Are strong female characters necessarily subversive representations of femininity--historically and/or presently? Strong female characters often buck expectations and subvert patriarchal norms: they are super-powered, defiant, and resistant towards authority. Yet, even as the number of female-centered films increases (Wonder Woman, Ghostbusters, Moana, Rogue One, Beauty and the Beast, Ghost in the Shell, and Hidden Figures), the problem of unequal representation persists, and as apparent in some examples given, so does the problem of female characters adhering to cliches or damaging stereotypes.

Assia Djebar : révolutions, métamorphoses et développements

ACLA Conference 2018 Annual Meeting - March 29-April 1 – UC Los Angeles (UCLA)

Described by Siegfried Kracauer as one of the outstanding film directors of the post-World War I era, Paul Leni (1885-1929) is a significant yet overlooked figure in the German and US cinemas of the silent period. A frequent collaborator with stage director Max Reinhardt, Leni worked as an art designer for some of the most prominent German directors of the time before coming into his own as a director. Creating both avant-garde and commercial films in Germany, Leni quickly became known for his captivatingly macabre productions. Critics and audiences alike praised these films, which were marked by elaborate set designs, innovative use of light and shadow, and adept storytelling abilities.

In American Road Narratives: Reimagining Mobility in Literature and Film (2015), Ann Brigham elaborates the identity building capacities of the road trip genre, and takes on the problem of mobility in women’s and minority writing. By challenging our privileging of mobility as a cultural mythology, Brigham complicates the required agency behind the very act of going on the road, analyzing ethnic and minority literature in light of contemporary political tensions.

https://www.acla.org/seminar/producing-sacred-exchanges-between-sociology-religion-and-literature

Whereas religious study often dwells with the theological question of how the sacred has been revealed to humanity, sociologists of religion Emile Durkheim and Max Weber preferred to ask how the sacred is made and remade within a society. For them, human activity assumes a power sometimes attributed to supernatural forces: the power to produce the sacred.