| CODE | GRS2001 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Gender, Culture and the Body | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Gender and Sexualities | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit introduces students to the foundational concepts in the study of gender and the body, informed by key feminist theories focusing on the body, embodiment, and the body politics. It considers the perspectives of Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Susan Bordo, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Iris M. Young and others. It explores how social, cultural, and political structures impact gendered bodies, and questions how bodies may disrupt or reinforce the gender binary. This study-unit engages with questions of how gendered bodies may be sites of power, embodied resistance and violence. The complex relationship of gender and the body is analysed by considering contemporary issues and phenomena, such as commodified bodies, body image, racialization, control of bodies, body as a modification project, physical capital as well as privilege that some bodies have over others. Study-Unit Aims: - To introduce students to the main feminist theories of embodiment and the key concepts and terminology; - To critically examine the social, cultural and political construction of gendered bodies how bodies may disrupt or reinforce the gender binary; - To highlight the role of culture and societies in shaping and constructing notions of gender and bodies; - To think critically about the complex relationship of gender, bodies and embodiment, to privilege, identity, power and resistance. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate understanding of the key theoretical concepts in relation to gender, embodiment, and the body; - Recognise how cultural norms, social and political structures impact the gendering of bodies; - Critically analyse feminist theories on gender and the body within their historical and cultural context; - Explore how gendered bodies are sites of power, embodied resistance and cultural meaning. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Analyse the complexities of gender, culture and the body as socially constructed and malleable phenomena; - Demonstrate the ability to clearly articulate arguments around gender, culture and the body, informed by relevant feminist and sociological theories; - Critically analyse contemporary issues around gender and the body, in class discussions, and draw on relevant feminist theories to address such debates; - Prepare and deliver an oral presentation; - Write an assignment with an analytically strong argument. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: Price, J. and Shildrick, M. (ed.) (1999). Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader; Routledge: New York. Supplementary Readings: - Conboy, K, Medina, N. and Stanbury, S. (Eds.). (1997). Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory. Columbia University Press: New York. - Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile Bodies. Toward a Corporeal Feminism; Indiana University Press: Bloomington. - Lorber, J. and Moore, L.J. (2011). Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives; Oxford University Press: New York. - Young, I. M. (2005). On Female Body Experience: “Throwing Like a Girl and other Essays”. Oxford University Press: New York. |
||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
||||||||||||
| LECTURER/S | Josephine Ann Cutajar Natasha Galea Roberta Scerri |
||||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
|||||||||||||