Medieval Body

Catalog description

This course will explore the meanings and representations of the body in western medieval culture. Topics will include bleeding bodies, fragmented bodies, lactating bodies, labile bodies, cosmic bodies, physiological bodies, mystical bodies, suffering bodies, edible bodies, enclosed bodies, gendered bodies, Christ's bodies, Mary's bodies, decomposing bodies, macabre bodies, resurrected bodies, dead bodies, intercessory bodies, unhinging bodies, translucent bodies, martyred bodies, desirable bodies, desirous bodies, abhorrent bodies, mimetic bodies, nude bodies, marginalized bodies, defleshed bodies, social bodies, political bodies, monstrous bodies, mnemonic bodies, and deformed bodies. We will explore the complex rhetoric of embodiment as it manifests itself in the ambiguous discourse--both medieval and contemporary--on the relationships between the material and intangible, spiritual and physical, somatic and mental, corporeal and ethereal. Offered as ARTH 358 and ARTH 458 . Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.