Ressources numériques en sciences humaines et sociales OpenEdition Nos plateformes OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypothèses Calenda Bibliothèques OpenEdition Freemium Suivez-nous

Call for papers: Femininity and Music for the Screen. Creation, Representation and Identities

Call for papers: Femininity and Music for the Screen. Creation, Representation and Identities

International Conference organized by Jérémy Michot and Chloé HuvetMonday, November 25 and Tuesday, November 26, 2024, University of Tours, France


[→ French version]

Nomadland, Chloé Zhao, 2020 – AFP, Searchlight Pictures, Cor Cordium Productions

Call for Papers

In June 2022, Cécile Lacoue presented in Rochefort the results of a study commissioned by the CNC entitled La place des femmes dans l’audiovisuel et le cinéma : vers plus d’égalité? (Lacoue, 2022). The general conclusions of this report, which has been widely circulated and commented on by websites specializing in the film industry, as well as by groups and associations, show that the proportion of women in the various sectors of the audiovisual and cinematographic field remains “lower in production and post-production companies” (between 31.7% and 38.8%), even if parity seems to have been achieved overall (Lacoue, 2022). However, the report’s “Spotlight on music for images” section is far less positive: only 6.7% of all projects supported by the CNC between 2012 and 2021 are composed by women – the average production cost of music composed by women, it points out, is 3.3% lower than that of music composed by men. Carried out in France, this study “is confirmed at the European level: 9% of film music composers between 2016 and 2020 are women,” concludes Cécile Lacoue. Furthermore, SACEM lists 11% of women among film music composers in 2022, a meager figure that raises several questions about the training of musicians and their integration into the audiovisual production system, which this international conference aims to address.

This observation must be seen in the context of a certain invisibility of women artists specialized in audiovisual creation, in the dominant musicological and musicographic discourse. The theoretical field of feminist studies, which is particularly fertile internationally – James Buhler, for example, evokes the possibility of a “strong feminist critic of film sound” (Buhler, 2015, 367) – has not yet had much impact in France. This conference aims to encourage the analysis of the musical and sound productions of female film composers, orchestrators, arrangers, editors, and mixers to shed new light on the entire sound postproduction workflow. The issues at stake are manifold: a feminist approach to music for the screen questions the mechanisms by which female sound and music creators are excluded from the canon established in the dominant musicological and musicographic discourse, and examines the conventions governing audiovisual representations of female characters on screen.

In the field of film studies, current feminist research is particularly fruitful (Smelik, 2016; Sellier and Burch, 2009), whether it’s questioning the stereotypes and ambivalences embodied by action women and superheroines on screen (Moine, 2010; Bonadè and Hamus-Vallée, 2019), studying the staging of the female body on screen and the gender tensions it reveals (Boissonneau 2019; Devictor, 2006; Williams, 1991; Mulvey, 1975), or addressing the cultural constructions associated with violent heroines in contemporary cinema and the (post)feminist discourses that run through them in sometimes contradictory ways (Maury and Roche, 2020; Barthelmebs Raguin and Freyheit, 2018).

In the field of music for the screen, in the wake of codes established in programmatic music, Philip Tagg identified musical gender markers in a 1989 study of several television series broadcast between 1950 and 1970 (Tagg, 1989). In 1982, Kathryn Kalinak, focusing on Classic American cinema, identified two main modes of musical construction of femininity on screen, divided into the “fallen woman” and the “virtuous woman” (Kalinak, 1982[1]). Restricted to the context of the 1930s-50s, these models no longer cover the transformations in film music practices and current audiovisual representations (Kaplan, 1998) that have succeeded, to varying degrees within the industry, in destabilizing or even deconstructing gendered, patriarchal, and conservative norms in favor of “female empowerment figures” (Lerolle, 2019, 40).

Following in the footsteps of Anahid Kassabian (2001), Caryl Flinn (1992), and Amy Lawrence (1992), earlier analytical models have been expanded, rethought, and reshaped in the wake of the rise of feminist film musicology and the seminal works of Rebecca Fülöp (2012), Steve Halfyard and Victoria Hancock (2012), or the recent anthology edited by Felicity Wilcox (2022). More recent contributions have focused on film scores from the 1950s as well as audiovisual proposals of the last thirty years, from Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994) to Ammonite (Francis Lee, 2020) and Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017) (Huvet, forthcoming; Truelove and Pederson, 2023; Fülöp, 2015). In the context of a long tradition of gendered musical coding, what then, as Heather Laing (2016) or James Buhler (2015) write, of the “gendered difference in musical treatment” in Hollywood, European and non-European cinema, or more generally in international audiovisual narratives (docudramas, TV series, video games, etc.)? Furthermore, while the audiovisual works of female composers such as Bebe Barron, Rachel Portman, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Mica Levi have recently been highlighted by in-depth studies (Wilcox, 2022), it is essential to continue this work by documenting and analyzing the practices of female creators on a large scale, and by integrating female artists specialized in sound into these perspectives.

While being careful to link these reflections to current research on the history of feminist ideas (Möser, 2022) and feminist theories of cinema (Walker, 2018), we encourage submissions on a wide range of audiovisual productions (cinema, TV series, video games, etc.), without geographical, cultural or historical restrictions. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches from musicology, film studies, cultural and media studies, history, sociology and aesthetics are particularly welcome.

Proposals for presentations may focus on, but are not limited to, the following areas:

  • Musical and sonic codifications of female, male, trans, or non-binary characters on screen and hegemonic social imaginaries;
  • Historical developments in musical and sonic representations of femininity that destabilize heteropatriarchal norms;
  • Exploring the potentiality of a “female hearing[2]” through sharing the experience of female characters on screen, and its consequences for the adoption of a situated point of audition.
  • Contributions of queer theories and the subversion of gendered norms applied to visual music;
  • Case studies of the work of women sound and music makers in the audiovisual field;
  • Strategies for “invisibilizing” women music and sound creators in dominant musicological and musicographic discourses;
  • Study of the formation of a profession (conservatories, music schools, universities, etc.) that has been predominantly male;
  • Building a female film musicology heritage; valorization of resistance approaches; current changes within institutions.

[1] See also Haing, 2007.

[2] At the symposium “Écouter les genres de l’imaginaire : convergences sonores, musiques et théoriques dans les séries télévisées” (University of Perpignan, November 2023), Sarah Hatchuel invoked the notion of “female gaze” (Brey, 2020) and applied it to sound. The idea is to “feel the experience of a female body on screen” (Brey, op. cit., 9) by listening rather than by merely looking.

Submission for Proposals

Proposals, including a title and a 300 to 500-word abstract, along with a short biography of the author(s), should be sent to the conference organizers, Jérémy Michot (jeremy.michot@univ-tours.fr) and Chloé Huvet (chloe.huvet@univ-evry.fr), no later than April 15, 2024. The conference committee will assess abstracts anonymously and give their answers in May 2024. Abstracts and papers can be in English or in French. Each presentation lasts 30 minutes (including audiovisual excerpts), followed by a Q&A period.

Conference Committee

Gilles Alonzo, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon
Cécile Carayol, Université de Rouen Normandie
Clémentine Charuel, Film Composer, Conductor and Pianist
Grace Edgar, Connecticut College
Rebecca Fülöp, Temple University
Steve Halfyard, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Réjane Hamus-Vallée, Université d’Évry Paris-Saclay
Delphine Letort, Le Mans Université
Raphaëlle Moine, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
David Roche, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3
Felicity Wilcox, University of Technology Sydney

Selected References

Barthelmebs Raguin Hélène and Freyheit Matthieu, Criminelles : le crime à l’épreuve du féminin, Reims, EPURE, 2018.

Brey Iris, Le regard féminin : une révolution à l’écran, Paris, Éditions de l’Olivier, 2020.

Buhler James, « Gender, Sexuality and the Soundtrack », in David Neumeyer (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp.366‑382.

Boissonneau Mélanie, Pin-up au temps du pré-Code (1930-1934), Paris, LettMotif, 2019.

Boissonneau Mélanie, « Enjeux de la super héroïne au cinéma », in Claude Forest (ed.), Du héros aux super héros : mutations cinématographiques, Paris, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2009, pp.221-232.

« Compte rendu – Atelier du 12/12/2022 : « Musique à l’image : révéler les forces créatives de demain » », LE LAB Femmes de cinéma, January 12, 2023, URL :  https://femmesdecinema.org/compte-rendu-atelier-12-12-2022/.

Devictor Agnès, « Corps codés, corps filmés : le contrôle du corps des femmes dans le cinéma de la République islamique d’Iran », Culture & musées, n° 7, 2006, pp.117-131.

Edgar Grace, « “I Am No Lady When I Fight”: Gender Politics in the Postwar Swaschubckler Score », in James Buhler and Mark Durrand (ed.), Music in Action Film: Sounds Like Action!, New York/Oxon, Routledge, 2020, pp.37-58.

Flinn Caryl, Strains of Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia, and Hollywood Film Music, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1992.

Fritsch Mélanie, « Heroines Unsung: The (Mostly) Untold Story of Female Japanese Game Music Composers », in Felicity Wilcox (ed.), Women’s Music for the Screen: Diverse Narratives in Sound, Routledge, New York , 2022, pp.177-191.

Fülöp Rebecca N., « Heroes, Dames, and Damsels in Distress: Constructing Gender Types in Classical Hollywood Film Music. », PhD dissertation, 2012.

Fülöp Rebecca, « “You’re Not Gonna Get Mushy on Me, Are You?”: Music and the New Man in 1990s Hollywood Action Film », in James Buhler and Mark Durrand (ed.), Music in Action Film: Sounds Like Action!, New York/Oxon, Routledge, 2020, pp.18-36.

Halfyard Janet K., and Hancock Victoria, « Scoring Fantasy Girls: Music and Female Agency in Indiana Jones and The Mummy Films », in Janet K. Halfyard (ed.), The Music of Fantasy Cinema, Sheffield, Equinox, 2014, Genre, Music and Sound, pp.175-192.

Huvet Chloé, « Incarnation musicale d’une super-héroïne contemporaine : Wonder Woman de Patty Jenkins (2017) », in Hélène Valmary and Sébastien David (ed.), Les super-héros dans le cinéma hollywoodien contemporain, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming.

Kassabian Anahid, Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music, New York, Routledge, 2001, 189 p.

Kalinak Kathryn, « The Fallen Woman and the Virtuous Wife: Musical Stereotypes in The Informer, Gone with the Wind, and Laura », Film Reader, n° 5 (1982), pp.76-82.

Lacoue Cécile, La place des femmes dans l’audiovisuel et le cinéma : vers plus d’égalité ? [Report], Rochefort, CNC, 2022.

Laing Heather, The Gendered Score, London, Taylor and Francis, 2016.

Lawrence Amy, « Women’s Voices in Third World Cinema », in Rick Altman (ed.), Sound Theory, Sound Practice, New-York London, Routledge, AFI Film Readers, 1992, pp.178‑190.

Lerolle Maxime, « Les super-héroïnes se battent-elles comme des filles ? », in Sophie Bonadè and Réjane Hamus-Vallée (ed.), Genres en séries : cinéma, télévision, médias, no 10 : « Superhéroïnes : un genre à part ? », 2019, pp.37-60.

Moine Raphaëlle, Les femmes d’action au cinéma, Paris, Armand Colin, 2010.

Möser Cornelia, Libérations sexuelles : une histoire des pensées féministes et queers sur la sexualité, Paris, La Découverte, 2022.

Maury Cristelle and Roche David (ed.), Women Who Kill. Gender and Sexuality in Film and Series of the Post-Feminist Era, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Sellier Geneviève and Noël Burch (ed.), Le cinéma au prisme des rapports de sexe, Paris, Vrin, 2009.

Smelik Anneke, « Feminist Film Theory », in Angela Wong, Maithree Wickramasinghe, Renee Hoogland and Nancy A Naples (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 1st ed., Wiley, 2016, pp.1‑5.

Stilwell Robynn, « A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music (review) », Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 12, no 1 (2008), pp.104-110.

Stilwell Robynn J. « Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls’ Rites-of-Passage Films », in Phil Powrie and Robynn J. Stilwell (ed.) Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-Existing Music in Film, Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series, London/New York, Routledge, 2017, pp.152-166.

Tagg Philip, « An Anthropology of Stereotypes in TV Music? », Swedish Musicological Journal, 1989, pp.19-42.

Truelove Caitlan and Pedersen Jacy, « ”I Chose to Feel”: Timbre, Love, and Anguish in Lesbian Romance Dramas », presentation at the Music & the Moving Image XIX (MaMI) conference, New York University Steinhardt, May 2023.

Walker Elsie, « Feminism », in Elsie Walker (ed.), Understanding Sound Tracks Through Film Theory, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp.171-242, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199896301.003.0003.

Wilcox Felicity (ed.), Women’s Music for the Screen: Diverse Narratives in Sound, New York, Routledge, 2022.

Williams Linda, « Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess », Film Quarterly, vol. 44, n° 4, Summer 1991, pp.2-13.

L'actualité francophone des recherches en musique à l'image