MS 149F PO: Topics in Media Theory: Queer Visions, Queer Theory

Examining the creative and critical work of three gay male filmmakers—Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), and Tsai Mingliang (1957–present) —this seminar probes the intersection of avant-garde cinematic practice, sexuality, and queer theory. Semiotic theories of language and image, hyperbolic reformulations of family romance, and a constant critique of left-liberalism are some of the thematics through which we approach these directors. But we also explore how the work of these filmmakers engages feminist film criticism, how new, queer scholarship has attempted to address the dystopic positions often identified within the gay male film text, and how Pasolini, Fassbinder, and Tsai, each in a different manner, refuse subordination to a sexual hermeneutics. Instructor: J. Hall. [Media Theory or Media History]