ENG 3600 - Spring 2026 - Nooney

This course examines how cinema constructs, challenges, and reimagines masculine identities through the so-called “guy movie”—e.g., movies that are about guys, and often (although, not always) have a largely male audience. This class uses the “guy movie” to broadly encompass films of multiple genres and styles (Western, war movie, character drama) that we will survey over the course of the semester. We’ll analyze these films through lenses such as film studies, feminist and queer theory, and critical masculinity studies. Class discussion and critical readings will focus on understanding how films both reflect and shape cultural understanding of masculinity, while examining possibilities for new imaginaries of masculine expression.