Id 0057 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 1997
queering cinema

The social construction of the "responsible" homo economicus is due not so much

to "threats and violence" (Dews 1984: 83) as through "the gaze of the other which makes possible the corresponding self-surveillance." Foucault (1979) got this central insight for queer theory by appreciating the implications of Jeremy Bentham's proposal for a Panopticon, a "production-efficient," cost-saving prison where one guard's gaze disciplines multiple prisoners. "Discipline and Punish ... lays greater stress than earlier works on the manner in which the epistemic function of the gaze interweaves with its moralizing function. Panoptic power isolates and individualizes, transforming its targets into possible objects of cognition. 'That moment when the sciences of men became possible is the moment when a new technology of power and a new political anatomy of the body were implemented.' Lastly the notion of panoptic power is generalized to provide an account of the overall structuring of social relations in modern societies. The unidirectional link which the gaze establishes between the unity of the observer and the multiplicity of the observed [again the hard/soft-ware of the amygdala appears] provides a metaphor for the anonymous centralisation of modern power." (Dews 1984: 85-86 with inner quotes from Foucault 1979: 193)

This is a course in queer studies on filmic language. Queer studies looks at

the social articulation of Other, of Queer, tied to erotic desire. All social institutions including setting boundaries for Otherness are lingual: they get their meaning and collective power through language. Although verbal-symbolic lingual institutions are manifestly important and are most studied, visual and semiotic institutions also support potent social lingual systems via the gaze, via prosopopeia, via filmic language. Indeed, cinema is especially apt for capturing much that eludes verbal articulation. We shall explore the use of filmic metaphors over a range of cultural conditions, ranging from Otto Preminger's Laura to Monika Treut's Virgin Machine, from Donna Deitch's Desert Hearts to Isaac Julien's Looking for Langston. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get the "first" queer film, Un Chant d'Amour which Cocteau made with Jean Genet when they were briefly lovers immediately after WWII. However, since Genet was the first to develop a fully queer portfolio (although Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley push hard for this title of deviancy) we shall look at - make videos of ? ? - his first two plays, Les Bonnes and Haut surveillance. With these exercises I hope that we shall gain an introduction to queer cinema.

Written class-pieces (20 points each) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 points
Video production (20 for "log" and 20 for team-produced video) . . . . . 40
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

80 . . . . . . . . . . . A-
70 . . . . . . . . . . . B-
60 . . . . . . . . . . . C-

Bad Object Choice (ed), How Do I Look ?: Queer Film and Video 1991 Seattle: Bay Press. PN1995.9.H55 H69 1991 (2 copies)

Richard Dyer, Now you see it: Studies on lesbian and gay film 1990 New York: Routledge. PN1995.9.H55 D94 1990 (2 copies)

Lee Edelman, Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory 1994 New York: Routledge PS153.G38 E34 1993

Martha Gever, Pratibha Parmar, and John Greyson (eds), Queer Looks: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video 1993 New York: Routledge PN1995.9.H55 Q4 1993

Tamsin Wilton (ed), Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the moving image 1994 New York: Routledge. PN1995.9.L48 I45 1995

Mapplethorpe, Robert, Black book 1986 New York: St. Martin's Press TR681.M4 M36 1986 -- Oversize

The following are on 3 day reserve:
(They are in the regular stacks, not at the Reserve Desk, and can be checked out for 3 days.)

Genet, Jean, Les bonnes PQ2613 E53 B6 1976 (2 copies)

Genet, Jean, Haute surveillance PQ2613 E53 H3 1965



(NOT on Reserve at the Library) Bray, Alan. 1982 Homosexuality in Renaissance England. London: Gay Men's Press.

Dews, Peter. 1984. Power and subjectivity in Foucault. New Left Review 144: 72-95.

Foucault, Michel. 1967. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Richard Howard (trans.). London: Tavistock.

Foucault, Michel. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language. A. M. Sheridan Smith (trans.). New York: Pantheon.

Foucault, Michel. 1973. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. A. M. Sheridan Smith (trans.). New York: Pantheon.

Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality, vol. I : An Introduction. 1990 edition. New York: Vintage Books (Random House).

Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Alan Sheridan (trans.). 1995 edition. New York: Vintage Books (Random House).

Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. Colin Gordon (ed.). New York: Pantheon.

Foucault, Michel. 1988. "Le gai savoir," (II) Mec Magazine 6-7. (July-August): 30-33.

Halperin, David M. 1995. Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press.

de Lauretis, Teresa. 1991. Queer theory: lesbian and gay sexualities. An introduction differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 3(2): iii-xviii.

de Lauretis, Teresa. 1989. The essence of the triangle or, taking the risk of essentialism seriously: feminist theory in Italy, the U.S., and Britain. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 1(2): 3-37.