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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "CMS/GDR 301"
COURSE NAME: "Masculinities in Film"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2025
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Federico Gianni
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: COM 210 or GDR/SOSC 200 or permission of the instructor
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course examines how cinema constructs, challenges, and reimagines masculine identities. Drawing on film studies, feminist and queer theory, and critical masculinity studies, we analyze how dominant models of masculine representation are both perpetuated and contested. Through close analysis of films across eras, genres, and cultural contexts, we explore recurring questions about masculine representation, power, vulnerability, and identity. Special emphasis is placed on understanding how films both reflect and shape cultural understanding of masculinity, while examining possibilities for new imaginaries of masculine expression.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

The course is organized around key thematic lenses: power and violence, body and performance, father/son relationships, and contested visions of masculinity. Rather than following a strict chronological progression, the course creates dialogues between films that speak to each other across industrial contexts (mainstream Hollywood, independent films, global films), genres, and cultural traditions, to unravel the deep structures of masculine codes in film. Each theme examines films from different periods and styles, exploring how masculinity intersects with race, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality and other aspects of identity.  The course is structured around weekly screenings and seminar discussions, emphasizing critical engagement with both visual texts and theoretical frameworks. Students will learn different ways of "reading" a movie using precise terms of analysis, and discuss a number of key issues around images, industry, gender, nationality, race, and representation.

Students will develop research projects that engage with these thematic threads, examining how different films approach similar questions about masculine identity across time and context. All perspectives are warmly welcomed.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of the course, students will: 

 

  • Analyze the formal and narrative elements through which cinema constructs masculine codes and gender expression
  • Contextualize representations of masculinity within broader sociocultural, historical, and political processes
  • Examine how masculinity intersects with and is shaped by race, class, sexuality, and national identity in film
  • Demonstrate advanced competence in applying feminist film theory and gender studies frameworks to analyze how films construct, maintain, or subvert masculine identities
  • Critically evaluate and employ key theoretical concepts from masculinity studies to examine cinematic representations of gender performance and power dynamics
  • Be able to conduct their own research and critical interrogations of films
  • Design and execute independent research projects that engage with questions of masculine identity in cinema
  • Produce a work of media criticism that demonstrates mastery of both theoretical frameworks and analytical methods
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Attendance and participationI expect regular, real, and respectful participation from each student in class discussions and activities. 20%
Weekly reflection notesFor each required film viewing—whether screened during class sessions or assigned as homework— you will compose a focused analytical response (approximately 150-200 words) that engages critically with both the film and associated readings. These responses serve as structured "free writing" opportunities—not in the sense of casual reflection, but as spaces for intellectual exploration where you can work through initial observations, insights, and questions about the material. While these responses will not receive letter grades, consistently thoughtful submissions will positively impact your course grade, and particularly weak or missing submissions will negatively affect it.20%
Mid-term Exam 20%
Final research projectThis is your opportunity to develop your own critical perspective on material from our course. You may choose to analyze a film we've viewed in class more deeply, examining aspects we didn't fully explore together; conduct a comparative study; or investigate a specific thematic lense (power and violence, body and performance, fatehr/son relationship, contested visions of masculinity) by analyzing other films that apply.30%
PresentationYour presentation must include analysis of 2-3 film clips that effectively demonstrate the critical points you are making in your final paper.10%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

All students are expected to be active participants in their own and each other’s learning process. SIMPLY SHOWING UP IS NOT “ATTENDING” or “PARTICIPATING”. 

 

  • This course requires a significant amount of work to be completed outside of class hours. Given the nature of the course, unexcused absences will not be tolerated. 
  • Please make sure that all observations, comments, and criticisms are constructive, respectful, and spoken in a neutral tone.
  • Please silence all electronic devices for the consideration of others.  
  • Please do not use social media or email during class if it is not relevant to the topic/discussion at hand.  
  • Sleeping and side conversations in class are not permitted. Excessive occurrences will lead to consequences at the professor’s discretion.
  • Arriving late to class is extremely disruptive both for your peers and for me. Be on time. 

 

Students unwilling to comply with these policies will be asked to leave the class and will be marked absent for that class period.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

* The contents of this outline are subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.

 

WEEK 1 

Lecture 1: Introduction to course material & masculinities studies

Lecture 2: Introduction to male archetypes & film analysis 

Readings: Mulvey Laura, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 

Neale Steve, ““Masculinity as Spectacle”: Reflections on men and mainstream cinema”

 

WEEK 2 

Lecture: POWER AND VIOLENCE I - Classical Hollywood

Screening: A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, USA, 1951, 122 min)

Readings: Cohan Steven, “Brando’s ‘Authenticity’”

 

WEEK 3 

Lecture: POWER AND VIOLENCE II - The Western Hero

Screening: Red River (Howard Hawks, USA, 1948, 133 min)

Readings: Grant Barry Keith, “Cock and Bull Story: Howard Hawk’s Red River, Professionalism and the Western”

 

WEEK 4 

Lecture: POWER AND VIOLENCE III - Masculine Crisis

Screening: Fight Club (David Fincher, USA, 1999, 139 min)
Readings: Chopra-Gant Mike, ““I’d fight my dad” Absent Fathers and Mediated Masculinities in Fight Club”

 

WEEK 5 

Lecture: BODY AND PERFORMANCE I - The Song and Dance Man

Screening: Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, USA, 1935, 101 min)

Readings: Cohan Steven, “‘Feminizing’ The Song-and-dance Man” - Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema

 

WEEK 6 

Lecture: BODY AND PERFORMANCE II - Muscular Men

Screening: Terminator (Tim Miller, USA, 2019, 128 min)

Readings: Jeffords Susan, “Can Masculinity be Terminated?”
Dyer Richard, “The White Man’s Muscles”

 

WEEK 7 

Lecture: BODY AND PERFORMANCE III - Commodity Masculinity

Screening: Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh, USA, 2012, 110 min)

Readings: Ettari Gary, ““That’s a lot of ones”: Labor, Fractured Masculinity, and the Commodification of Flesh in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike”

 

WEEK 8 

Lecture: FATHER AND SON I - Boyhood

Screening: Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1983, 94 min)
Readings: Lewis Molly, “The Rumble of Nostalgia: Francis Ford Coppola’s Vision of Boyhood”

 

WEEK 9 

Lecture: FATHER AND SON II - Paternal Power

Screening: The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, RUSSIA, 2003, 105 min)
Readings: Hashamova Yana, “Resurrected Fathers and Resuscitated Sons: Homosocial Fantasies in The Return and Koktebel”

 

WEEK 10 

Lecture: FATHER AND SON III - Black Male Role Models

Screening: Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, USA, 2016, 111 min)

Readings: Belismar Gómez, ““That Ain’t You, Chiron”: Representations of Queer Black (Hyper)Masculinity in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight”

 

WEEK 11 

Lecture: CONTESTED VISIONS OF MASCULINITY I - Asian Masculinity

Screening: In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, HONG KONG, 2000, 98 min)
Readings: 

 

WEEK 12 

Lecture: CONTESTED VISIONS OF MASCULINITY II - Female Masculinity

Screening: Tomboy (Celine Sciamma, FRANCE, 2011, 84 min)

Readings: Halberstam Jack, “An introduction to female masculinity: Masculinity without Men”

 

WEEK 13 

Lecture: CONTESTED VISIONS OF MASCULINITY III - Post-Colonial Masculinity

Screening: Beau Travail (Claire Denis, FRANCE, 1999, 92 min)
Readings: Grant Catherine, “Recognizing Billy Budd in Beau travail: Epistemology and Hermeneutics of an Auteurist ‘Free’ Adaptation”

 

WEEK 14 

Lecture: FINAL PRESENTATIONS