Feminist Film Theory: A Reader

by Sue Thornham (Editor)

Maps 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.

Contributors include Judith Butler, Carol J. Clover, Barbara Creed, Michelle Citron, Mary Ann Doane, Teresa De Lauretis, Jane Gaines, Christine Gledhill, Molly Haskell, bell hooks, Claire Johnston, Annette Kuhn, Julia Lesage, Judith Mayne, Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, B. Ruby Rich, Kaja Silverman, Sharon Smith, Jackie Stacey, Janet Staiger, Anna Marie Taylor, Valerie Walkerdine, and Linda Williams.

Genres: Film, Feminism, Nonfiction, Academic, Essays, School, Philosophy

361 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rightly includes Mulvey, but adds a layer with race and class that takes this beyond Feminism or Film 101.

[Meiver · Rating 4 out of 5]

good compilation on the subject! helpful reference.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense at times, but a good introduction to feminist thought on film. One criticism is that an essay towards the end points out that many collections of feminist thought like to include an essay or two from women of color as a show of "diversity" but that it exactly what happens in this reader too - the essays that deal with spectatorship or gaze that take into account race or sexuality are just kind of lumped together at the end.

[Ketab Dozd · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب مجموعه‌ای از مقالاته که بصورت فصل به فصل مسائلی که تا اونموقع در تئوری فمینیستی فیلم بهش پرداخته شده رو باز میکنه (چون کتاب مربوط به سال ۱۹۹۹ـه حدس میزنم تا الان مباحث جدیدتری تو این حوزه اضافه شده باشن) و چون به ترتیب زمانی فصل‌بندی شده، نظریات و تقابل‌ها و گفتمان‌هایی که در ارتباط باهاشون شکل گرفته‌ن هم مشخص میشن که این خودش خیلی جالب بود.

[Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my feminist film class. I didnt read the whole thing but I liked what i DID read

[Bethany Colclough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judith Butler: ‘Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion."

[brietta · Rating 4 out of 5]

tbh this book is historical