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 131-024 The Body: History, Sex and Gender

Note

Formerly available as 131-207/307. Students who have completed 131-207/307 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Availability

2nd and 3rd year

Credit Points

12.5

Coordinator

Assoc Prof C Sowerwine

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year History, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Not Offered (view timetable)

Contact

A 1.5-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week

Subject Description

The human body is a social construction which has its own history. Beauty, desire, and even sex have been read into the body in different ways in the past. The subject explores the ways in which the body was read in earlier societies and how those readings changed. In particular, we examine the development of the bourgeois body, the nineteenth century's inscription of new, stricter genderings onto the body, and the concomitant development of the homosexual body. We explore the different readings of the body in recent and contemporary society, seeking to understand the slender body, the gay and lesbian body, and the gendered body of the late twentieth century.

Assessment

Tutorial participation and written work totalling 4000 words.



Search : Index : Faculty of Arts : History
Prev 131-020 The Oral Tradition in Australia
Next 131-025 Race and Colonisation in Western Discourse
Status:                   Official 1999
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Authorised by:            Academic Registrar
Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au