Freaks and the Medical Body

Catalog description

It is often said that knowledge is power. This course explores the way that knowledge, scientia, is power by examining the way in which medical science brings legitimacy to certain forbidden spectacles. The course will do so by examining the history of the freak show and how medical science legitimated the use of “deformed” persons for the acquisition and distribution of knowledge. In the second part of the course, we will examine the participation of medicine in the “freak shows” of our time. We will also explore the way in which medicine shapes our contemporary understanding of aesthetics and ethics.