Screening New Women: The Cinematic Construction of Female Identity in Transnational Modernity

From film’s first appearance in Paris as an elating consequence of the Industrial Revolution to Jackie Chan’s rise to transnational stardom in late 20th century, the history of modern cinema has always sought to raise questions of national and cultural identity while the female identity being screened remains relatively obscure and untouched. How do world films between the two fin-de-siecles create a common spectacle of the “New Woman,” articulate its relationship to modern history, and delineate its diversified cultural landscapes in different cultural grids? Rather than following a stringent film historiography, this course examines the cinemas on the image of the New Woman of China, Japan, Germany, and the Anglo-American world in the hope of exploring the dynamic intersection of female consciousness and film in late nineteenth through late twentieth century.