[Commlist] CFC Collected volume on researching the influence of feminist film theory on films and series of the 21st century

Call for chapters

*Researching the Influence of Feminist Film Theory*

*on 21st Century Films and TV Series*

A growing number of scholars have acknowledged how the works of feminist 
scholars and feminist film scholars have influenced filmmakers and 
screenwriters (Radner and Stringer 2011; Roche 2014 and 2018; Maury and 
Roche 2020). The objective of this collected volume is to pursue inquiry 
of cross-fertilization between (intersectional) feminist (film) theory 
and films and TV series,           produced in the English-speaking 
world of the 21^st century.

One task will be to delineate the contours of “feminist cinema” or 
activist/feminist filmmaking. Can it boil down to films and series which 
adopt a political stand in keeping with Amelia Jones’s definition of 
feminism as “a political or ethical engagement with questions of 
culture” (Callahan, 4)? This could involve assessing the ways in which 
TV and film productions fall within the scope of the third and fourth 
waves of feminism, and/or respond to the postfeminist/neo-feminist/new 
feminist contexts.

Black, Latinx and queer scholars and filmmakers have called into 
question the stereotyped representation and/or the absence of black 
women, Latinas and lesbians and gays in mainstream cinema (Beltrán, 
Bobo, hooks, Mayer, Reid) while pointing out the existence of films and 
tv shows that challenge such commodified portrayals. The concepts of 
“womanist film” (Reid), /Latinidad Feminista /(Baez)/, /and “/auteure 
/poetics and apparitionality” (Mayer) open perspectives to further the 
conversation on feminist cinema and on the intersectionality of race, 
ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation in a context characterized by 
growing diversity and narrative agency on television and in feature films.

Another line of inquiry will consist in assessing the ongoing influence 
of feminist film theory on today’s feminist productions, forty-five 
years after Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey first identified the need 
to take up struggle with women’s image in film and advocated a radical 
cinema to counter the patriarchal ideology of mainstream cinema. In what 
ways are there traces of Christine Gledhill (1984)’s questioning this 
necessity for feminist cinema to be a counter-cinema? What of Teresa de 
Lauretis’s “guerrilla cinema” (1990) or hooks’s “oppositional gaze” in  
front and behind the camera?

We also welcome chapter proposals looking into the reception of feminist 
cinema  and TV series at a time of growing awareness about the absence 
of women filmmakers and screenwriters from mainstream productions, the 
Hollywood industry trying to move away from the fact that it has long 
been one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon. The 
socio-historical factors that surround and possibly influence the 
reception of films and series as feminist seem key to understanding 
today’s feminist cinema. The example of the reassessment of /Jennifer’s 
Body/ in the context of the #MeToo, Time’s Up movements shows the 
importance of “contextualizing the space of reception” (Staiger, in 
Radner and Stringer, 14). Black feminist writers and film specialists 
(bell hooks, Jacqueline Bobo, Mark Reid) have developed theories on the 
filmic gaze that rely on a critical reception of films, thereby pointing 
at the importance of an intersectional gaze for black feminist filmmaking.

We welcome theoretical submissions as well as case studies which fall 
into one or more of the three lines of inquiry such as (and this is not 
limitative):

-chapters attempting to identify feminist cinema and TV series, and to 
chart the presence of feminist ideas in the 21^st century;

-chapters on intersectionality in films and TV series, whether in the 
filmmaking process or in reception;

-chapters on the influence of seminal essays such as Laura Mulvey 
(1975), Kaja Silverman (1984), bell hooks (1992), and other works of 
feminist film scholarship on feminist filmmakers of the 21st century, in 
mainstream or in independent cinema and in TV series;

-chapters on feminist filmmakers politicizing mainstream genres;

-chapters on genre and feminism;

We hope this edited volume will ultimately contribute to paving the way 
to a heightened visibility of feminist films and TV series, and the 
research thereof, in the wake of Ruby Rich’s call to name feminist 
practices in order to counter the “lack of an adequate language [which] 
has contributed to the invisibility of key aspects of our film culture – 
an invisibility advantageous to the prevailing film traditions” (67).

Proposals must include a 300-500-word abstract, a short bibliography and 
a bio, and should be sent to the three organizers by May 15, 2022. 
(helene.charlery /at/ univ-tlse2.fr) <mailto:(helene.charlery /at/ univ-tlse2.fr)> ; 
(emilie.cheyroux /at/ univ-jfc.fr) <mailto:(emilie.cheyroux /at/ univ-jfc.fr)> ; 
(cristelle.maury /at/ univ-tlse2.fr) <mailto:(cristelle.maury /at/ univ-tlse2.fr)>

Applicants will receive a response regarding their submission by May 31, 
2022. Full chapters must be submitted by September 1, 2022.

Scientific Committee:

Jean-François Baillon, Université Bordeaux Montaigne; Zachary Baqué, 
Université Toulouse 2 Jean-Jaurès; Corinne Bigot UT2J; Anne Crémieux, 
Université Paris 8; Gwénaëlle le Gras, Université Bordeaux Montaigne; 
Sarah Hatchuel, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3; Emeline Jouve, 
Université François Champollion; Marianne Kac-Vergne, Université de 
Picardie; Delphine Letort, Le Mans Université; Laurent Mellet, 
Université Toulouse 2 Jean-Jaurès; Monica Michlin, Université 
Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3; Thomas Pillard, Université Paris 3; Mark A. 
Reid, University of Florida, Gainsville; David Roche, Université 
Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3; Jules Sandeau, Université Paul Valéry, 
Montpellier 3; Michèle Soriano, Université Toulouse 2 Jean-Jaurès; 
Shannon Wells-Lassagne, Université de Bourgogne.

Selective bibliography

Aparicio, Frances R. “Jennifer as Selena: Rethinking Latinidad in Media 
and Popular Culture”, /Latino Studies/, 2003, p. 90-105.

Baez, Jillian M. “Towards a /Latinidad Feminista/: The Multiplicities of 
Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema”, /Popular Communication: 
The International Journal of Media and Culture/, December 2007, p. 109-128.

Beltrán, Mary, “The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle: 
Media Contructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez’s “Cross-over Butt”, 
/Quarterly Review of Film and Video/, October 2010, p. 71-86.

Bobo, Jacqueline. “Black women's responses to /The Color Purple/”, /Jump 
Cut/ 33, February 1988, 43-51.

Brey, Iris. /Le regard féminin : une révolution à l’écran/, Editions de 
l’Olivier, 2020.

Callahan, Vicki. “Introduction: Reclaiming the Archive: Archeological 
Exploration toward a Feminism 3.0”, /Reclaiming the Archive: Feminism 
and Film History/ ed. Vicki Callahan, Wayne State University Press, 
2010, 1-8.

Cepeda, María Elena, “Beyond “Filling in the gap”: the state and status 
of Latina/o Feminist Media Studies”, /Feminist Media Studies/, July 
2015, p. 344-360.

Clover, Carol. J. /Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern 
Horror Film/, Princeton UP, 1992.

Cowie, Elizabeth. “/Film Noir /and Women”, /Shades of Noir: a Reader/. 
Ed. Joan Copjec, Verso, 1993, 121-65.__

Creed, Barbara. /The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, 
Psychoanalysis/, Routledge, 1993.

De Lauretis, Teresa. /Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film and 
Fiction, /Indiana University Press, 1987.

---. “Guerrilla in the Midst: Women’s Cinema in the 1980s” /Screen / 31, 
1990, 6-25.


Doane, Mary Ann. /Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, 
Psychoanalysis/, Routledge, 1991.

Garrett, Roberta. /Postmodern Chick Flicks: The Return of the Woman's 
Film/, Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.

Gledhill, Christine. “Developments in Feminist Film Criticism”, 
/Re-vision. Essays in Feminist Film Criticism/. Eds. Mary Ann Doane, 
Patricia Mellencamp and Linda Williams, AFI, 1984, 18-45. 


hooks, bell. /Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies/, 
Routledge, 1996.

---. “The Oppositional gaze: Black Female Spectators”, /Black Looks: 
Race and Representation, /Turnaround, 1992, 115-131.

Johnston, Claire. “Women’s Cinema as Counter Cinema”. /Notes on Women's 
Cinema/, Society for Education in Film and Television. 1973.

Kuhn, Annette. /Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema/, Verso, 1993.

Lane, Christina. “From /The Loveless /to /Point Break/: Kathryn 
Bigelowʼs Trajectory in Action”. /Cinema/
/Journal/. Vol. 37, No. 4, 
Summer 1998, 59-81.

Letort, Delphine & Shannon Wells-Lassagne. “Reviewing /Mildred Pierce/ 
(Todd Haynes, HBO, 2011) in the Age of Postfeminism”, /Journal of 
Popular Film and Television/, 47:3, 2019, 171-178.

Maury, Cristelle and David Roche. “Introduction”, /Women Who Kill: 
Gender and Sexuality in Film and Series of the Post-Feminist Era/, 
Bloomsbury, 2020, 1-30.

Mayer, Sophie. /Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema/, I.B. 
Tauris, 2019.

---. “Uncommon Sensuality: New Queer Feminist Film/Theory”, /Feminisms: 
Diversity, Difference and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures/, 
Mulvey, Laura and Anna Backman Rogers eds., Amsterdam University Press, 
2016, 86-96.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, /Screen/ 16.3, 1975.

Mulvey, Laura and Anna Backman Rogers eds. /Feminisms: Diversity, 
Difference and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures/, Amsterdam 
University Press, 2016.

Mulvey, Laura. “Afterword: Some Reflections on the Engagement of 
Feminism with Film from the 1970s to the Present Day”, /The Moving Image 
Review & Art Journal/, Volume 7, Number 1, 1 April 2018, 82-90.

Radner, Hilary and Rebecca Stringer. “Introduction: ‘Re-Vision’? 
Feminist Film Criticism in the Twenty-first Century”, /Feminism at the 
Movies: Understanding Gender in Contemporary Cinema, / Hilary Radner and 
Rebecca Stringer eds. Routledge 2011, 1-9.

Reid, Mark. “A Dialogic Model of Representing Africa: Womanist Film” 
25:2, /Black Film Issue, /Summer, 1991, 375-388.

Rich, Ruby. “In the Name of Feminist Film Criticism”, 1978, /Chick 
Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement /Duke 
University Press, 1998, 62-84.


  Roche, David. /Quentin Tarantino: Poetics and Politics of Cinematic
  Metafiction,/ University Press of Mississippi, 2018.

---. /Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s: Why Don’t They 
Do It Like They Used To/, University Press of Mississippi, 2014.


  Silverman, Kaja. “Disembodying the Female Voice”, /Re-vision. Essays
  in Feminist Film Criticism/. Eds. Mary Ann Doane, Patricia Mellencamp
  and Linda Williams, AFI, 1984, 131-149.


  Staiger, Janet. “Film Noir as Male Melodrama: the Politics of Film
  Genre Labeling”, /The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on
  Labeling Films, Television Shows and Media/,  Lincoln Geraghty and
  Mark Jancovich eds., McFarland & Company Inc., 2008, 71-91.

---. “’The First Bond Who Bleeds, Literally and Metaphorically’: 
Gendered Spectatorship for ‘Pretty Boy’ Action Movies”, /Feminism at the 
Movies: Understanding Gender in Contemporary Cinema, / Hilary Radner and 
Rebecca Stringer eds. Routledge 2011, 13-24.


  Sutherland, Jean-Anne & Kathryn M. Feltey. “Here’s Looking at Her: an
  Intersectional Analysis of Women, Power and Feminism in Film”,
  /Journal of Gender Studies/ 26:6, 2017, 618-631.


  Tasker, Yvonne. /Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action
  Cinema/, Routledge 1993.

Williams, Linda. “Melodrama Revisited” /Refiguring American Film Genres: 
History and Theory,/ Nick Browne ed., U of California Press, 1998, 42-88.


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