What does it mean for a film to be queer and for us as spectators to develop a queer eye? Entwined with questions of subjectivity, identity, paranoia, and death, this course will think through the relationship between desire and film. Who desires what, when, and where? Is there an I that desires, or is the I constituted by desire? What is the relation of the I to the eye? How does film as a medium generate desire in ways that might make it distinct from novels, poems, or plays? What role does representation play on the screen and in allowing us to recognise desire? How and why do we desire some films more than others? This course will think through films like Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ram-Leela, and Maimouna Ducoure's Cuties, and theoretical texts by Kaja Silverman, Mary Ann Doane, and Leo Bersani, among others.
alexander.phillips@ashoka.edu.in