CMCL-C 392: Media Genres
(Topic: Body Genres: Melodrama, Horror, and Pornography)
Class Number: 11387
Summer Session I

MTuWThF, 11:45 AM-1:00 PM, Location: TBA
Required film screenings: M and W, 7:00 PM-10:00 PM

Meets with GNDR-G 302
A portion of this course reserved for majors

Fulfills COLL A&H Requirement

Instructor: Sarah E.S. Sinwell
E-Mail: ssinwell@indiana.edu
Office: Memorial Hall West M 09

Taking Linda Williams’ essay, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and
Excess,” as its foundation, this course will be an investigation of
body genres within the cinema. To this end, we will focus on
melodrama, horror, and pornography as film genres that are
especially prone to excess, as well as the incorporation of the
spectator’s body. We will also map out the gendered, raced and
sexualized nature of bodies within the context of films that are not
usually classified within the body genre. Thus, by the end of this
course, students should not only be able to demonstrate their
familiarity with these genres, but also imagine the ways in which
these genres intertwine through their mediation with other genres
(such as the action film) as well as through their representations
within an international context. Students will also have the
opportunity to delve into how our own bodies off-screen respond to
these genres.


•Course will be a mixture of lecture, small and large group
discussion, and required film screenings.

•Authors studied will include Linda Williams, Thomas Schatz, Thomas
Elsaesser, Sharon Willis, Steve Neale, Philippa Gates, Carol Clover,
Barbara Creed, Isabel Cristina Pinedo, Audre Lorde, Gertrude Koch,
Casey McKittrick, and John Cawelti.

•Screenings will include Imitation of Life, Far From Heaven, The
Killer, Peeping Tom, Candyman, Romance, Happiness, and Old Boy.

•Assignments will include student presentations, three film
analyses, an autobiographical body analysis, a final paper proposal
and a final paper.

Students should feel free to contact the instructor for more
information at ssinwell@indiana.edu.