Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Gender Benders
Instructor(s): Michael Mudrovic, Foreign Languages and Literatures
Description: How do novelists and filmmakers depict gender and sexuality? In this
sentence, students will compare these themes in the works of two artists from different
eras and manifesting distinct aesthetic tendencies, the playwright Federico Garcia
Lorca and the filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, who both question the construction of gender
in their works. By alternative Lorca’s plays with Almodovar’s films, students in this
seminar will examine various aspects of and perspectives on “masculinity” and “femininity.”
Students will do readings in and discuss issues of modernity vs. post-modernity; the
genres of film and theatre; homosexuality, lesbianism, and heterosexuality; parents
and family structures; transvestism and transsexuality; dress and gesture; and psychoanalytic
theory. Students will also gain a background in modern Spanish history from the Franco
era to the present, with emphasis on the transition from dictatorship to democracy.
Note: The films we will watch contain scenes of nudity and violence that may be offensive
to some students. Also, students must view the films during the “fourth hour” outside
of the classroom.