INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BODY in Fall 2019 (HI1091FB10)

This course will canvas scholarly approaches to the human body across time and space. Topics we will explore include: the body of Christ and religious mysticism; changing historical notions of indecency; nakedness and nudity in art; the body in medieval and early modern political thought; pseudo-scientific theories of human difference and the emergence of biological racism; monstrosity as an object of spectacle; the body-as-machine; the “native body” in European imperial societies; theories of degeneration and eugenics; the problem of New Man in revolutionary and fascist regimes; and the rise of “bio-power.”