Countering Established Conventions. Re-Inventions of Femininity in Maya Deren's Avant-Garde Cinema

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, University of Regensburg, language: English, abstract: The Ukrainian-American avant-garde video artist Maya Deren is going to be in the object of study in the main body of this paper which focuses on the question of what, in particular, makes her representations of femininity outstanding and contrary to the ones in the contemporary woman's film. As to the structure of the paper at hand, the first part will briefly outline Simone de Beauvoir's academic theory of femininity, the key aspects of representation of women in woman's cinema and give information on avant-garde cinema. In the second part, then, Maya Deren's approach to gender will be introduced. Following and based on the first part, the third part will then closely analyze, how femininity is treated in her works and, thus, how it differs from the woman's film's approach. Finally, the results will be summarized into a conclusion and an outlook will be offered.

I am a British Studies student and feminist activist with a passion for literature, art, media and sports.