FINALTAKE-HOMEEXAMQUESTIONS
INSTRUCTIONS
Writethreeseparateshortessays(650-750wordseachessay,approximately2.5-3pages each),answeringthefollowingquestions.PleasedoNOTsimplyrepeattheargumentpresentedinclass;trytofindanoriginalangleorapproachthatwilltakeyoubeyondclasslectures.
ItisdueonApril17,2015.
***NoteonUsingTheoreticalSources:theessaysyouchooseneednotbetheonesthatwereassignedonthesyllabusthesamedayasthefilmwasscreened.Inotherwords,you mayfindreadingsfromotherweekshelpfulinmakingyourargument,sodon’tbereluctanttocreatenew,potentiallyilluminatingpairings.Makesuretoprovideproper citations(i.e.includingpagenumbers)intheMLAorChicagostyle.
QUESTIONS
Please follow the instructions carefully and answer the following questions thoughtfully
Q1.Chooseonefilmwehavewatchedinitsentiretythissemester,andanalyzetherelationshipbetweenitsaestheticsandpolitics.Inansweringthisquestion,makesuretospecifythepolitics(e.g.genderpolitics,sexuality,theliberationoftheThirdWorld, neocolonialism,nation-building,censorship,etc.)youdecidetofocusinthefilm.
How doestheformandstyleofthefilmreflect,amplify,complicate,orundermineitspolitics?Bespecificabouthowparticulartechniques(i.e.camerawork,editing,aspectsofthemise-en-scène,sound,etc.)createeffectsthatenhanceorchallengetheostensiblepoliticalmeaningofthefilm.
Inyouressay,youshouldmeaningfullyincorporatetheideasofoneortwotheoreticalorcriticalsourcesfromthecoursepackinorderto bolsteryourargument.Howdotheideasofyourchosencritics,theoristsorhistorians illuminatethetensionbetweenaestheticsandpoliticsthatyoufocusoninyourfilmicinterpretation?Asthisisnotaresearchpaper,wedonotexpectyoutoresearchyourfilmbeyondthesesources.Nonetheless,youmustproperlyciteallofyoursources,including films.
Resources:
Film: Raise the Red Lantern(ZhangYimou, 1991, China, 125min)
Related politics: Gender politics, Patriarchate, sexuality
Film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWtAK_YCrTw
Reading Lists for critical resources for answering the questions (use one or two):
1. Rey Chow, “The Force of Surfaces: Defiance in Zhang Yimou’s Films”,PrimitivePassions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema,New York: Colombia UP,142-172.
Link:http://www.jonvonkowallis.com/readers/ARTS2453/109-125-Rey_Chow-The_Force_of_Surfaces.pdf
(this reading is very important which talks about gender politics and sexuality)
2. Jinhua Dai, “Severed Bridge: the Art of the Sons’ Generation” in Cinema andDesire: Feminist Marxism and Cultural Politics in the Works of Dai Jinhua, ed. J. Wang andT.E. Barlow. London, New York: Verso 2002, 13-48
(Unfortunately I only had a hard copy for this reading from my course pack and I could not find an online resource. If you could not find it you could focus more on the first reading for the critical source, or message me and I will take pictures and send you this reading. )
3. Victor Fan, “Approaching Reality: Epistemic Distance, Political Crises andTemporalImaginations in the Sino-French Dialogue on CinemaOntology.”
Link: http://www.worldpicturejournal.com/WP_7/PDFs/Fan.pdf
**For the second reading by Jinhua Dai, I’ve wrote a film review Red Sorghum directed by Yimou Zhang before, and I’ve quoted serval sentences from Dai’s reading. I will also include this paragraph below, but of course you could just focus on the first reading by Rey Chow because she talks more on sexuality and gender politics:
In Dai Jinhua’sSevered Bridge: The Art of the Sons’ Generation, she examines the relationships between the Fifth Generation filmmakers’ traumatic experiences during the Cultural Revolution and how this trauma is reflected in their films. She refers to their films as “the art of the Sons” (Dai, 1999: 14). Dai argues that the way that the Fifth Generation filmmakers expressed their personal experiences in their films represented a coming of age of the sons who faced the prospect of contending with the new threat of globalization. In films like Yellow Earth and Red Sorghum, these filmmakers not only portrayed their search for the roots of Chinese culture and identity, which the Fifth Generation lost during the Cultural Revolution, but also sought to portray their criticism of traditional values and the Confucian doctrines that determined the way females were treated in society. In the eyes of Dai, Red Sorghum reveals female sexuality and the death of the female character mirrors that of a sacrificial lamb. Dai argues that the way in which the female characters are treated in these films portrays them as scapegoats who are used for the good of “the collective male society’s coming of age” (Dai, 1999: 43).
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If you are not familiar with this film, here is another film you could choose. I will also provide you the reading lists related to this film:
Sedmikrásky(Daisies), VěraChytilová (Czech,1966)
Related politics: sexuality, gender politics
Film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoO3ZLmi2Is
Readings:
1. Alexandre Astruc. “The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: La Caméra-Stylo ” The NewWave; CriticalLandmarks.Ed.Graham,PeterJohn.GardenCity,N.Y.:Doubleday,1968.31-38.
2. Gregory Nowell Smith, “From Polish Cinema to Czech New Waves and Beyond”from
Making Waves: New Cinemas of the 1960s (Continuum,2007).
3. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “Narrativizing Visual Culture: Towards aPolycentricVisual Culture,” in The Visual Culture Reader (New York: Routledge, 2002)37-59.
4. Claire Johnston, “Women’s Cinema as Counter Cinema.” Movies and Methods,An Anthology, ed. Bill Nichols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967;208-21
(I could not find the online sources for these readings, I only had the hard copy, if you decide to write this film could you please find the above readings? You must use at least one of them as your critical research. If you need the readings please message me I could also take pictures from my course pack and send them to you)
