Topic for Fall 2016: Freaks of Culture--Spectacular Bodies on Display
This course focuses on enfreakment, human spectacles, and extraordinary bodies in the cultures of the German-speaking countries. We explore bodily difference and gazes of power through the lenses of critical identity studies (e.g., disability, gender, ethnic, and queer studies). Various phenomena that we examine include: colonialism and human zoos/Völkerschauen; the science of enfreakment (ethnology, eugenics, medicine, sexology); fat ladies and freak shows; representations of disability, war, and injury in the visual arts; body modification and cosmetic surgery; reality TV; and reversing the gaze. The course engages with a wide range of genres and media from short stories, novels, and television to film, fine arts, and advertising.