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Imperial Bodies: the Classical Body, Self, and Society

Module description

The body is often assumed to be a natural, unchanging, biologically  determined thing; this module challenges that view by unpacking the complex history of the body in the ancient world and beyond. It examines the ways in which different cultural discourses approached the male and female body in antiquity, including medicine, philosophy, sporting activity, artistic representation, rhetorical and fictional literature, and how that “Classical body” was adopted and adapted by later western societies. You will explore not only how different views of the body emerged in different cultural contexts, but how these competing approaches intersected and informed one another to construct what is often simply (and simplistically) called the “Classical body".

Module aims - intentions of the module

Does the body have a history? Is it a natural, unchanging phenomenon which is understood consistently across different cultures? How might we understand the relationship between the physical body and the cultural contexts in which that body emerges? How has the notion of the “Classical body" been adopted and developed by later cultures?

This module addresses these questions and more. The module will begin by examining the development of different approaches to and ideas about the body in different ancient discourses. You will focus particularly on scientific views of the body (especially medicine, biology, and physiognomics), and approaches to the body in performative contexts, such as oratory or rhetoric, athletics. You will also explore questions of how the body is central to the development and maintenance of gender identities, class status, and religious identity. In addition to investigating how different cultural contexts led to the development of different ways of approaching, understanding, and experiencing the body, you will also investigate how later societies have explicitly made use of the classical body to emphasise or construct notions of gender (such as modern advertising or the film 300) or substantiate political or cultural power (i.e. the Nazis or Napoleon).   

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Engage critically with ideas about the history of the body from antiquity onwards, using a range of different sources
• 2. Analyse critically the factors that inflect the treatment of the body in different societies, contexts, or media

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Approach a broad historical theme from different angles, drawing pertinent connections from a variety of theoretical approaches
• 4. Demonstrate appreciation of the issues involved in using different types of our source material to aid our historical understanding of the ancient world
• 5. Show knowledge and understanding of how later societies have made use of the ancient world and shaped our interpretation of it

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Employ critical reasoning and independent thought
• 7. Demonstrate your ability to construct clear and coherent arguments from complex data
• 8. Demonstrate your interpersonal and team working skills through study groups and peer interaction

Syllabus plan

Seminars across the terms will be divided into blocks focussed on specific areas of ancient cultural discourse or the themes in reception (for example: a 4-week segment on medical approaches to the body; a 2-week block dedicated to the reception of the male body in modern cinema and visual media). 

An indicative list of topics to be covered:

• The body and medicine
• The performing body (e.g. rhetorical performance, dramatic performance, etc.)
• The athletic body
• The sensory body
• Torture and the body
• The classical body in modern politics
• The classical body in modern advertising

The module will be structured around a combination of specific readings of primary material, either ancient (e.g. Philostratus’ On Gymnastics)or modern (advertisements by modern perfume companies, or Hollywood epics). These will be coupled with theoretical writings which will help us investigate the primary material under discussion.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Brown, P. The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (Lectures on the History of Religions, n.s., 13; New York, 1988).
• Bynum, W & Kalof, L. (eds.) A Cultural History of the Human Body (vols 1-6; The Cultural Histories Series; London, 2014--).
• Judovitz, D. The Culture of the Body: Genealogies of Modernity (Michigan, 2001).
• Laqueur, T. Making Sex: Body and Gender from Greeks to Freud (Massachusetts, 1992).
• Montserrat, D. (ed.) Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings (Studies of the Body in Antiquity; London, 1997).
• Porter, J. (ed.) Constructions of the Classical Body (The Body in Theory; Michigan, 1999).
• Porter, R. ‘History of the Body’, in P. Burke (ed.) New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 206-32.
• Porter, R. ‘History of the Body Reconsidered’, in P. Burke (ed.) New Perspectives on Historical Writing (2^nd. Edition; Cambridge, 2001), 232-60.
• Turner, B. The Body and Society: Exploration in Social Theory (Second Edition; Thousand Oaks, CA, 2008).
• Wyke, M. (ed.) Parchments of Gender: Deciphering the Bodies of Antiquity (Oxford, 1998).

Key words search

Body, perception, classical body