|
University of Rochester
Women's Studies
Course Descriptions
(Rev. 12/07)
WST 100 Introduction to Women's Studies. Students are introduced to the study of women and gender through specific topics that change each semester. STAFF (Fall and Spring)
WST 103 (LIN 103) Language and Sexuality. This course will investigate various aspects of language as used by members of sexual minority groups, focusing on language of and about gay men and lesbians, including “reclaimed epithets” (e.g., ‘dyke' and ‘queer'), gender vs. sexuality vs. sex, and the role of language in creating/maintaining sexual categories and identities. J. RUNNER *
WST 104 (ANT 104, AAS 104) Contemporary Issues and Anthropology. An anthropological approach to understanding social issues such as racial segregation, crime and punishment, and the war on drugs. What contribution can an anthropological perspective make in resolving these issues? The class will discuss specific examples from different parts of the world in an historical, cultural, political and economic framework. T. GIBSON *
WST 115 (ANT 102) Introduction to Medical Anthropology. This course will examine a broad range of topics in the study of medical and health care systems from an anthropological and cross cultural perspective. An introductory section will integrate the many approaches to illness and disease that constitute “medical anthropology,” and the body of the course will consider several major areas of anthropological work on these subjects: ethnomedicine, or “folk medicine”; childbearing and family planning; the roles of patients and healers; transcultural psychiatry; and relations between gender and illness. The course will use studies from a wide range of traditional cultures throughout the world, with frequent reference to the application of this research to modern “Western” medicine. L. METCALF (Fall)
WST 123 (AH 100) Introduction to Cultural and Visual Studies. Visual images pervade our everyday experiences in an increasingly technological and communications-based culture. From newspapers to the Web, from our academic courses to encounters with advertisements and movies, we encounter visual images in every area of our lives. Visual and Cultural Studies is an exciting new area of study that looks at this range of art, media, and visual images, rather than focusing on fine art alone. This course will introduce you to some of the techniques used to analyze visual images from art and photography to television and electronic media. We will draw upon new approaches in art history, media studies, gender studies, and literary and social theory. R. HAIDU *
WST 129 ( MUR 128) Women and Music. The course will focus primarily on women composers but will also include material on women as performers, patrons, and consumers, as well as consideration of the role that gender plays in the experience of music. H. MECONI *
WST 200 Colloquium in Women's Studies. The colloquium explores the diversity of feminist thought and practice in its importance in forming the intellectual grounding in Women's Studies, in its impact on a variety of disciplines, and in its articulation with lives and social practices. The course follows a three fold structure. First, we consider several major systems of feminist thought; second, through discussions and reading with guest faculty Associates of the Susan B. Anthony Institute, we consider the interdisciplinary methods that under gird these forms of feminist theory in a variety of academic disciplines. Third, in class discussions and writings we consider the experiences of women and men situated in diverse and changing cultural, economic, political, and psychological climates with an emphasis on problem areas of interest to class members. The course will support and develop in students the ability to write intensively in Women's Studies as an inherently interdisciplinary field; it meets the upper-level writing requirement in Women's Studies for the college. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. STAFF (Fall)
WST 202 (ANT 103) Women in Society. This course examines the duality of women's lives: how they are subordinated in patriarchal systems--cross-culturally--and how they use indirect aggression to obtain power. Known as the new frontier in feminist studies, this desire for power is captured in the following phrase: "It's ok to be mean, if it's not seen." Because aggression (or anger) is constructed as an inappropriate female emotion (regardless of race or ethnicity), hiding or masking it is critical to the notion of female "perfection". Class participants will consider race and class variation and the gender-specific ways women respond to systemic subordination, including how they seek power through indirect aggression (or anger), competition and inter-group conflict in the context of that subordination. Ethnography and ethnographic techniques will enable student participants to interview at least three generations of women regarding their life histories. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. S. FORDHAM *
WST 203 (PSC 246) Women in Politics. This course will explore women's evolving roles in American politics. Topics include: a brief historical review of women's rights; women's roles in social movements; and women in electoral politics and as elected officials. Students will examine the quality of women's political leadership, comparing and contrasting it to the traditional gender-based models. Course readings will be supplemented by video presentations and guest lectures. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. N. BREDES (Fall)
WST 204 (FR 287, CLT 211, FMS 255, ENG 261) Feminist Film Theory. Feminism has had a powerful impact on the developing field of film theory from the 1970's to the present. This course will examine the major feminist work on film, moving from the earlier text-based psychoanalysis theories of representation to theories of feminine spectatorship to studies of reception contexts and audience. We will also give some attention to the very important role of feminist theory in television studies. Weekly screenings, keyed to the readings, will allow us to test the value if these positions for close critical analysis of the film or television text. Readings to include: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Constance Penley, Judith Mayne, Linda Williams, Jacqueline Bobo, Valerie Smith, Lynn Spigel, Lynne Joyrich, Julie D'Acci. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. S. WILLIS *
WST 205 (PHIL 171) Philosophical Foundations of Feminism. The study of contemporary feminist theory. The course considers the conception of women expressed through our practices, laws, theories and literature. Is this conception that of an inessential Other as one philosopher has argued? Other topics to be discussed include: equality and equal rights, sex roles and gender specific language, power relations and self-determination, marriage and maternity. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. D. MODRAK (Spring)
WST 206 (HLS 206) Feminism, Gender, and Health. Feminism, Gender, and Health considers how theories of gender, social organization, and biological sex shape the questions asked and explanations and interventions offered in the areas of health, disease, and well-being. We examine the effects of gender, social class, and race in mediating health effects, with particular emphasis on women's health. Some issues examined will include the life cycle and transitions, collective and individual trauma, access to health services, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and longevity. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. STAFF (Spring)
WST 207 (ENG 206) Carnal Speaking: Men, Women, and Discourse in Medieval Culture. 'Speke, sweete bryd, I noot nat where thou art!' This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart...' From "The Miller's Tale," Chaucer. Here are two men speaking to each other literally through their asses, one of them thinking that he's speaking to a woman, the other one thinking that he's got the "upper hand." This course examines discursive relationships in medieval European literature with an emphasis on the carnal. But what is the carnal? Is it always the lower bodily order, or can it have a spiritual dimension? How does the body "speak," what does it speak about, what was its problematic status then, how did Christ transfigure it, and what do the various fabliaux, romances, allegories, homilies, theological treatises, passion plays and medical texts tell us about medieval society and this fragile flesh? We will read three tales by Chaucer (Miller's, Wife's Prologue and Tale, Pardoner's), but also Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lanval, Sir Degarre, Sir Gowther, selections from Langland, several Old French fabliaux, some selections from medieval women writers including Hildegard of Bingen, and some pretty heady middle Welsh poetry. The Secrets of Women, written by two ignorant clerks, is a real hoot. Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement and the cluster in Medieval Literature. S. HIGLEY *
WST 208 (ANT 279/470, AAS 279) Urban Schools: Race and Gender. America 's public schooling is assumed to be a critical frontier in the eradication of social inequality. The one remaining obligatory institution in our nation, schools are socially approved sites specifically designed to produce a level playing field for all American citizens, by eliminating privileges and stigmata affiliated with race, class, gender and other socially and culturally constructed inequities. Using both ethnographic texts and the idea of "outing" anthropology by bringing an informant to class, this course explores the dynamic relationship between schools and socially constructed notions of race, class and gender in postmodern America . S. FORDHAM *
WST 214 (AH 210/410) Woman as Image and Text. Feminist art historians have changed the way we think about images of women, works by women artists, and the very notion of artistic genius. This course will investigate the way in which visual images of women participate with other cultural and social factors in the construction of the idea of woman. It will look at types and conventions in works by male and female artists, as well as in anonymous prints and advertising from different periods, with a concentration on the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Readings will introduce a variety of approaches. G. SEIBERLING *
WST 215 (DAN 214) Community, Earth, and Body. How does our relationship with our body affect the way we interact with the world? What does it mean to be truly human and to renew and deepen communication with our natural world and society? What is love and how do we practice it? What is transformative learning? These questions and others will be addressed through experimental practice, autobiographical writing and stories, reading, discussion and conversation. J. HOOK *
WST 216 (ENG 213/413) Renaissance Women's Writers. Over the last few decades, we have come to appreciate women's extensive contributions to Renaissance drama, verse, fictional and non-fictional prose. This course focuses on the critical problems that inform our search for and analysis of English women's writing in the 16th and 17th centuries. We discuss how 16th- and 17th-century English women produced and distributed their writing, and how their audiences received those works. We ask how literary, historical, and feminist analysis might help us to sort through key questions of style, genre, authorship, literacy, education, and audience. And we consider how the study of Renaissance English women's writing might help us to better understand the aesthetic and social categories that inspired contemporary readers, and those that continue to shape our enjoyment and analysis of Renaissance writing more generally, and of women's writing in subsequent centuries. R. KEGL *
WST 217 (ANT 218) Birth and Death: Anthropology of Vital Events. Birth and Death explores the ways in which men and women in a variety of cultures conceive of and deal with birth and death—at the individual, family and societal levels. Using concepts from anthropology, demography, and other social sciences we will examine issues such as infanticide; excess female mortality; famine; emerging infectious diseases; the “population explosion” and the “demographic transition;” the “baby boom” and the “birth dearth;” “sexuality” and “family planning;” “abortion,” “teenage pregnancy” and “single parenthood.” The material will be useful for students interested in aspects of social work, public policy, and international health and reproductive health. A. CARTER (Fall)
WST 218 (ANT 244, AAS 248) Marriage, Family, and Community in a Global Perspective. In a culture that places high value on individualism and self-reliance, what is the role of families and communities? Has September 11 shifted the emphasis to place more value on families and communities? Are they seen as enduring/reassuring 'building blocks' of American society? Do Americans agree on what families and communities are, or should be? How do class, ethnicity and race relations affect communities? How do recent revelations about corporate greed and the decline of the stock market affect families and communities? E. EMMETT *
WST 220 (ANR 220, ANT 221) The Nature of Love. The purpose of this course is to broaden students' understandings of theories of human nature and behavior, and to acquaint them with a range of cultural interpretations of emotions and relationships. Various dimensions of love are examined, with a special focus on religious and romantic conceptions of love. Definitions and expressions of love in Asian as well as European and American traditions are explored. We inquire into the way in which the values and moral systems built around love serve to knit society together, as well as ways in which love can disrupt the social order. The course provides a basic understanding of Christianity, Hinduism, and Confucian religion. It also acquaints with some central ideas and values in Medieval Christianity, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Students become familiar with social scientific theories about individuals and their relationships to society, and with theories about the relation of religion to morality and the family. E. McHUGH *
WST 221 (AH 310/510) Representing Differences. The question of difference will be approached in this seminar through the narrow lens of what has come to be called "queer theory." We will read a select number of foundational texts, including Foucault's History of Sexuality and Freud's Three Essays, which will lay the groundwork for analysis of recent theorists working within the domains of psychoanalysis and new historicism. A central question for the seminar will be: How do these theories function politically? How do they work with and/or against a politics of rights? Students will lead seminar discussions on theoretical texts of their choosing. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. D. CRIMP *
WST 222 (ENG 222) Nineteenth-Century British Novel. This
course examines the problem of possession, romantic and economic, in the nineteenth-century
British novel. What is the connection between marriage and romance with other
forms of possession such as land, money, or things, in the nineteenth-century
British novel? In addressing this question, we will discuss how narrative devices
and genres like the marriage- plot or national tale offer vehicles for novelists
such as Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and George
Eliot to explore the linkages between romance, sexuality, property, and capitalism.
Other key topics for the class will include (but not be limited to) nationalism,
the woman question and the problem of separate spheres, changes in class structure,
and British imperialism. Applicable English Cluster: Novels.
S. RAJAN *
WST 223 (ENG 223/423) Madness, Marriage, and Monstrosity. The 19th c. novel has often been associated with Victorian values: happy marriages; wholesome homes; moral propriety; moderated emotions; properly channeled ambitions. Many of the most popular 19th-century novels, however, paint a very different picture: with madwomen locked in attics and asylums; monsters, real and imagined, lurking behind the facade of propriety; genteel homes harboring opium addicts; fallen women walking the streets; and sexual transgression and degeneracy more common than it would seem. Indeed, for novels so centrally structured around marriage and society, madness and monstrosity appear with alarming regularity. This is especially the case in novels written by women, and in novels (whether written by women or men) written for the significant and rapidly growing female portion of the novel-reading public. These novels' insistent intertwining of the tropes of madness, marriage, and monstrosity suggests some of the cultural anxieties unleashed by this new body of women readers. The course will begin with Frankenstein and end with Dracula, two novels from opposite ends of the century that stand as meditations on the courses central themes. In between, we will consider such classic marriage plot novels as Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre; we will also look at some examples of the popular sensation fiction of the 1860s (The Woman in White and Lady Audley's Secret). Applicable clusters: Gender and Writing; Novels. B. LONDON
WST 224 (AH 276/476, HIS 262, ANT 276) Gender and Representation in Native American Art. An examination of gender-based artistic practices in selected Native North American societies. We shall examine how gendered social and artistic roles have altered in response to colonialism in the last two centuries, and critique some of the entrenched notions in the literature about sacred and secular, art and craft, authentic and touristic. J. BERLO *
WST 225 (AH 259/459, ANT 228) Women, Cloth, and Culture. An inquiry into roles as textile artists, particularity in the Americas . Topics will differ but may include historical quilts and other needlework; contemporary fiber arts; indigenous and ethnic traditions; and theoretical and feminist issues concerning women's roles as makers of “soft goods”. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. J. BERLO *
WST 226 (AH 214) Beyond the Boundaries. We will examine the rise and fall of various classifications within the discipline of art history that deal with problematized classes of objects: craft, folk art, outsider art, primitive art, and art of the insane. We will chart the history of the development of thought about these classificatory schemes, from late 19th century European writings on craft and ornament to early 20th century American writings on folk art, to the contemporary fascination with "outsider" art. J. BERLO *
WST 227 (HIS 222W) Children, Families, and the State. This course treats the lives of children and their families in the 18th century against the background of important issues of the day, such as the growth of consumerism and the German cultural revival, as well as making contact with great Enlightenment thinkers who wrote extensively on education, such as John Locke and Jean-Jaques Rousseau. Topics studied include other Enlightenment educationists, toys and games, children's books and the training of affect, the importance of fairy tales, including their influence on psychoanalysis and its forerunners, child labour, and the lives of poor children. D. OUTRAM *
WST 229 (ANT 229) War and Migration. This course critically examines post-1945 migrations to the U.S. through the lens of war. We will consider the far-ranging impacts of American military intervention in East and Southeast Asia on migration flows and the civil rights of American citizens of Asian descent. We will also consider the experiences of migrants and refugees displaced by war and violence in Latin America and Africa and the transnational communities and nationalist projects that have emerged among exiled groups. Throughout the course we will ask how American geopolitical relations and imperial projects intersect with politics of race, class and gender in the U.S. Readings and films will cover the experiences of war orphans, refugees, military sex workers, and war brides. The course concludes with an examination of the current "war on terror" and its impact on Asian American and Arab American communities in the U.S. E. KIM *
WST 239 (ANR 240) Women and Religion. A study of conceptions of women embodied in the imagery of various religious traditions, the role of women in worship, and the impact of religious traditions on feminine experience and social definitions of gender roles. For each region, we consider both religious doctrine and the lives of women in the context of societies holding to these religious beliefs. THIS IS A THREE CREDIT COURSE TAUGHT AT THE EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC. E. McHUGH *
WST 240 (ENG 126) Creative Nonfiction: Writing Women's Lives. More than twenty years ago the poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." In this course we shall examine women's lives through the act of non-fiction writing. Focusing on prose writing (rather than poetry), each student will actively practice the creative act of telling the truth about her own and other women's lives. We shall also read many diverse examples of women's autobiographical writing and other non-fiction genres, by such acclaimed practitioners as Virginia Woolf, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, Dorothy Allison, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Weekly exercises will focus on creative writing and critical reading, as well as critiquing each other's works. Each student will also complete one longer project, worked on throughout the semester. No previous experience is required, just a willingness to write often, revise constantly, and read other women's work with an open mind. The weekly class meeting will be supplemented by periodic individual meeting times with each student. J. BERLO *
WST 243 (Eng 243) The Brontës. An isolated country parsonage. A half mad father. A wastrel brother addicted to drugs. Three uniquely gifted sisters who burned their hearts and brains out on the moors – but not before leaving us some of the most passionate and revolutionary literature of the 19 th century. This is the stuff of the Brontë legend. This course will explore the continuing appeal of the Brontës and the peculiar fascination that they have exercised on the literary imagination. Through intensive study of some of the best-loved novels our culture has produced – the literary works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë – we will explore the roots and reaches of the Brontë myth. We will also consider the Brontës' legacy in today's popular romantic fiction and in some of the many adaptations (and continuations) of their work in print and on the screen. And we will look at our seemingly insatiable appetite for new tellings of the Brontës' life stories. The course, then, will consider not the only the Brontës' literary productions, but also our culture's production and reproduction of “the Brontës” over the years. B. LONDON
WST 244 (FR 243, AAS 244, CLT 221/421) Mutilated Bodies, Mutilated Discourse. Transnational sisterhood" or cultural imperialism? Legitimate ritualized practice or outdated violent ritual? Genital cutting, female circumcision, female genital surgery? The controversy over this practice already begins with the act of its naming. Who is qualified to speak the 'truth' about the assaulted female body? How can we explain the fact that western feminist discourses and right wing politicians tend to agree on the issue of genital mutilations? If there seems to be a consensus about the physical violence imposed on the female body, why is it that western feminist discourse is suspected of perpetuating the mutilation of African voices? This course seeks to provide an understanding of the context in which a fragmented "transnational sisterhood" allows for a proliferation of mutilated discourses on mutilated postcolonial (African, poor and defenseless) bodies. Readings include Alice Walker, Evelyne Accad, Fauziya Kassindja and critical feminist readings from African, French and North American authors. In English. C. KEMEDJIO *
WST 247 (ENG 248/448) Contemporary Women's Writing. The last decades of the 20th century have seen a virtual explosion of writing by women, with novels by women constituting some of the most widely read and critically admired work being produced today. Among the distinctive features of this writing have been its experimentation with new voices and narrative forms. Looking at a range of texts by British and American women (from a variety of race, class, regional, and ethnic positions) as well as writings by women whose homelands are in Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, this course will attempt to account for this new resurgence of women's writing. Looking particularly at the way ideas of home have both enabled and inhibited women's voices, this course will explore the diverse shapes of the contemporary woman's imagination. May be used to fulfill the upper-level writing requirement. Applicable English Clusters: Gender and Writing; Modern and Contemporary Writing; Literature and Cultural Identity. B. LONDON *
WST 249 (REL 255) Hindu Goddesses and Women. The course will examine critically the various ways in which goddesses and women have been portrayed in Hindu tradition. We will consider specifically the ways in which women understand themselves as Hindus and how they interpret their traditional social and religious roles. While the case can be made that the Hindu world-view is not inherently patriarchical, Hindu women are nonetheless members of a culture dominated by men and are often the victims of oppression perpetrated and perpetuated by men. Yet women are also not entirely excluded from important theological and social roles in this society, one need only cite the example of the long reign of Indira Gandhi to see that the social subordination of women is far from absolute. Further, women have made significant contributions to traditions of Hindu traditional poetry. There is a fascination for the feminine in India and a long established tradition of goddess worship that, by extension, also places women on a course. D. BROOKS *
WST 250 (FR 247) Black Paris . This course is a study of Black Paris, as imagined by three generations of Black cultural producers from the United States , the Caribbean and Africa . Paris is a space of freedom and astistic glory that African American writers, soldiers and artists were denied back home. For colonized Africans and Caribbeans, Paris was the birthplace of Negritude, the cultural renaissance influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. How were these identities altered by Black Paris? What did Josephine Baker, Claire de Duras's Ourika, Fanon's Black Girl (Mayotte Capecial), Sembene Ousmane's and Youngblood's black girls have to sacrific to live the parisian dream? How did exotic constructions of the black female shape the trajectories of young Maryse Conde in the imperial metroplis of Paris ? We will investigate how the representation of Paris functions in the construction of black identities. C. KEMEDJIO *
WST 251 (HIS 296W) Women in East Asia . In seminar format, students will read and discuss books and articles on women's history in Japan , China and Korea . Differences in their responses to the modern world and their role in the history of modern East Asian society will be emphasized. The study of women in modern East Asian history will be used as a vehicle to improve student's critical reading and writing skills. READINGS : Anne Imamura, RE-IMAGING JAPANESE WOMEN; Gail Bernstein, HARUKO'S WORLD; WORDS OF FAREWELL: STORIES BY KOREAN WOMEN WRITERS; Jung Chang, WILD SWANS: THREE DAUGHTERS OF CHINA, and other readings on women and society will be assigned. W. HAUSER *
WST 252 (BIO 255) The Biochemistry of Male-Female Differences in Health and Disease. In many instances, women display different biochemical patterns than men in their metabolic responses to foods, nutrients, drugs, and other macromolecules, as well as to certain diseases. This course is designed to examine the relatively uncharted territory of such biochemical differences between males and females that are a consequence of their sex. Topics to be covered include alcohol metabolism, lipid metabolism, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, Parkinsons disease, the cytochrome p450 system, and gene expression. Lecture and discussions will be integrated with areas of environmental and public health concern. [Note: The course will NOT be concerned with anatomical or physiological sexual responses, sexual development, or aspects of reproduction per se.] T. PLATT *
WST 255 (ANT 255) Perspectives of Modern Middle East. This course is designed to familiarize students with the variety and scope of cultural diversity in the Middle East and major socio-cultural issues concerning the countries, nations and ethnicities within this region.. The focus will be on recent and current developmens in the persian Gulf region within an anthropological context. We will examine particular issues such as Arab and Persian views on the West and it's impact on the Middle East, questions of Gender Equality, freedom of speech, dress code, and polygamy in countries of Iran , Afghanistan and Turkey . Reading of articles by authors from a variety of the nations within the Middle East region including will be assigned. S. MONSHIPOUR *
WST 256 (CLT 111Q, SP 260) Latin American Women Writers. Through study of texts (mostly novels) written by women from Latin America, we will ask broad questions concerning cultural contexts with respect to sexuality and gender, language, aesthetics, psychology, and social issues. The course will use materials from a variety of fields (literary and cultural theory, film studies, psychology, history, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies) in addition to the primary texts. All texts and discussions in English. Emphasis on collaborative research and progressive writing assignments. B. JORGENSEN *
WST 264 (SP 289) Women in Hispanic Film. Critics tend to divide the representation of women in Hispanic films into mutually-exclusive, confrontational categories such as virgin or whore, maternal or seductive, traditional or modern, icon or fallen idol. This course examines images of women in a variety of films from Latin America and Spain to problematize these artificial divisions, and to seek out the ambiguous and conflictual aspects of personal (and national) identity embodied in them. Topics range from the use of "the feminine" in war propaganda (Spain, Cuba, and Central America), to films of the Franco dictatorship, and from Latin American political documentaries to popular commercial films by directors such as Bunuel, Almodovar, Bemberg, Saura, Arau, Leduc, and Novaro. Emphasis on cinematic representation as visual ideology, and on films at the millennium. Class taught in English. Written work in Spanish for SP credit. This is a FOUNDATION COURSE. C. SHAEFER *
WST 265 (ENG 265/465, FMS 252A) Issues Film: Family Rage. The course aims to understand the social psychology of modern and contemporary American family life, and especially its means of abetting concealment, repression, suppression of people's emotional lives. Study of the films combined with the readings seek to develop critical understanding of the American nuclear family and the conditions it may create for child-rape, racism, homophobia, murder, and self-destructive behavior such as substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicide. Sometimes the violence is arbitrary, sometimes it is inevitable, sometimes it is incomprehensible. In each case the courses attention is on the personal and collective machineries of repression, the resulting rage in many individuals, and the frequent (and now often familiar) violent results. D. BLEICH *
WST 267 (ENG 267/467) Topics in Media Studies: Changing Genres of Erotica. Recently the large-scale dissemination of erotic and pornographic literature and film has begun to affect the majority of the population in the West. There are two main issues in the course:1) the history of the changing genres of erotica and the social changes taking place because of its wide dissemination; and 2) the proposition that if societies were different little harm and much good would come from the inclusion of erotica in peoples reading and viewing habits: erotic materials, by removing sex from the realm of the forbidden and viewing it as a species of everyday life, can contribute to the education of both sexes and people of all sexual tastes and preferences. D. BLEICH (Fall)
WST 268 (CLT 208C/408C, JPN 246, HIS 278) Contemporary Japanese Culture. Reading and discussion of items in recent popular and scholarly media in Japan and the west on issues of contemporary concern, including national and racial identity, gender and sex roles, immigration and work, war and history, cultural authenticity, and Japan's place in Asia and the world. D. POLLACK (Spring)
WST 269 (GER 269/ CLT-222A, FMS 269) ITS ALIVE! The Body in 20th-Century German Literature & Film. This course will explore the body as a site of discourse in 20th-century German-speaking literature and film. We will attempt to uncover a variety of corporeal meanings constructed by German literary and cinematic texts: the body and/as machine, the body of the Jew, the aestheticized body, the sexualized body, the divided body/body parts, and the globalized body. Each text will be explored in relation to its socio-historical context, providing students with a general overview of German-speaking culture of the period. J. CREECH
WST 270 (JPN 269, AH 269) Art of the Floating World. This course explores the urban, theatrical, poetic, pastoral, and erotic worlds of Japanese paintings and woodblock prints called ukiyo-e or "floating world pictures", a reference to the world of pleasures offered by urban Edo (modern-day Tokyo ) during the Edo period (1603-1867). These works include images of Kabuki actors, theatrical battles and romances, tea-house dandies and beautiful women, historical allegories, erotica, landscapes, nature, historical battles and events, and foreign visitors to Japan. Special attention will be given to the social contexts in which these works were created and consumed. D. POLLACK (Spring)
WST 271 (GER 220/420, CLT 222A/422A) Sex and Gender: 18 th Century Representation. This course explores 18th century conceptions/constructions of the body, sexuality, and gender as manifest in medical papers, handbooks, aesthetic essays, and literary works to include Lessing's Laocoon and Philotas, Fielding's The Female Husband, Defoe's Moll Flanders, Cleland's Fanny Hill,de Sade's Justine, Goethe's Gotz von Berlichingen,Kleist's Holy Caecilia and Puppet Theater, Diderot's The Nun,Shelley's Frankenstein. additional theoretical readings include: Foucault,Kristeva, Butler , Sedgwick, Gilman,Habermas, Cassirer, Todorov, Laqueur, and G.S. Rousseau Clusters: H1WST002 Gender, Culture & representation. S. GUSTAFSON *
WST 272 (GER 272/CLT 222B, 422B) Gender and Sexuality in the 20th Century. This course will examine literary, artistic, and theoretical representations of gender and sexuality as they have changed in the course of the 20th Century. The focus will be on texts from Western Europe and the US, but we will also consider other perspectives. From the New Woman to French Feminists and transnational feminism, from homophile societies to "queer nation" and gay marriage, from Sigmund Freud to Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, we will explore the contested and politically charged debates around gender and sexuality that have shaped our views of identity over the last century. J. CREECH
WST 273 (JPN 273, CLT 224A/424A) Japanese Women Writers. A critical and historical introduction to the works of Japanese women writers in a variety of genres from the early twentieth century to the present. Special focus is given to the major trends in the emergence of a women's literary tradition, contemporary feminist issues, and the social, cultural, and ideological context (including issues of class, generation, sexuality, and nationalism) for women's writing in Japan . Writers and works include Higuchi Ichiyo ("The Thirteenth Night"), Uno Chiyo ("Confessions of Love"), Enchi Fumiko ("The Waiting Years"), Tsushima Yuko ("A Child of Fortune"), and Yamada Eimi ("Kneel Down and Lick My Feet"). Class taught in English with additional instruction in Japanese as required for majors. J. BERNARDI *
WST 274 (GER 206/406, CLT 282/482) Freud & Psychoanalysis. Freud is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His ground-breaking work on dreams, the Oedipus Complex, and psychoanalytic method have profoundly changed our understanding of the psyche and social interaction. This course provides a basic survey of Freud's most important and often controversial writings/discoveries within their historical context and with regards to significant criticisms of his work. "Freud: An Introduction" is part of a cluster which includes courses of Marx and Nietzsche (these courses need not be taken in any particular order). S. GUSTAFSON *
WST 283 (ENG 284) Orality, Language, and Literacy. This course considers the issues raised in Walter Ong's 1982 study, "Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word." His account related the growth of writing and print to the development of science and modern rational thought, exploring possible changes in collective consciousness as a result of the shift of media emphasis. We will examine some classical sources, including Plato's suspicion of the power of oral poetry, and consider the levels of literacy achieved in ancient society; we will also look at European medieval traditions. Central to these discussions will be the roles language and literature played in the lives of non-literate people as contrasted with literate. Study of the modern and contemporary periods focuses on such practices as conversation, becoming literate, collection of oral accounts and their uses, the uses of ethnographic writing, and the different approaches to speech, writing, and language in African American and white communities. A key aim of the course is to show the politics, mutual dependency, and reciprocity of oral and literate uses of language in literary and nonliterary contexts. D. BLEICH *
WST 287 (SP 282/282W/482, CLT 236B/436B ) U.S. Latinos/Latinas. This course introduces students to the emergent field of U.S. Latino/Latina writing and culture. Does the rich diversity of Latino communities in the U.S. stretching from Los Angeles and the southwest to Miami and New York via Texas, Chicago, Minneapolis, and all stops in-between --frustrate or cancel any attempt to group their experiences under a single ethnic-racial term like "Latino/a"? What exactly is "the browning of the Midwest "? To what kind of gender, sexual, and racial codes are the inhabitants of these communities subjected? How do Latino/a narratives map the conflicted terrains of "utopias without borders," free-trade zones, diasporas, nomadic workforces, and even the Internet? Latinos, Latin Americans, immigrants, exiles, refugees, border peoples, raftersit is increasingly as difficult to define the legal status of individuals and communities as it is to talk about social, economic, and cultural identities. To be Latino in the United States is to participate in a unique process of cultural syncretism that some day may become a transformative template for the whole society. We will examine two among the many provocative questions for the twenty-first century; 1) What will be the effects of further Latinization of the American urban landscape? and 2) What does "buscando America " mean for different cultural groups and social classes? Readings and discussions include: Mike Davis, MAGICAL URBANISM: LATINOS REINVENT THE U.S. BIG CITY; Junot Diaz, DROWN; Sandra Cisneros, THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET; and texts by Piri Thomas, Julia Alvarez, John Rechy, Ana Castillo (THE GODDESS OF THE AMERICAS), Richard Rodriguez (DAYS OF OBLIGATION), Rodolfo Acuna, Helena Maria Viramontes, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Ilan Stavans, and others. Class taught in English. R. RODRIGUEZ *
WST 288 (GER 288/488, CLT 212P/412P, FMS 256D) Mother, Comrades and Whores: Women in Post-War German Cinema. In this course we will explore representations of women in post-World War II German cinema. Moving chronologically from the building of two German states to the post-unification period, we will consider the constantly shifting meaning of "woman" in popular and avant-garde films, narrative and documentary films, films by both male and female directors. We will consider equally films from East and West Germany . How does "woman" function as a narrative device in these films? Do women behind the camera change "woman's" meaning within the film? Can "woman" consistently be reduced to one narrative trope (mother, comrade or whore), or does she resist? All readings and discussions are in English; all films are subtitled. J. CREECH *
WST 291 (REL 207) Women in Early Christianity. In this seminar, we will examine ancient Christian sources from the first four centuries CE that focus on women's lives and women's religious experiences. Topics include: the debates over women's religious authority, the prominence of female martyrs, the relationship between women and heresey, virginity and sexual renunciation, the Christian family, forms of female asceticism and Christian holy women, and the role of women in the 'rise' of Christianity. A. MERIDETH
WST 294 (REL 294) Religion, Gender and the Body. How do the major world religions shape religious practices, perceptions, and beliefs through their understandings of the body and gender? This course will interrogate the role of religious belief in forming, shaping, and transforming understandings of the body and gender in the world's major religious traditions. Special attention will be given to theoretical understandings, ascetic practices, sexuality, and formation of 20th century religious cultures of the body within a global context. A. BUTLER *
WST 296 (HIS 314W/414) International Human Rights. What does it mean to be human? What political, economic, religious, social, or sexual rights might be part of different people's working definitions? This course will look at both a) the historical development of conflicting theories of human rights and b) more contemporary debates about their ideal extent, their exercise, and their enforcement. Special topics will include debates over the meaning of the American and French Revolutions, the fight to design an International Declaration of Human Rights in the aftermath of World War II, the history of organizations such as Amnesty International, and the controversy around UN events such as the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing or the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. J. PEDERSEN *
WST 314 (AH 309/509, FMS 309) Lives of Performers: Art/Film/Performance around 1970. Speaking of why she began making films in her new memoir Feelings Are Facts: A Life, Yvonne Rainer writes, Ignored or denied in the work of my 1960s peers, the nuts and bolts of emotional life shaped the unseen (or should I say the unseemly?) underbelly of high U.S. minimalism. While we aspired to the lofty and cerebral plane of a quotidian materiality, our unconscious lives unraveled with an intensity and melodrama that inversely matched their absence in the boxes, beams, jobbing, and standing still of our austere sculptural and choreographic creations. This course explores these repressed melodramas of minimalism, but not only in the U.S. context. European and Japanese films from the same period within five or six years in either direction from 1970suggest parallel preoccupations. D. CRIMP *
WST 338 (ENG 372) Man and Medieval Woman. What could I possibly have meant by this title, I ask? It just seemed to present itself, but I'm still not sure whether it suggests that men, i.e., male scholars, have been explaining the medieval woman, or whether medieval women writers have been explaining men. The course will consider both approaches; well might we ask, where is our inflammatory English Christine de Pisan? Our romantic English Marie de France? Why is Middle English top heavy in male writers of secular literature? Female writers of note are religious: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Besides "Showings" and "The Book of Margery Kempe," our primary texts will be "Sir Orfeo," the "Ancrene Riwle," "Hali Maydenhede," "The Romance of the Rose," Christine of Pisan's "The Book of the City of Ladies," Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale," "Gawain" and the "Green Knight," "Pearl," John Gower's "The Lover's Confession," "The Story of Asneth," "The Story of Judith," and selected lyrics. Throughout, we will look at misogyny and mariology, love and hate, power, allegory and dream vision, and how any of these reveal the fraught issues of gender and culture. French and Italian texts will of course be read in translation. Experience or coursework in Chaucer is recommended but not required. Training in language will be provided. S. HIGLEY *
WST 350 (HIS 340/440, AAS 356) Black Family in Slavery and Freedom. Almost four hundred years of slavery and racial discrimination has taken its toll on the black family. Despite this, the family has demonstrated a remarkable resilience as it adapted to the demands of slavery and freedom. It is ironic, therefore, that just when it appeared that the family had survived the worse attacks on its integrity, and seemed poised to partake of the rewards of a successful Civil Rights and Women's Movement that promised quality education, open housing, a fair job market, and other protective legislation, the future of the black family appeared most dismal. L. HUDSON*
WST 389 (ENG 380) Research Seminar: Problems of Western Civilization. This seminar stipulates the following issues as underlying problems of Western civilization: pederasty, slavery, censorship, heresy, witch-hunting, androcentrism and misogyny, violence against children, and war. It studies literary treatments of these issues alongside nonliterary treatments. Emphasis is on how literature (and our responses to it) dealing with these problems reaches forms of understanding that are distinct from what is given by critical and historical accounts. The seminar addresses how the different problems overlap and continue in contemporary societies. We will ask how they are rationalized and treated either as normal, as strange aberrations, though rarely as practices that constitute civilization. D. BLEICH *