| Unit name | The Cultural Imagination of Gender |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MODLM0023 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Wells |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Modern Languages |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit provides students with an understanding of the theoretical debates which have shaped gender identities, both historically and within contemporary criticism. The unit analyses gender roles across a variety of nation states within and beyond Europe, as they are represented and indeed subverted through a series of spheres (aesthetic, cultural, social, and ideological). Drawing on a broad range of sources, from literary and visual material to socio-linguistics and political discourse, students will address how gender has been imagined, reproduced, and problematised both within and between different cultures. Using the MA's comparative approach, the unit engages with debates around feminism, masculinity, and the linguistic foundations of gender construction. Focal points will vary from year to year so as to accommodate staff research interests, asking how gender is formed through key cultural contexts, including literary writing, visual media, parenthood, political dissent, military conflict, and language.
Students will be able to:
a) identify key issues and thinkers in the field of gender studies while engaging with debates in contemporary gender theory.
b) understand how to apply gender theory as an interpretive tool to specific cultural forms (e.g. literary fiction and political pamphlets).
c) investigate how constructions of gender vary within and across cultural borders.
d) evaluate the advantages and limitations of gender theory with respect to developing their intercultural knowledge.
Seminar discussions
5,000 word essay (testing ILOs a-d)
Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884)
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (1990)
Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds.) The Handbook of Language and Gender (2003)
R. W. Connell, Masculinities (1995, 2nd ed. 2005)
Michael Kimmel, Misframing Men: the Politics of Contemporary Masculinities (2008)
