The Body and Identity
| Module title | The Body and Identity |
|---|---|
| Module code | EASM154 |
| Academic year | 2019/0 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Professor Corinna Wagner (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
This module traces the cultural and literary history of the body, from the age of Enlightenment through the Victorian period to the modern day. Taking a medical humanities approach, we will address such issues as bodily ‘monstrosity’, confession, sexuality, discipline, psychological disorders, criminality and race. In this module, we will enhance our primary reading with critical and theoretical work (mostly Foucault) and with visual material.
Module aims - intentions of the module
- To trace the cultural and literary history of the body, from the age of Enlightenment to the Romantic era.
- To understand how political, religious, philosophical and scientific shifts in this period gave rise to debates about the human body, the relationship between mind and body, and how the body was implicated in the formation of personal identity. Our interdisciplinary study will involve a variety of texts and genres: alongside novels and poetry, we will examine scientific and philosophical treatises, memoirs and journalism. Since we will be interested in the various representations of the human body – whether as gendered, diseased, criminal or celebrated – this course will include a substantial visual component (paintings, graphic satire and caricatures). We will supplement our study of these visual and verbal texts with critical readings.
- One of our key aims in this module will be to investigate how conceptions of the body were (and continue to be) intimately tied to questions surrounding gender, politics and power. In this era, the gendered body, the monstrous body and the racially-differentiated body came under intense scrutiny and dissection (literally and figuratively). Enlightenment thinkers were keen to identify the bodily origin of such things as passion, virtue, violence, and those impulses that threatened a productive and morally-ordered society. A central component of this
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of a variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts, including journalism, poetry, novels, political propaganda, scientific treatises and visual art.
- 2. Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of researching a variety of literary and other media from the eighteenth-century using physical and electronic resources
- 3. Demonstrate an advanced critical understanding of some of the key themes, topics and debates surrounding the nature of the human body and the relationship between mind and body
- 4. Engage effectively in significant critical debates concerning such related issues as gender politics, racial categorisation, the ethics of medicine, etc.
- 5. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to apply historical and cultural knowledge to aesthetic criticism
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Demonstrate a sophisticated and intellectually mature ability to analyse the literature, film and art of the modern era and to relate the concerns and modes of expression expressed in such genres to historical context
- 7. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to their own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual historyDemonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to interrelate texts and discourses specific to your own discipline with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
- 8. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary and visual texts
- 9. Demonstrate an advanced ability to digest, select, and organise interdisciplinary material and to trace the development of debate across disciplinary boundaries.
- 10. Demonstrate an ability to devise, research, and execute a programme of archival research.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 11. Through seminar work and presentations, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to articulate your views convincingly both individually and in groups
- 12. Through essay-writing, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose
- 13. Through research for seminars, essays, and presentations demonstrate an advanced proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
- 14. Through research, seminar discussion, and essay writing demonstrate an advanced and intellectually-mature capacity to question assumptions, to distinguish between fact and opinion, and to critically reflect on your own learning process.
- 15. Through organising and planning for an interdisciplinary research project, demonstrate independence of thought and confidence in developing ideas and formulating initial questions
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Introduction to Bodies in Art History: viewing of paintings engravings and caricatures by Goya, Henri Fuseli, Caspar David Friedrich, William Blake, James Gillray and others; introduction to methodologies, online research resources, and archives
- Mind, Body and Monstrosity (Swift, Locke, Descartes, Foucault, Canguilhem)
- Sexuality and Confession Bodies (Rousseau, Foucault)
- Sexuality and the Body (Winterson)
- Illness, Disability (Burney, Martineau, Weir)
- Psychology and the Body (Zola, Lombroso, Foucault)
- Race, Criminality and Gothic Bodies (Marsh, Galton, Nordau)
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 280 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 20 | Seminars |
| Guided independent study | 100 | Seminar preparation (independent) |
| Guided independent study | 180 | Reading, research and essay preparation |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 85 | 0 | 15 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation on research | 15 | 15 minutes | 1-5, 6-11, 13 | Cohort feedback via seminars |
| Research report | 25 | 2500 words | 1-10, 12-15 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Essay | 60 | 5000 words | 1-10, 12-15 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation on research | Repeat study or Mitigation | 1-5, 6-11, 13 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Research project | Research project | 1-10, 12-15 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Essay | Essay | 1-10, 12-15 | Referral/Deferral period |
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 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Core Reading:
- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, (OUP, 2005)
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions ed. Patrick Coleman, Angela Scholar (OUP, 2008)
- Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (vol. 1)
- Harriet Martineau, Life in the Sick-room (Broadview, 2003)
- Jeannette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry (Vintage, 1989)
- Emile Zola, La Bete Humaine (The monomaniac) (OUP, 2009)
- Richard Marsh, The Beetle (Broadview, 2004)
Secondary Reading:
- Thomas Laqueur Making Sex (Harvard, 1992)
- Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological (Zone Books, 2007)
- Eds. Laura Lunger Knoppers, Joan B. Landes, Monstrous Bodies/Political Monstrosities in Early Modern Europe (Cornell, 2004)
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Vintage, 1995)
- Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality: An Introduction, vol. 1 (Vintage, 1990)
- The Body, ed. Donn Welton, (Blackwell, 2004)
- Barbara Maria Stafford, Body Criticism: Imagining the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (MIT, 1993)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
- Bill Douglas Centre
- Special Collections
Reading for week 1:
- Gulliver's Travels
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | June 2013 |
| Last revision date | 07/11/2018 |
