey of her own.
Image: Ana de Armas as Joi in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Adapted from: Rafael Abreu, What is a Stock Character — Definition, Examples & Tropes (2022). Wikipedia, Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Environmental Justice & Earth Day
In recognition of Earth Day, for the month of April the Media Studies department presents a collection of media highlighting issues surrounding environmental justice. Included here are documentaries on issues surrounding environmental justice and climate change in the United States and around the globe. Also featured here are films and books in the genre of climate fiction, showcasing the ways authors and directors are exploring issues surrounding environmental justice and climate change through various genres in the world of film and fiction. Accompanying these highlights from the collection is a collection of songs, showcasing the ways artists across genres are exploring climate change and environmental justice in song.
Further Resources
- "Weaving Musical Spaces of Indigenous Resistance for Environmental Justice" (Undisciplined Environments)
- "The Climate: Hot 100 Songs" (New York Times)
- "Music for Our Emergency" (NPR)
- "Top 16 of the Best Environmental Films of 2020" (Earth.org)
- Climate Fiction Reading List (Goodreads)
Next Steps
If you'd like to engage further with the themes and ideas explored in the resources we've highlighted here, navigate over to the highlight on Environmental Ethics & Aesthetics at the Philosophy Research Guide.
Annihilation by ISBN: 9780374104092Publication Date: 2014-02-04The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with this Nebula Award-winning novel that "reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world" (Kim Stanley Robinson). Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers--they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding--but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Oryx and Crake by ISBN: 0385721676Publication Date: 2004-03-30Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey-with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake-through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
Parable of the Sower by ISBN: 0446675504Publication Date: 2000-01-01This acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from an award-winning author "pairs well with 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale" and includes a foreword by N. K. Jemisin (John Green, New York Times). When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
Oval by ISBN: 9781593764050Publication Date: 2019-06-04Bizarre weather. Unprecedented economic disparity. Artists employed by corporations. And the ultimate work of art: Oval, a pill that increases generosity. This unforgettable debut novel asks questions of empathy and power on every scale--from bodies to bureaucracies--to create an unsettling portrait of the future. In the near future, Berlin's real estate is being flipped in the name of "sustainability," only to make the city even more unaffordable; artists are employed by corporations as consultants, and the weather is acting strange. When Anja and Louis are offered a rent-free home on an artificial mountain--yet another eco-friendly initiative run by a corporation--they seize the opportunity, but it isn't long before the experimental house begins malfunctioning. After Louis's mother dies, Anja is convinced he has changed. At work, Louis has become obsessed with a secret project: a pill called Oval that temporarily rewires the user's brain to be more generous. While Anja is horrified, Louis believes he has found the solution to Berlin's income inequality. Oval is a fascinating portrait of the unbalanced relationships that shape our world, as well as a prescient warning of what the future may hold.
American War by ISBN: 9780451493583Publication Date: 2017-04-04An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle--a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike.
Who Fears Death by ISBN: 9780756406172Publication Date: 2010-06-01Now optioned as a TV series for HBO, with executive producer George R. R. Martin! An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in post-apocalyptic Africa. In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different--special--she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language. It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu--a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her. Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.
The Book of Joan by ISBN: 9780062383273Publication Date: 2017-04-18The bestselling author of The Small Backs of Children offers a vision of our near-extinction and a heroine--a reimagined Joan of Arc--poised to save a world ravaged by war, violence, and greed, and forever change history, in this provocative new novel. In the near future, world wars have transformed the earth into a battleground. Fleeing the unending violence and the planet's now-radioactive surface, humans have regrouped to a mysterious platform known as CIEL, hovering over their erstwhile home. The changed world has turned evolution on its head: the surviving humans have become sexless, hairless, pale-white creatures floating in isolation, inscribing stories upon their skin. Out of the ranks of the endless wars rises Jean de Men, a charismatic and bloodthirsty cult leader who turns CIEL into a quasi-corporate police state. A group of rebels unite to dismantle his iron rule--galvanized by the heroic song of Joan, a child-warrior who possesses a mysterious force that lives within her and communes with the earth. When de Men and his armies turn Joan into a martyr, the consequences are astonishing. And no one--not the rebels, Jean de Men, or even Joan herself--can foresee the way her story and unique gift will forge the destiny of an entire world for generations. A riveting tale of destruction and love found in the direst of places--even at the extreme end of post-human experience--Lidia Yuknavitch's The Book of Joan raises questions about what it means to be human, the fluidity of sex and gender, and the role of art as a means for survival.
The Bear by ISBN: 9781942658719Publication Date: 2020-02-11In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen. A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature's dominion.
Weather by ISBN: 0385351100Publication Date: 2020-02-11Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment, but Lizzie has little chance to spend her new free time with husband and son before her old mentor, Sylvia Liller, makes a proposal. Sylvia has become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, and wants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right-wingers worried about the decline of western civilization. As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she begins to wonder what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls. When her brother becomes a father and Sylvia a recluse, Lizzie is forced to address the limits of her own experience—but still she tries to save everyone, using everything she's learned about empathy and despair, conscience and collusion, from her years of wandering the library stacks...And all the while the voices of the city keep floating in--funny, disturbing, and increasingly mad.
Blue Gold World Water Wars by
Publication Date: 2009Will rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing, and industry increase the demands for fresh water beyond the finite supply? This program examines the role of high-level corporate and political players in the shrinking availability of what is already the most precious substance on Earth. Viewers follow numerous worldwide examples of the struggle for the basic right to water-from local protests at grade schools to the slow deliberation of UN conventions to violent revolutions in developing countries. Distributed by PBS Distribution.Food Inc. by
Publication Date: 2009Explores the U.S. commercial food industry, examining corporate control of supply and market. The film seeks to demonstrate how the incentive for corporate profit can overwhelm consumer health needs, as well as the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and the environment. Reveals various details of food ingredients and additives, and how contemporary mass production methods of food affects U.S. culture.
"Lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profits ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Reveals surprising - and often shocking truths - about what we eat, how it's produced and who we have become as a nation"
An Inconvenient Truth by Publication Date: 2006Former Vice President Al Gore explains the facts of global warming, presents arguments that the dangers of global warning have reached the level of crisis, and addresses the efforts of certain interests to discredit the anti-global warming cause. Between lecture segments, Gore discusses his personal commitment to the environment, sharing anecdotes from his experiences.
Come Hell or High Water by Publication Date: 2015Follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face ordeals that include Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice.
Urban Garden by Publication Date: 2006Many U.S. urban centers were in the deep trouble during the early 1970s. New York City's housing stock and infrastructure were crumbling, crime skyrocketed, and the treasury was bare. There were more than 20,000 abandoned. City owned lots, many used as garbage dumps, drug-shooting galleries and place to abandon cards. In 1973 an artist named Liz Christy founder of the Green Guerillas, got some friends together and reclaimed as garden space an abandoned lot of Manhattan's Lower East Side. This simple act of grass roots activism began the community garden movement. By 2005 it had spread to more than 600 gardens in five boroughs. When Central Park was opened in 1859, it was thought of as green space to "civilize" the newly-arrived masses of immigrants. The community gardens of today represent a totally different sentiment. Here citizens, often from poor and neglected neighborhoods, reclaim public lands to tame a city landscape which they see as totally out of control. What were once open wounds in urban neighborhoods have become places of transcendent beauty and cultural meaning. Yet, since 1998, a pitched battle between then Mayor Rudy Giuliani and community garden activists developed as the city attempted to auction off many of the gardens to real estate developers.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by
Nausicaä is the princess of a rural valley that lives at peace on the edge of a deadly fungal wasteland, until a ship carrying a weapon from a bygone industrial age crashes nearby. When warriors from a far country come to retrieve the artifact, their invasion draws Nausicaä and her people into a sprawling political conflict. Set 1,000 years after a global war that nearly destroyed all life on Earth.
Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest by Publication Date: 2005Batty Koda joins Crysta, Pips and the Beetle Boys to rescue their rainforest from the horrid Hexxus. Zak, a human, is persuaded to stop sawing down the forest after convincing arguments from Crysta.Wall-E by
Publication Date: 2008After hundreds of lonely years, a waste management robot finds a new purpose in life. With only a cockroach for a friend, he finds true love in another robot sent on a mission to Earth to see if it is safe for human life.Koyaanisqatsi by
Publication Date: 2002Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word meaning variously: crazy life, life in turmoil, life disintegrating, life out of balance (the subtitle for this film), and a state of life that calls for another way of life. This film presents a concert of visual images that progresses from purely natural environments to nature as affected by people, and finally to our contemporary urban environment that is devoid of nature. The film is visual with musical accompaniment and some singing. At the end of the movie, title cards describe a Hopi prophecy.
Erin Brockovich by Publication Date: 2000Erin Brockovich is a feisty young mother who convinces attorney Ed Masry to hire her and promptly stumbles upon a momumental law case against a giant corporation. Erin's determined to take on this powerful adversary even though no law firm has dared to do it before. The two begin an incredible and sometimes hilarious fight that will bring a small town to its feet and a huge company to its knees.
Poetry & Poetics in Music & Media
Introduction
In conjunction with National Poetry Month, we are exploring the the connections between the tradition of poetry and the study of poetics within media studies and across media forms.
The relationship between cinema and the written word go back to the origins of film as an artistic medium. Before the advent of sound, dialogue was purveyed through the use of intertitles that could often retain a poetic quality. Beyond this initial connection, there is a constellation of films dating back from the beginning of the film industry that capture the lives of poets and the experience of poetry. Below is just a small sampling of this intimate and synergistic connection between the two art forms.
The Playlist
As an introduction to this feature, we have also created a playlist of music by artists who are renowned as skilled lyricists, sometimes even lauded poets in their own right, as well as songs with lyrics that evoke the rhythm and aesthetics of the poetic tradition. A few of these musicians have also published books of poetry, which you can find in the "Relevant Texts" tab.
To learn more about this music, as well as the history and stakes of positioning of musical lyrics as poetry, check out some of the resources we were inspired by.
- "Song Lyrics Are Poetry" (The New Republic)
- "Music in Poetry: Ballad and Blues Stanzas" (Smithsonian Folkways)
- "The Artists Dismantling the Barriers Between Rap and Poetry" (The New York Times Style Magazines)
- "Can song lyrics ever be poetry?" (BBC News)
- "The Poetry of Song: The synergy of music and lyrics" (Culturico)
- "The Difference Between Poetry and Song Lyrics" (Boston Review)
- "Poetry and Music are More Closely Related than We Think" (The Guardian)
- "Rock Lyrics are Poetry (Maybe)" (Robert Christgau)
- "The Poetry of Pop: Nine Poets on Their Favorite Song Lyrics" (The Paris Review)
- "Musicians Who Are Poets: 12 Game-Changing Lyrical Masters" (udiscovermusic)
Next Steps
If you'd like to engage more deeply with National Poetry Month, the IU Libraries Arts & Humanities department has put together a number of features and guides to showcase our holdings relevant to this month-long celebration of poetry. You'll find those, below:
- Spotlight on Queer Poetry & Poetics (Gender Studies)
- Spotlight on Black LGBTQ+ Poetry (Gender Studies)
- Black American Poets and Poetry (English & American Literature)
Biopics
Feature films centering around the lives of poets.
Kill Your Darlings by A story of friendship, love, and murder in the early 1940s. The story recounts the pivotal year that changed Allen Ginsberg's life forever and provided the spark for him to start his creative revolution. Based on true events and characters.
Before Night Falls by A look at the life of Reinaldo Arenas, from childhood in Cuba to his death in New York City. His writings and homosexuality get him in trouble with Castro's Cuba and he spends two years in prison before leaving for the United States.
Bright Star by Nineteenth century poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, started out as unlikely lovers who were totally at odds with each other. However, when Brawne offers to help Keats nurse his seriously ill brother, the two soon became involved in an unstoppable romance that only his untimely death at age 25 could bring to a shattering end.
The Color of Pomegranates by Stylized biography of noted eighteenth century Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat Nova, based on his writings. It depicts the poet's life in eight sections, from childhood to death, rich with symbols of sacred and secular Armenian life.Il Postino by
Mario is a bumbling mailman who's madly in love with the most beautiful woman in town ... and who's too shy to tell her how he feels. But when a world-famous poet--Pablo Neruda--unexpectedly moves into town, Mario is inspired. With Neruda's help, he finds the right words to win the woman's heart!
Neruda by An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.
Wild Nights with Emily by In the mid-nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson is writing prolifically and enjoying a passionate, romantic relationship with her friend and sister-in-law Susan. While seeking publication of some of her poems, Emily finds herself facing male literary gatekeepers too confused by her genius to take her work seriously. Instead, her work attracts the attention of an ambitious woman editor, who also sees Emily as a convenient cover for her own role in buttoned-up Amherst's most bizarre love triangle.
Films about Poets
Features films about poets and poetry
Blue Car by Quiet high school student, Meg, takes care of her troubled little sister, Lily. Her emotionally unavailable mom is busy at work or school. The family has been under strain and Lily suffers from starvation, delusions, and self mutilation. Meg unleashes her frustrations and pain through her poems, which she shares with her supportive English teacher, Mr. Auster. She wins a regional poetry competition and makes it to the finals in Florida. Meg goes to Florida by herself, where she meets Mr. Auster's wife, Delia, and she finds her relationship with him becoming more complicated.
Dead Poets Society by Robin Williams portrays English professor John Keating, who, in an age of crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest, exclaiming "Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!" The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm--changing their lives forever.
Love Jones by Set in Chicago, a beautiful photographer and a sweet-talking poet get together and discover romance.
Paterson by Paterson is a bus driver in the city of Paterson, New Jersey - they share the name. Every day, Paterson adheres to a simple routine: he drives his daily route, observing the city as it drifts across his windshield and overhearing fragments of conversation swirling around him; he writes poetry into a notebook; he walks his dog; he stops in a bar and drinks exactly one beer. He goes home to his wife, Laura. By contrast, Laura's world is ever changing.Poetic Justice by
A mismatched pair pushed together on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland, find themselves reluctantly attracted to each other, when they are confronted once again by the shocking violence they thought they'd left behind.Poetry by
Mija, a suburban woman in her 60s, begins to grow an interest for poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's disease and her 16-year old grandson, Wook. A young girl commits suicide after being repeatedly raped by a group of juveniles. Sadly, the fathers of the other boys are only interested in protecting their sons from prosecution, silencing the press and school officials, and collecting enough money to pay off the girl's mother. Mija learns from the fathers of the other boys that Wook was one of the six people involved in the rape and wishes to pursue justice.
Slam by Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City. Unable to find a job, Ray copes with the despair and poverty of his neighborhood by using his wits and verbal talent.Things Never Said by
Kal is an emerging spoken-word poetess, someone who willingly speaks her thoughts, but she's an artist who has yet to find her voice. A native of California, Kal has dreams of taking her poems to New York and the infamous Nuyorican stage. Haunted by a miscarriage and saddled with RONNIE, a husband who's angry and without direction - he uses his fists as a form of speech, Kal tries desperately to find an outlet for her struggling voice.
Documentaries
Documentaries about the lives of poets and the impact of poetry in the world
Louder Than a Bomb by
Tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in [Louder than a Bomb,] the world's largest youth slam.Patti Smith: Dream of Life by
Patti Smith is a renowned singer, songwriter, poet and activist. Her music, poetry, and politics are fearless, funny, raw and original. Traces Patti's punk-poet roots through the trials of daily life and untimely deaths that have formed her life and art. Touches on her early days in New York City and includes the people dearest to her, her family, and the political causes she champions.
Poetry in Motion by Called the Woodstock of Poetry by American Film, and Dazzling by the Los Angeles Times, Poetry in Motion is an unprecedented anthology of twenty-four leading North American poets who sing, chant, anything but read their work.We Are Poets by
The poignant tale of six remarkable British teenagers competing in a prestigious poetry competition in Washington D.C. From the streets of inner city Leeds to the stages of the American capital, this documentary charts the personal journeys of poets on the cusp of adulthood, hungry for change and full of fervour. Much more than just a hop across the pond; a resurrection of an ancient art form interwoven with inspiring snapshots of British youth.
Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen Produced in 1965, this classic Canadian documentary is an informal portrait of the Montreal poet, novelist, and songwriter Leonard Cohen. The celebrated Renaissance man was inducted into both the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame; he is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. Shot in black and white, the film captures Cohen as he reads his poetry to a rapt audience. It also depicts him alone and relaxing with family and friends.
W.S. Merwin: A Passion for Poetry and the Natural World by W.S. Merwin is one of the nation's greatest living poets and is the author of more than 50 books. In a house he built on the island of Maui, he cultivates his other life long passion: gardening.
Media Studies
Titles from our collections relevant to poetry and poetics in cinema and media studies.
Cinematic Modernism: modernist poetry and film by ISBN: 0521846218Publication Date: 2005-01-13Susan McCabe juxtaposes the work of four American modernist poets with the techniques and themes of early twentieth-century European avant-garde films. The historical experience of World War One and its aftermath of broken and shocked bodies shaped a preoccupation with fragmentation in both film and literature. Film, montage and camera work provided poets with a vocabulary through which to explore and refashion modern physical and metaphoric categories of the body, including the hysteric, automaton, bisexual and femme fatale. This innovative study explores the impact of new cinematic modes of representation on the poetry of Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, H. D., and Marianne Moore. Cinematic Modernism links the study of literary forms with film studies, visual culture, gender studies and psychoanalysis to expand the usual parameters of literary modernism.
The Cinema of Poetry by ISBN: 9780199337026Publication Date: 2014-12-03Informed by the criticism of iconic filmmaker Pier Pasolini, The Cinema of Poetry offers spirited explorations of poetry's influence on classic films by Dimitri Kirsanoff, Ingmar Bergman, and Andrey Tarkovsky. It also highlights how avant-garde films made by Joseph Cornell, Lawrence Jordan,Jerome Hiler, Gregory Markopoulos, and others found rich, unexpected sources of inspiration in a diverse group of poets that includes Stephane Mallarme, Emily Dickinson, H.D., Ezra Pound, Robert Duncan, John Ashbery, and Aeschylus.Written with verve and panache, it represents the culmination of P. Adams Sitney's career-long fascination with the intersection of poetry, film, and the avant-garde.
Poetics of Cinema by ISBN: 9780415977784Publication Date: 2007-10-26Bringing together twenty-five years of work on what he has called the "historical poetics of cinema," David Bordwell presents an extended analysis of a key question for film studies: how are films made, in particular historical contexts, in order to achieve certain effects? For Bordwell, films are made things, existing within historical contexts, and aim to create determinate effects. Beginning with this central thesis, Bordwell works out a full understanding of how films channel and recast cultural influences for their cinematic purposes. With more than five hundred film stills, Poetics of Cinema is a must-have for any student of cinema.
A Cinema of Poetry: aesthetics of the Italian art film by ISBN: 9781421411668Publication Date: 2014-06-30Explores the poetics and aesthetics of the Italian art film in Rossellini, Antonioni, Fellini, and other groundbreaking directors. A Cinema of Poetry brings Italian film studies into dialogue with fields outside its usual purview by showing how films can contribute to our understanding of aesthetic questions that stretch back to Homer. Joseph Luzzi considers the relation between film and literature, especially the cinematic adaptation of literary sources and, more generally, the fields of rhetoric, media studies, and modern Italian culture. The book balances theoretical inquiry with close readings of films by the masters of Italian cinema: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and others. Luzzi's study is the first to show how Italian filmmakers address such crucial aesthetic issues as the nature of the chorus, the relation between symbol and allegory, the literary prehistory of montage, and the place of poetry in cinematic expression--what Pasolini called the "cinema of poetry." While Luzzi establishes how certain qualities of film--its link with technological processes, capacity for mass distribution, synthetic virtues (and vices) as the so-called total art--have reshaped centuries-long debates, A Cinema of Poetry also explores what is specific to the Italian art film and, more broadly, Italian cinematic history. In other words, what makes this version of the art film recognizably "Italian"?
Movement As Meaning in Experimental Cinema: the musical poetry of motion pictures revisited by ISBN: 9781501329845Publication Date: 2017-08-10Movement as Meaning in Experimental Cinema offers sweeping and cogent arguments as to why analytic philosophers should take experimental cinema seriously as a medium for illuminating mechanisms of meaning in language. Using the analogy of the movie projector, Barnett deconstructs all communication acts into functions of interval, repetition and context. He describes how Wittgenstein's concepts of family resemblance and language games provide a dynamic perspective on the analysis of acts of reference. He then develops a hyper-simplified formula of movement as meaning to discuss, with true equivalence, the process of reference as it occurs in natural language, technical language, poetic language, painting, photography, music, and of course, cinema. Barnett then applies his analytic technique to an original perspective on cine-poetics based on Paul Valery's concept of omnivalence, and to a projection of how this style of analysis, derived from analog cinema, can help us clarify our view of the digital mediasphere and its relation to consciousness. Informed by the philosophy of Quine, Dennett, Merleau-Ponty as well as the later work of Wittgenstein, among others, he uses the film work of Stan Brakhage, Tony Conrad, A.K. Dewdney, Nathaniel Dorsky, Ken Jacobs, Owen Land, Saul Levine, Gregory Markopoulos Michael Snow, and the poetry of Basho, John Cage, John Cayley and Paul Valery to illustrate the power of his unique perspective on meaning.
Verse, Voice, and Vision: poetry and the cinema by ISBN: 9780810892095Publication Date: 2013-09-26Although it is a somewhat underrepresented form of literature in popular sensibility, poetry finds relevance in the modern world through its appearance in cinema. Film adaptations of poems and depictions of poets on the screen date back to the silent era and continue to the present day. However, there have been few serious studies of how cinema has represented the world of poetic expression. In Verse, Voice, and Vision: Poetry and the Cinema, Marlisa Santos has compiled essays that explore the relationship between one of the world's oldest art forms--poetry--and one of the world's newest art forms--film. The book is divided into three sections: poets on film, poetry as film, and film as poetry. Topics include analyses of poet biopics (such as Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle), filmic representations of poets or poetic studies (including Pyaasa), films inspired by particular poems (such as Splendor in the Grass), and the avant-garde phenomenon of the "poem-film" (such as The Tree of Life). Poetic influences considered in this volume range from William Shakespeare to e.e. cummings, and the films discussed hail from several different countries, including the U.S., the U.K., India, China, Italy, and Argentina. Featuring a great diversity in the age, genres, and countries of origin of the films, these essays provide an in-depth look at how poetry has been interpreted on film over the years. By addressing a heretofore unexamined aspect of film studies, Verse, Voice, and Vision will appeal to fans and scholars of both literature and cinema.
Tarkovsky: cinema as poetry by ISBN: 0571147097Publication Date: 1990-02-01Attempting to convey the cultural milieu from which Tarkovsky comes, the author of this book, a Russian film critic, had personally known Tarkovsky since the very beginning of his career. She has had access to the archives of Mosfilm Studios where the early drafts and notes on his films are kept.
The Poetics of Poetry Film by ISBN: 9781789382686Publication Date: 2021-06-13Set to generate discussions in the field for years to come, The Poetics of Poetry Film is an encyclopedic work on the ever-evolving art of the poetry film. Poetry films are a genre of short film usually involving three main elements: the poem as verbal message, the moving film image and diegetic sounds, and additional non-diegetic sounds or music, which create a soundscape. In this book, Sarah Tremlett examines the formal characteristics of the poetic in poetry film, film poetry, and videopoetry, particularly in relation to lyric voice and time. Tremlett sets the emergence and history of poetry film in its proper global context, defining and debating terms both philosophically and materially. Showcasing the work of an international array of practitioners, The Poetics of Poetry Film includes interviews, analysis, and a rigorous investigation of the history of the genre, from its origins to the present. This is an industry bible for anyone interested in poetry, digital media, filmmaking, art, and creative writing, as well as poetry filmmakers.
New Media Poetics by ISBN: 0262134632Publication Date: 2006-06-16Extending our understanding of the computer as an expressive medium, this text traces the lineage of media poetry through sound poetics, procedural writing, gestural abstraction and conceptual art, and activist communities formed by emergent poetics.
Intersections between Music & Poetry
Selections of titles from our collections exploring the intersections between music and poetry.
The Poetry of Pop by ISBN: 9780300165029Publication Date: 2017-03-28From Tin Pan Alley to the Beatles to Beyoncé, "Mr. Bradley skillfully breaks down a century of standards and pop songs into their elements to reveal the interaction of craft and art in composition and performance." (The Wall Street Journal) Encompassing a century of recorded music, this pathbreaking book reveals the poetic artistry of popular songs. Pop songs are music first. They also comprise the most widely disseminated poetic expression of our time. Adam Bradley traces the song lyric across musical genres from early twentieth-century Delta blues to mid-century rock 'n' roll to today's hits. George and Ira Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythm." The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Rihanna's "Diamonds." These songs are united in their exacting attention to the craft of language and sound. Bradley shows that pop music is a poetry that must be heard more than read, uncovering the rhythms, rhymes, and metaphors expressed in the singing voice. At once a work of musical interpretation, cultural analysis, literary criticism, and personal storytelling, this book illustrates how words and music come together to produce compelling poetry, often where we least expect it.]]>
The Poetics of American Song Lyrics by ISBN: 9781617031564Publication Date: 2011-12-30The Poetics of American Song Lyrics is the first collection of academic essays that regards songs as literature and that identifies intersections between the literary histories of poems and songs. The essays by well-known poets and scholars including Pulitzer Prize winner Claudia Emerson, Peter Guralnick, Adam Bradley, David Kirby, Kevin Young, and many others, locate points of synthesis and separation so as to better understand both genres and their crafts. The essayists share a desire to write on lyrics in a way that moves beyond sociological, historical, and autobiographical approaches and explicates songs in relation to poetics. Unique to this volume, the essays focus not on a single genre but on folk, rap, hip hop, country, rock, indie, soul, and blues.The first section of the book provides a variety of perspectives on the poetic history and techniques within songs and poems, and the second section focuses on a few prominent American songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Michael Stipe. Through conversational yet in-depth analyses of songs, the essays discuss sonnet forms, dramatic monologues, Modernism, ballads, blues poems, confessionalism, Language poetry, Keatsian odes, unreliable narrators, personas, poetic sequences, rhythm, rhyme, transcription methods, the writing process, and more. While the strategies of explication differ from essay to essay, the nexus of each piece is an unveiling of the poetic history and poetic techniques within songs.
The Poetry of Punk: the meaning behind punk rock and hardcore lyrics by ISBN: 9781138502345Publication Date: 2018-05-14Punk bands have produced an abundance of poetic texts, some crude, some elaborate, in the form of song lyrics. These lyrics are an ideal means by which to trace the developments and explain the conflicts and schisms that have shaped, and continue to shape, punk culture. They can be described as the community¿s collective ¿poetic voice,¿ and they come in many different forms. Their themes range from romantic love to emotional distress to radical politics. Some songs are intended to entertain, some to express strong feelings, some to provoke, some to spread awareness, and some to foment unrest. Most have an element of confrontation, of kicking against the pricks. Socially and epistemologically, they play a central role in the scene¿s internal discourse, shaping communities and individual identities. The Poetry of Punk is an investigation into the Anglophone punk culture, specifically in the UK and the US, where punk originated in the mid-1970s, its focus being on the song lyrics written and performed by punk rock and hardcore artists.
The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk by ISBN: 9781501359910Publication Date: 2020-09-03By reinterpreting 20th-century poetry as a listening to and writing through noise, The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk constructs a literary history of noise through poetic sound and performance. This book traces how poets figure noise in the disfiguration of poetic voice. Materializing in the threshold between the heard and the unheard, noise emerges in the differentiation and otherness of sound. It arises in the folding of an "outside" into the "inside" of poetic performance both on and off the page. Through a series of case studies ranging from verse by ear-witnesses to the First World War, Dadaist provocations, jazz modernist song and poetry, early New York City punk rock, contemporary sound poetry, and noise music, The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk describes productive failures of communication that theorize listening against the grain of sound's sense.
"Do You Have a Band?": poetry and punk rock in New York City by ISBN: 9780231162968Publication Date: 2017-07-25During the late 1960s, throughout the 1970s, and into the 1980s, New York City poets and musicians played together, published each other, and inspired one another to create groundbreaking art. In "Do You Have a Band?", Daniel Kane reads deeply across poetry and punk music to capture this compelling exchange and its challenge to the status of the visionary artist, the cultural capital of poetry, and the lines dividing sung lyric from page-bound poem. Kane reveals how the new sounds of proto-punk and punk music found their way into the poetry of the 1960s and 1970s downtown scene, enabling writers to develop fresh ideas for their own poetics and performance styles. Likewise, groups like The Fugs and the Velvet Underground drew on writers as varied as William Blake and Delmore Schwartz for their lyrics. Drawing on a range of archival materials and oral interviews, Kane also shows how and why punk musicians drew on and resisted French Symbolist writing, the vatic resonance of the Beat chant, and, most surprisingly and complexly, the New York Schools of poetry. In bringing together the music and writing of Richard Hell, Patti Smith, and Jim Carroll with readings of poetry by Anne Waldman, Eileen Myles, Ted Berrigan, John Giorno, and Dennis Cooper, Kane provides a fascinating history of this crucial period in postwar American culture and the cultural life of New York City.
Poetry Collections by Musicians
Selected poetry collections by writers best-known as musicians, from our holdings
Joni Mitchell by ISBN: 0609600087Publication Date: 1997-11-04t, and reflective power, Joni Mitchell is one of the most admired and influential singers and songwriters. This collection of her song lyrics reads like a poem cycle that finds unexpected meaning and beauty in coming to learn that something's lost, but something's gained, in living every day. 20 line drawings.
The Coral Sea by ISBN: 9780393341355Publication Date: 2012-01-24Through the linked pieces of The Coral Sea, Patti Smith honors her comrade-in-arms Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). She tells the story of a man on an ocean journey to see the Southern Cross, who is reflecting on his life and fighting the illness that is consuming him. Metaphoric and dreamy, this tale of transformation arises from Smith's knowledge of Mapplethorpe from a young man to a mature artist; his close relationship with patron and friend, Sam Wagstaff; his years surviving AIDS; and his ascent into death. The Coral Sea is Smith's lyrically compelling recasting of her grief to recapture Mapplethorpe's life in the past and his future in his art. Rich in evocative details, it shows the man beneath the persona.This edition features a new introduction and new material by Smith.
Book of Longing by ISBN: 9780061125584Publication Date: 2006-05-09An iconic poetry collection from American luminary Leonard Cohen, containing some of his most significant verse Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing--his first book of poetry in more than twenty years after 1984's Book of Mercy--during his five-year stay at a Zen monastery on Southern California's Mount Baldy, and in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mumbai. This dazzling collection is enhanced by the author's playful and provocative drawings, which interact in exciting, unexpected ways on the page with poetry that is timeless, meditative, and often darkly humorous. An international sensation, Book of Longing contains all the elements that have brought Cohen's artistry with language worldwide recognition.
The Rose That Grew from Concrete by ISBN: 9780671028442Publication Date: 1999-11-01Tupac Shakur's most intimate and honest thoughts were uncovered only after his death with the instant classic The Rose That Grew from Concrete. His talent was unbounded a raw force that commanded attention and respect. His death was tragic--a violent homage to the power of his voice. His legacy is indomitable--as vibrant and alive today as it has ever been. This collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions. Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy--and his ultimate message of hope.
Tarantula by ISBN: 0312105541Publication Date: 1993-11-15A collection of urban poetry features poems that echo the wordplay and street-savvy rhythms of Dylan's popular songs. Original. 15,000 first printing.
Actual Air by ISBN: 1890447048Publication Date: 2000-02-22David Berman reinvents the overlooked and seemingly ordinary details of everyday life--from the suitcase of a departing girlfriend to a baseboard electrical outlet. His poems chart a course through his own highly original American dreamscape in language that is fresh, accessible, and remarkably precise. This debut collection has received extraordinary acclaim from readers and reviewers alike and is quickly becoming a cult classic. As Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate said, "These poems are beautiful, strange, intelligent, and funny. . . . It's a book for everyone."
Hard Ground by ISBN: 9780292726499Publication Date: 2011-03-01Michael O'Brien got out of his car one day in 1975 and sought the acquaintance of a man named John Madden who lived under an overpass. Their initial contact grew into a friendship that O'Brien chronicled for the Miami News, where he began his career as a staff photographer. O'Brien's photo essays conveyed empathy for the homeless and the disenfranchised and won two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. In 2006, O'Brien reconnected with the issue of homelessness and learned the problem has grown exponentially since the 1970s, with as many as 3.5 million adults and children in America experiencing homelessness at some point in any given year. In Hard Ground, O'Brien joins with renowned singer-songwriter Tom Waits, described by the New York Times as "the poet of outcasts," to create a portrait of homelessness that impels us to look into the eyes of people who live "on the hard ground" and recognize our common humanity. For Waits, who has spent decades writing about outsiders, this subject is familiar territory. Combining their formidable talents in photography and poetry, O'Brien and Waits have crafted a work in the spirit of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, in which James Agee's text and Walker Evans's photographs were "coequal, mutually independent, and fully collaborative" elements. Letting words and images communicate on their own terms, rather than merely illustrate each other, Hard Ground transcends documentary and presents independent, yet powerfully complementary views of the trials of homelessness and the resilience of people who survive on the streets.
A Night Without Armor by ISBN: 0060191988Publication Date: 1998-05-19I've learned that not allpoetry lends itself to music -- some thoughts needto be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible part[s] of our selves that are so essential to peace, to openheartedness, to unfolding the vision and the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls. - Jewel, From the Preface Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect. In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the fading of passion, the giving of trust, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy. She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce. And then there are the images of the road, the people, the bars, the planes, places exotic and mundane, loneliness and friendship. Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.
Now And Then: The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron by ISBN: 9780862419004Publication Date: 2000-05-01One glance at Now and Then and it becomes evident that this is not merely a collection of a songwriter's lyrics. The song-poems of this undisputed "bluesologist" triumphantly stand on their own, evoking the rhythm and urgency which have distinguished Gil Scott-Heron's career. This, the first ever collection of his poems to be published in Britain, carries the reader from the global topics of political hypocrisy and the dangers posed by capitalist culture to painfully personal themes and the realities of modern day life. His message is black, political, historically accurate, urgent, uncompromising and mature and as relevant now as it was when he started, back in the early seventies.
Ani Difranco by ISBN: 9781583228234Publication Date: 2007-09-04With eight Grammy nominations and sales of over 4.5 million, Ani DiFranco is one of the most independent and beloved musicians, as well as an outspoken voice of conscience. For the first time, she releases a book of poetry and paintings, capturing her essential artistry, which has helped her define and invigorate a new generation. With a poet's precision and and a citizen's stake, DiFranco finds the meeting places of intimacy and politics, of self and country, of resolve and compromise, and of the fickle and magnificent capacities of love and solitude.
Useless Magic by ISBN: 9780525577157Publication Date: 2018-07-10Lyrics and never-before-seen poetry and sketches from the iconic musician of Florence and the Machine Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic.
A selection of scholarly articles from a variety of journals, highlighting the intersections between media studies and poetry:
- Bryant, Marsha. “Epic Encounters: The Modernist Long Poem Goes to the Movies.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 37, no. 4, Summer 2014, pp. 70–90.
- Kyriaki Frantzi. “Mediterranean Poetics in Roviros Manthoulis’ Documentary Films.” Mediterranean Review, vol. 11, no. 1, June 2018, p. 39.
- Zauderer, Elizabeth Faye. “Poetics in Motion: Appropriating C. K. Williams’s Poetics in Film — The Case of Tar.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 102–24.
- Darrell Varga. “New Nonfiction Film: Art, Poetics, and Documentary Theory, by Dara Waldron.” Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, no. 18, Dec. 2019, pp. 253–57.
- Stock, Ann Marie. “Talking Back, Looking Ahead: The Revisionist Cine-Poetry of Tino Villanueva.” BILINGUAL REVIEW, vol. 23, no. 3, Sept. 1998, pp. 237–47.
- Chasar, Mike. “‘Overlook the Poem, but Look the Picture Over’: On the History of Poetry and American Silent Film.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 59, no. 1, 2019, pp. 23–43.
A selection of scholarly articles considering the relationship between poetry and music:
- Goethals, Lucien, and Gust Gils. “The Relationship between Poetry and Music. A Conversation between Lucien Goethals, Composer and Gust Gils, Poet.” Revue Belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift Voor Muziekwetenschap, vol. 54, Societe Belge de Musicologie, 2000, pp. 73–86.
- Dabney, J. P. “The Relation between Music and Poetry.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 3, Oxford University Press, 1927, pp. 377–83.
- Hillier, Russell M. “‘Send Back Thy Fire Again’: Praise, Music, and Poetry in the Lyrics of George Herbert.” Modern Language Review, vol. 111, no. 3, July 2016, pp. 633–64.
- Astor, Pete. “The Poetry of Rock: Song Lyrics Are Not Poems but the Words Still Matter; Another Look at Richard Goldstein’s Collection of Rock Lyrics.” Popular Music, vol. 29, no. 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 143–48.
- Gasta, Chad M. “‘Señora, Donde Hay Música No Puede Haber Cosa Mala’: Music, Poetry, and Orality in ‘Don Quijote.’” Hispania, vol. 93, no. 3, Sept. 2010, pp. 357–67.
A selection of resources for further exploration around the topics featured in this highlight:
- "Poetry and Music: Poems about Music" (Poetry Foundation)
- "Poems about Music" (Poets.org)
- "Poems about Music and Its Power" (Book Riot)
- "Seven Instrumental/Classical Pieces Inspired by Poetry" (All Classical)
- "Wax Poetic: Poetry Books By Your Favorite Musicians" (Discogs)
- "Poetry By Your Favorite Musicians" (Book Riot)
- "It’s #NationalPoetryDay! Here Are Some Musicians Who Are Also Published Poets" (Musicians Institute)
- "16 Poet Biopics, Ranked" (Literary Hub)
- "The Best Poetry-Themed Movies to Watch Right Now" (Dandelion Chandelier)
- Poetry Documentaries (Poetry Foundation)