PHIL 311T(F) Body Politics: Power, Pain, and Pleasure (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 311T) (W)
In this course we will juxtapose Western philosophical treatments of the body (egs., Platonic, Aristotelian, Hobbesian, Cartesian, Freudian, Foucauldian) with cultural analyses of contemporary issues in body politics. How do we reconcile the body and its pleasures with the demand for social and political order? What sort of bodily training is necessary for entry into society? Is the body an inevitable source of resistance and rebellion? Is it instead a vehicle of power and social control? How do different bodies matter differently? If bodies and pleasures are historically and socially constituted within unequal power relationships, what can or should we do to transform them? Does the body really matter any more? We take up these and other questions with reference to particular practices concerning body image (dietary and fitness regimes, cosmetic surgery) as well as more general questions concerning consumerism and gender, sexual, and racial identities.
Format: tutorial. Students will work in pairs. Requirements: each student will write and present orally a five-page essay every other week. Students not presenting essays will prepare oral critiques of their partners' essays. Evaluation will be based on written work, oral presentations of essays, and oral critiques.
Prerequisites: one course in either Philosophy or Women's and Gender Studies, or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference will be given to students who are committed to taking the tutorial.
Tutorial meetings to be arranged. SAWICKI