Skip to Main Content

Film Studies

This guide is an introduction to the resources for Film Studies at Dartmouth. If you are interested in Television, see the separate research guide for Television.

A definition for feminist film criticism

Feminist film theory (feminist film criticism)

A major area of film theory since the 1970s, focusing on gender as central to the critical and theoretical analysis of films and cinema. Taking inspiration from the burgeoning of ‘second-wave’ feminism, critical commentary on women and cinema began in earnest in the early 1970s with descriptive surveys of images and stereotypes of women in classical and contemporary Hollywood films, alongside calls for more positive representations of women in popular cinema and for more women in key positions in the film industry. Over the following decade, this body of work grew and developed alongside the establishment of film studies as a discipline, drawing on, elaborating, and even inventing, a number of conceptual and methodological approaches. During these years, several film studies journals devoted to feminist film criticism and theory were founded, the most influential being Women and Film (US, 1972–5), Camera Obscura (US, 1976– ), and Frauen und Film (Germany, 1974– ).   ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Feminist film theory. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2023

Searching the catalog for feminist film criticism

When searching the online catalog for film criticism, there are 3 subject headings used in this catalog and they are listed below. The subject heading film criticism has the largest collection of resources.

The books are scattered throughout the range PN 1994 through PN 1998 on Baker Level 4.

Introductory reading(s) on feminist film criticism

Selected books on Feminist film criticism

Other selected book title(s)

Selected film journal title(s)