Is Marjorie Rosen's classic, "Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream," too lightweight or dated? Julie Dercle CSUN -----Original Message----- From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 1:02 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: request for text suggestions there is one course i teach regularly for which i have never found a text that really works well . . . so i approach the list one more time in the hopes of finding some helpful suggestions the course is an expository writing course, for first year students who have previously done little [if any] careful reading and serious writing . . . the course is designed to be built around a single topic and to culminate in a small scale research paper . . . the topic i have used with success in the past and want to use again is "Sexism in Hollywood" and considers the various ways sexism shapes hollywood practices both on the screen and behind the scenes . . . trouble is, i have never found a book that i can assign for this course . . . books i find most interesting [by kuhn, modleski, doane, stacey, for example] are far far beyond their grasp-- and more difficult writers -- doane, de lauretis, silverman, might as well be in a foreign language . . . in short the sort of stuff that comes out of duke, routledge, or BFI is almost by definition out of the question . . . on the other hand the books that they might have some success with -- i think offhand of susan douglas' WHERE THE GIRLS ARE--are hard to take credit as academic prose or as serious explorations of complex issues . . . . surely there MUST be writers who deal with issues of sexism and feminism in cinema using an approach and a language that are serious and sophisticated yet available to what are, in fact, novice readers i suppose the level i'm looking for is best represented by gary wills JOHN WAYNE'S AMERICA or robin woods' work on hitchcock . . . i've assigned woods in a hitchcock class and while the students did not find it easy they were at least able to work through it more or less successfully, something i have not been able to achieve with any of the books i've used in the sexism in cinema class . . . so, if you know of any books at all that might lend themselves to these purposes i'd be grateful to learn of them thanks very much mike ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html