BMA-AMED-320.01
Theorizing the Body and Embodiment (Szubjektivitás, gender, test) in autumn 2014
Federmayer Éva,
Wed 14:00–15:30,
R439,
host: DAS (R306)
5-credit lecture, 30 h/term;
strong prereq: BMA-AMED-220 230
description & set texts
This is a seminar course that aims to help students to improve their grasp on a set of theoretical arguments about subjectivity and the gendered body that may well serve as a tool-box of ideas for their MA Thesis in literature, culture, and film. We will examine major discussions of how subjectivity and corporeality are interrelated, focusing on the effects of cultural and ideological inscriptions, the technologies and performances that produce the bodies that matter (so as to become subjects) and the ones that don’t. Drawing on gender queer and body studies, the course also seeks to probe examples of subversions that challenge normative representational systems in order to imagine alternative itineraries of subject formation. The class also requires active participation of students to discuss a major text (by
Bordo, Braidotti, Butler, Grosz, Kristeva, Russo, Schepper-Hughes, Martin)
on a weekly basis.
Syllabus with Readings
Sept 10 Introduction
Sept 17 Body and sociology
Arthur W. Frank’s model
Sept 24, Oct 1 Cultural embodiment and Corporeal Feminism
Susan Bordo, Feminism, Foucault and the Politics of the Body
Elizabeth Grosz, Sexed Bodies
Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter, Introduction
Teresa de Lauretis, The Technology of Gender
Oct. 8, Oct 15 Écriture Féminine
Julia Kristeva, Stabat Mater
Ann Rosalind Jones, Writing the Body: Towards an Understanding of L’Écriture Féminine
Oct 22 Theorizing the monstrous
Rosi Braidotti, Mothers, Monsters, Machines
Mary Russo, Carnival and Theory
Oct 29 FALL BREAK
NOV 5-19 READING-WRITING PERIOD
ASSIGNMENTS:
1) Read the 3 essays (Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter, Introduction;
Teresa de Lauretis, The Technology of Gender; Mary Russo, Carnival and Theory) and write a position paper (MLA style, parenthetical citations, double spaced, 5 pages, a) probing their argument as well as b) highlighting your personal take on them. See the instructions on the position paper in another document.
SEND YOUR PAPER IN ATTACHMENT TO federmayer.eva@gmail.com by Nov23, midnight.
2) Pre-watch Google Baby and take notes for the upcoming discussion in class.
Nov 26 Queer bodies, experimental desires
Barbara Creed, Lesbian Bodies
Dec 3, 10. Technology, Cyborgs and posthuman subjectivities
Donna Haraway, Manifesto for Cyborgs
Nancy Schepper-Hughes, the Global Traffic in Human Organs
Emily Martin, The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles
+ Discussion of Google Baby
Dec 17: Endterm paper on Google Baby due.
requirements & assessment
Requirements: attendance, active participation in discussions, oral presentation, midterm exam (see written assignments in Reading-Writing Period), endterm paper;
Readings: available in pdf
Grading: all activities and assignments graded, then averaged into the final grade; the endterm paper could up- or downgrade your final grade by 0.5 grade.