Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject begins from the premise that the ways in which human bodies are represented in societies can tell us a great deal about the structures and cultural values of those societies. Social processes act on bodies and, in doing so, construct both our bodies and our ideas about what bodies actually are. These representations of bodies feed back into ideas about society, such as dominant views about the nature of a desirable social order. Taking as theoretical backdrop the stance that there is no natural body outside specific social contexts, we examine specific aspects of cultural representations of human bodies, in the context of some overlapping themes: the disciplined and scientifically studied body, the sexed and sexualised body, the exotic body and the racially marked body. Topic areas relevant to these themes include the politics of representing struggles of `third world women,' rape, pornography, and the sexual politics of food and beauty.
Assessment Seminar paper (2000 words): 40% + Essay (4000 words): 60%