Monstrous Bodies - YMG031

• Anglický název: Monstrous Bodies
• Zajišťuje: Program Genderová studia (24-KGS)
• Fakulta: Fakulta humanitních studií
• Platnost: od 2013
• Semestr: letní
• E-Kredity: 2
• Způsob provedení zkoušky: letní s.:
• Rozsah, examinace: letní s.:5/0, Zk [HS]
• Počet míst: neurčen / neurčen (30)
• Minimální obsazenost: neomezen
• 4EU+: ne
• Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu: ne
• Stav předmětu: zrušen
• Jazyk výuky: angličtina
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Další informace: http://Předmět je doporučen pro studující magisterských programů.
• Poznámka: předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán; povolen pro zápis po webu
• Garant: Mgr. Kateřina Kolářová, Ph.D.

Anotace

čeština

Poslední úprava: Bc. Magdalena Foffová (20.06.2012)

Tento kurz se nevěnuje definování monstrozity jako takové, nýbrž právě naopak stopuje různé představy o monstrozitě a způsoby připisování "monstrozity" různým tělům, jejich tvarům, chování, touze apod. Specificky se kurz věnuje diskurzům obezity, HIV/AIDS, tělesné jinakosti a jinakosti rasové/etnické, procesům, skrze něž se tyto jinakosti překládají do jinakosti vepsané do těl. Cílem kurzu je dekonstruovat "monstrum" a ukázat jej v kulturních a historických okolnostech, které jej vytvářejí. Celý kurz probíhá v angličtině.

angličtina

Poslední úprava: Bc. Lenka Lukešová (29.08.2012)

The course examines various cultural locations of monstronsity: be it discourses of obesity, fatness, disability and freakishness, HIV infection and AIDS or the instability and permeability of the female body. As this short description suggests, we will not be interested in "monstrosity" as such, but rather in the cultural sites and discourses that produce particular (and different types of) monstrosities. Hence, "monster" and "monstrosity" will be perceived as an empty signifier of difference acquiring meaning only in and through specific encounters. The topics that we shall explore include: the fat/anorexic body, the crippled body, the sexually/gender perverted body, the body infused with HIV and AIDS. Discussing these examples we will unravel the various ways of signifying difference. The aim of the course is to critically reflect on the ways in which specific bodies become seen as monstrous and are thus stigmatised, shunned, exposed to forced cures, rehabilitation and social exclusion. This course will be taught in English and is open to both BA and MA students. Erasmus students are welcome! The course is taught in weekend blocks (4 times a semester), please check the schedule. All students enrolling in this class need to enroll in the follow-up seminar as well.

Sylabus

Poslední úprava: Mgr. Kateřina Kolářová, Ph.D. (21.02.2011)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COURSE IS TAUGHT AT LOCATION HURKA!!! (2 SUBWAY STATIONS AWAY FROM JINONICE)

AT DEPARTMENT OF GENDER STUDIES, HOUSE/ENTRANCE "A", 2ND FLOOR, ROOM A

PLEASE CONSULT MAP HERE: www.fhs.cuni.cz/gender

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COURSE IS TAUGHT AT LOCATION HURKA!!! (2 SUBWAY STATIONS AWAY FROM JINONICE)AT DEPARTMENT OF GENDER STUDIES, HOUSE/ENTRANCE "A", 2ND FLOOR, ROOM APLEASE CONSULT MAP HERE: www.fhs.cuni.cz/gender

Kateřina Kolářová

Office Hours: Ůterý 14:00-15:20,

Areál Hůrka 2. patro

[e-mail]

I will be happy to discuss issues raised in the class, your presentation as well as the final project with you indivudally. Please let me know in advance if/when you want to come to the office hours. Of couse, you can also just drop by, however, somebody else might be just speaking to me...)

Session I (26.2. 2010): Conceptualising ‘monstrosity’ and the ‘monstrous body’

• bodily difference as ‘monstrous’; monstrosity as a strategy of differentiation
• introduction of the course
• monstrosity and the politics of ‘enfreakment’

Obligatory Reading:

Rosemary Garland-Thomson, "Introduction" Freakery. Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body. NY/London: New York University Press. 1996

 

 

In-class discussion: sequences from "The Elephant Man" (dir. David Lynch, 1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4YTZOq2fk

As we will only watch sequences from the movie, it is recommended that the students see the whole film individually.

 

Recommended Reading:

Margrit Shildrick. Embodying the Monster. Encounters with the Vulnerable Self. (esp. Introduction, Ch. I: Monsters, Marvels and Meanings)

 

Session II (26.3. 2010): "Monsters from Within" (Disciplining the Monstrous HIV/AIDS)

 

Obligatory Reading:

1. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, essays will be specified

2. Michel Foucault, "Lecture 3", Abnormals

3. Emily Martin, "The Body At War". Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American culture, 2001

 

In-class screening: (de-)constructing the "patient Zero" as the moral and sexual "monster"

 

And the Band Played On, (dir. Stottiswood, 1993)

Zero Patience (dir. John Greyson, 1994)

 

In-class reading (not obligatory to read before the class):

Gary W. Shannon and Gerald F. Pyle. "The Origin and Diffusion of AIDS: A view from Medical Geography" Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 79.1. 1989, 1-24

Session III (16.4. 2010) "Monstrously Fat"

Essay Proposal Due!

Obligatory Reading:

1.    Sander Gilman, "Epidemic Obesity", Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity. 2008 (str. 14-44)

2. Laurent Berlant, Risky Business: On Obesity, Eating, and the Ambiguity of "Health", Against Health. How heatlh Became the New Morality, Jonathan M. metyl and Anna Kirland, Eds. NYUP 2010, pp. 26-40

3. Fatness as Social Inequality (intro, p.113-114); Natalie Boero, Fat kids, Working Moms, and the Fatness Epidemics…. In The Fat Studies Reader, 2009, p. 114-120

Recommended Reading:

 

Amy Farell, "The White Man`s Burden. Female Sexuality, Tourist Postcards, and the Place of the Fat Woman in Early 20-th Century U.S. Culture" The Fat Studies Reader, 2009

 

And other essays from the volume

Partly accessible from the below link or directly from me: http://books.google.cz/books?id=XtLWPWNO8gUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+fat+studies+reader&hl=cs&ei=B4VhTee6CMOx4AbCvY2wCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

In-class screening:

The Fattest Man In Britain (dir. David Blair 2009]

Or

Precious (dir. Lee Daniels)

 

Session IV (14.5. 2010) "Danger" and "Security" or : Dracula and the monstrous terrorists

Obligatory Reading:

 

1. Jasbir K. Puar, Amit S. Rai, Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War in Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots, Social Text 72, 20.3. Fall 2002, 117-148

2. Jasbir K. Puar, Abu Ghraib and U.S. sexual exceptionalism, in Terrorist Assemblages. Homonationalism in Queer Times. 2007. pp. 79-113

3. Judith Halberstam, "Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker’s Dracula" in Skins Shows. gothic horror and the technology of monsters. (chap. 4) Durham, nc: Duke University Press, 1995 (or in Victorian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3, Victorian Sexualities (Spring, 1993), pp. 333-352)

In-class screening:

Dracula (dir. Tod Browning, 1932)

 

Course Requirements (lecture, 2ECTS credits):

• Please note that the course is taught in ENGLISH and that you need to be able to participate in English discussion as well as be able to read theoretical texts in English.
• Active participation on the sessions, (1 absence maximum): active participation means that you have read the obligatory readings before the session and will take part in in-class discussion of the text. You are more than welcome to ask questions about what you did not grasp/disagree with/are concerned about/ or alternatively find very convincing part of the text and its argument.
• Presentation: the group presenting is supposed to distribute written hand-outs that state the key concepts and thesis of the texts (reference to page numbers!!!!) as well as the questions that the groups is presenting for discussion.

Presentations are for sessions II, III and IV and the presenters are asked to consult the presentation with me briefly.

The presenters WILL NOT give summary of the texts in the class, BUT WILL PREPARE QUESTIONS  FOR, AS WELL AS MODERATE THE DISCUSSION. THE PRESENTERS WILL ALSO SERVE AS AN AUTHORITY ON THE TEXTS FOR THE DISCUSSION!

 

THE QUESTIONS FOR THE DISCUSSION NEED TO BE CONSULTED WITH ME NO LATER THAN MONDAY PRECEDING THE CLASS, AND CIRCULATED TO EVERYONE BY THURSDAY PRIOR TO CLASS.

 

The moderated discussion of the theoretical texts will take roughly a half of our sessions, the other will be devoted to the in-class materials, films and other materials.

 

Course Requirements (seminar 3ECTS credits):

Final Essay/Discussion

Proposal Due on session III , 16.4. 2011

The essays need to have:

a question

an argument

and references to secondary (theory) literature

 

1. You can discuss the material presented in the class or find your own material dealing with "monstrosity" and monstrous bodies. You can also develop the topics presented and discussed in the class and find additional material to develop on the topic. Once you have found a material you find interesting, you have to have a question that you would like to ask the material (for instance: How is obesity represented? Is it linked to some form of behaviour? Is the film/text/media article…looking for someone responsible for the obesity? Or if it presents obesity as an epidemic, what implications it has? How does the notion of epidemics influence the representation?).

 

1. Once you have formulated the question, you bring together the secondary sources and through them you formulate your argument, i.e. reading of the material, i.e. formulating answers to your questions. Remember, you have to cite all the material you work with (give references to all quotes as well as paraphrases!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) If you are not sure you know how to cite and work with secondary literature, ask me.

 

1. The essays need time to develop. You need to think and look for good material, consult me for the literature, if you need to. I will be happy to help.

 

Length: 7 normpages, i.e. 2100 words, or 12,600 characters

The proposal of the essay is due: 16.4.

The final essays are due: 6.6. 2010