Gender, Culture, and Representation – Backwards & in Heels

Overview

This interdisciplinary module introduces students to the central ideas of gender theory and to a wide variety of representations of gender across a range of media, including theatre, performance, literature, visual art, film and television. Using key texts and cultural works students are encouraged to examine critically the representation of gender across media, and the political, legal, and ethical dimensions of gender within our culture. The module involves a critical engagement with the relationship between identity, representation and culture and explores theories concerning the social construction of the masculine and feminine body. The module engages with several key issues, including the representation of femininity and masculinity, gender in the literary and theatrical canon of Western culture, the spatiality and temporality of gender, and its intersections with issues of race/ethnicity, class, and labour. Students will be asked to think about these issues and ideas across disciplines but also within their areas of study through seminars.

Learning Objectives

Having completed this module, you should:

* have engaged with a variety of representations of gender, the body and sexual identities within socio-historical, theoretical and representational frameworks and across multiple forms of media,

* have cultivated an understanding of the theoretical and practical movements that have shaped the construction and representation of gender, sexuality and the body in culture,

* have developed a critical understanding of the relationship between representation and identity.

Skills

Having completed this module, you should:

* have developed reflexive thinking and independent critical and analytical skills.

* have developed imaginative and communicative skills based on the application of reading materials to class presentations

* have developed research and writing skills

Assessment

None.