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Undergraduate GRF-HSY209-2021

The Body in History

Look back at the attitudes and theories people have held about the body throughout recent history. Identify shifting attitudes to body health and beauty. Expose how attitudes have been shaped by considerations like gender, race and sexuality.

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Times Higher Education Ranking 2021

2021

Subject details

What you'll learn

At the completion of this subject you will be able to:

identify the central aims and objectives of the body as a way to understand history;
understand the place of the body in history in world historical context;
recognise and compare the complexities and varieties within specific histories of medicine, health, embodiment, gender and difference;
place the history of the body within the larger frameworks of transnational, imperial and colonial history;
apply ways of thinking about bodies and the body to rethinking world history;
employ analytical thinking skills and reflect critically and ethically on the above issues;
analyse, evaluate and synthesis a range of historical images and texts;
develop sustained, logical and informed arguments about the dynamics of the body in world history;
appreciate and evaluate the variety of approaches to the body in world history;
draw on a knowledge of history to understand the complexities and dynamics shaping, forging and limiting the body as a historical concept and lived experiences.

Topics covered

- Introduction
- Anatomy to surgery
- The invention of the asylum: prison and the treatment of the insane
- Skin in history
- Sexing the body
- Dangers of the city
- Punishing the body
- Death and modern life
- Eugenics
- Bodies on display: science, museums and bodies

Entry requirements

Others

Note: Level 2 subjects normally assume an introductory level of prior knowledge in this area, e.g. from studying related Level 1 subjects or other relevant experience.

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Description

This subject focuses on the history of the body since the mid eighteenth century. We will look at why physical and mental health have been the concerns of governments, how different populations have been identified as 'fit' or unfit', and the way in which gender, sexuality and 'race' have shaped public understandings of a variety of bodies and subjects. The subject covers diverse representations of 'the body' as an ideal and its relationship to actual bodies in modern history, from public health to sex education and psychiatry, and from femininity to sanitation.

Assessments

Online Discussion (15%)
Review an Essay (15%)
Draft Plan — For Essay (15%)
Research Essay (55%)

Textbooks

Related degrees

Undergraduate GRF-ART-DEG-2021

Bachelor of Arts

10 available majors

Major in Art History
Major in Creative Writing
Major in Criminal Justice
Major in History
Major in Journalism
Major in Literature
Major in Media Studies
Major in Public Relations
Major in Screen Culture
Major in Sociology