Cinematic Howling: Women's Films, Women's Film Theories

by Hoi Cheu

Overview

Cinematic Howling presents a refreshingly unorthodox framework for feminist film studies. Instead of criticizing mainstream movies from feminist perspectives, Hoi Cheu focuses on women’s filmmaking itself. Integrating systems theory and feminist aesthetics in his close readings of films and screenplays by women, he considers how women engage the process of storytelling in cinema. The importance of these films, he argues, is not merely that they reflect women’s perceptions, but that they have the power to reframe experiences and, consequently, to transform life.

A major contribution to feminist scholarship that will appeal to scholars of both gender and film, Cinematic Howling is written in an approachable and inviting style, full of vivid examples and attention to detail, which will suit both undergraduate and graduate courses in gender, film, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774813785
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	05/15/2007
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	216 - 3 Months

About the Author

Hoi F. Cheu teaches film theory and applied media aesthetics at Laurentian University, where he is the Director of the Centre for Humanities Research and Creativity.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1 Feminist Film Theory and the Postfeminist Era: Disney's Mulan

2 Howling for Multitudes: Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves

3 The Female Authorial Voice: Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima mon amour

4 Beyond Freud and Lacan: Susan Streitfeld's Female Perversions

5 Cathartic Meta-narrative: Léa Pool's Lost and Delirious and Barbara Sweet's Perfect Pie (Two Scripts by Judith Thompson)

6 Diasporic Imagination and Transcultural Identity: Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967

7 Representing Representation: Agnès Varda's Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond)

8 From Text to Context: Metadocumentary and Skyworks

9 Filling the Theory Vacuum: Marleen Gorris' Antonia

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A timely and important book for feminist film and cultural studies. Cheu is sensitive to the films and literature he treats. He posits an original framework for thinking about women’s writing and for situating feminist debates on gender identity and writing within theories of transnational culture and politics."—Janine Marchessault, Canada Research Chair in Art and Digital Media, York University

Janine Marchessault

A timely and important book for feminist film and cultural studies. Cheu is sensitive to the films and literature he treats. He posits an original framework for thinking about women’s writing and for situating feminist debates on gender identity and writing within theories of transnational culture and politics.