Monday, April 27, 2009

Syllabus: The Gurlesque

Reading List:

"On the Gurlesque" by Arielle Greenburg (creator of the term)
Maximum Gaga by Lara Glenum
Baby by Carla Harryman
So We Have Been Given Time  Or by Sawako Nakayasu
Recyclopedia: Timmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge by Harryette Mullen
With Deer by Aase Berg, translated by Johannes Goransson
unfathoms by kirsten kaschock
Famous Last Words by Catherine Pierce
Frail-Craft by Jessica Fisher
In No One's Land by Paige Ackerson-Keily
Mommy Must Be A Fountain of Feathers by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi

Film:

I Spit on Your Grave (Mier Zarchi)
Heathers (Michael Lehman)
Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)
Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (probably the Dracula, puppet, and witch hunt episodes)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz)
Gremlins (Joe Dante)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Chan-Wook Park)

Music:

Mariee Sioux
Neko Case
Tori Amos (sorry)
CocoRosie
Stevie Nicks
Goldfrap
Inara George
PJ Harvey
Retsin
Snowblink
Stina Nordenstam
Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down
Bjork

Art:
Eva Hesse
Louise Bourgeois

Course Objectives:
Ain't it cute how there's something cute about women. Is there a Gurlesque school of poetry. It is kind of funny. This doesn't subjugate women does it. Can't women be gross without it being a big deal. What is feminine. What is gothic. Wait, but isn't this gross stuff supposed to be happening to women. Varietals of sperm and sperm pockets. Does it have to feature a woman (as in film; what about American Psycho) or be written/created by a woman in order to be Gurlesque. Women are good multi-taskers because they have to worry about being beautiful on top of everything else. Cute domestic. Animal bodies, animal skins. Be cool with sex.      

4 comments:

Dan Magers said...

God, this class sounds so awesome. I Spit on your Grave is a bold choice. Might I also suggest for poetry Final Girl by Daphne Gottlieb?

Farrah Field said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Dan. For books, I usually put what's on my shelves so I don't spend all day researching. I will definitely check out Daphne Gottlieb.

Ross Brighton said...

I would also suggest Ariana Reines & Chelsey Minnis, and also Johannes's own work and Tom Whalen's chapbook "Dolls" - instigating debated about biological gender determinism etc.

Anonymous said...

what about critical lit? i suppose Sianne Ngai's "Cuteness and the Avant-Garde," and/or "Raw Matter: A Poetics of Disgust"; also Mary Russo's _The Female Grotesque_... maybe Kristeva on the abject?