Visual Studies graduate courses

VS 534 - Body Criticism

This seminar will introduce students to a subfield called Body Criticism, that is, the study of the history and theory of the representation of the body. Major topics to be considered by the course are imaging/imagining the whole body; representations of the body in pieces and desire, violence, trauma and health/pathology; embodiment and subjectivity; inside/outside; surface/depth; race; gender/sexual identity; life/death. The class may consider images from the arts, science and medicine and will cover a variety of media: sculpture, painting, prints, photography, film, video, digital media, and—of course—the body itself.