Embodying Culture: An Introduction

What is the course about?

In this Culture course, we will look at how thinkers from philosophy, anthropology, science and technology studies, psychoanalysis, and gender and sexuality studies have approached the task of interpreting the significance of embodied life. We will consider the dual question of how culture shapes our bodies and how our bodies reshape and even disrupt culture?

Throughout the ages, scientists and philosophers alike have turned to the body as what contains the biological blueprint of human culture: from the transcendence of the immortal soul to the unruly fluidity of the passions. In the twentieth century, there was broader recognition of the bodies’ susceptibility to social influences - leading to various theories of how culture shapes the body in myriad ways.

As well as exploring the long history of how bodies have been measured, mapped, and medicalised according to a variety of metrics and meanings, we will also attend to the ways that bodies have changed, adapted and even generated new forms of resistance, in response to dominant cultural values and regimes of construction. From performative practices like drag, to modern bio-technologies of the self, we will take a wide-ranging investigation will incorporate more recent scholarship from affect studies, new media theory and the environmental humanities to consider how the vitality of biological processes infects and inflects even the most abstract, apparently disembodied realities and virtual systems.

What will we cover?

In this course we will cover various influential theories that have been used to understand embodied life and experience. We will centre the work of radical thinkers who have transformed approaches to the body through the lens of phenomenology, political control, cultural construction and decolonial methodologies - as something that is created rather than given and thus open to all kinds of influences, entanglements and powers of recreation.
As well as Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of ‘the flesh’, Michel Foucault’s theory of ‘biopower’, Judith Butler’s thinking of ‘performativity’ and Sylvia Wynter’s "sociogenic principle", we will draw on some influential literary texts, films, performance art and cultural artefacts to think through how the human body evolves today, including the virtual or technologically-mediated body.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Have an understanding of key theoretical approaches to embodiment.
• Demonstrate familiarity with a wide range of cultural debates about the nature of embodied subjectivity and its place in culture.
• Discuss concepts, texts, films and cultural artefacts in relation to central cultural debates about the nature of embodiment.
• Evaluate a range of way of thinking critically about mainstream discourse on bodies.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This course would be well-suited to anyone who has a keen interest in embodiment and critical theories of embodied life, culture and consciousness. While no previous knowledge of the material or topics is required, it does involve working with theoretical material, artworks and cultural artifacts. You should have the ability to read texts and watch films, think critically about them, and discuss them in an open and supportive manner with other members of the class.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

The class will be structured around a combination of tutor presentations, large and small group work and class discussion.
There will be some short extracts of theoretical texts to read each week, and some suggested further reading/viewing.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

There are no additional costs and the tutor will supply all reading and viewing material.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Look for other Culture and Film, TV and Media Studies courses under History Culture and Writing/Film Studies at www.citylit.ac.uk.