SCIENZE UMANISTICHEComparative Literature and LanguagesAcademic Year 2022/2023
9795394 - GENDER STUDIES
Teacher: MARIA GRAZIA NICOLOSI
Expected Learning Outcomes
According to the Dublin descriptors, students, at the
end of the course, will demonstrate:
1) The objective of the course is the acquisition of the knowledge and
comprehension of the theories that have transformed the notion of gender in relation
to other notions such as sex and sexuality, difference and differences, the
body, subjectivity and identity.
2) The Course
intends to enhance new theoretical and critical abilities by drawing on
feminist epistemology whose perspectives can be profitably employed in the
production of new knowledge. The notion of gender will be
used as a tool to focus on the interconnections between self and other, culture
and society, the social and symbolic dimensions as well as several aspects of
representation.
3) Students of Gender Studies
will investigate not just “the condition of women” as subjects and objects of
enquiry, the relationships between men and women, or same-sex relationships,
but they will learn how to recognize and exercise independent judgement on issues
and conceptual categories relating to subjects and phenomena of the social and
cultural imaginary.
4) Students will be able to describe social phenomena
and artistic and literary representations from the point of view of gender,
using the vocabulary and the concepts developed by philosophical and political
theories in the field of Gender Studies.
5) The
objective of developing and refining the students’ learning capacity with
regard to gender theories and gender analysis of social and cultural phenomena
will be achieved through workshop activities and the active participation of
students in the classroom.
Course Structure
Teaching and group discussions in the classroom.
Required Prerequisites
The average linguistic competence expected should match the B2 level. No prior disciplinary competences about the most significant Gender
Studies theories are required.
Attendance of Lessons
Optional attendance
Detailed Course Content
This Course will provide a theoretical and practical overview of issues
bearing on the representation and self-representation of sexed and gendered
identities from different perspectives. Special attention will be given to
those theoretical paradigms traditionally marginalised in the humanities with
the aim of offering students alternative models for the analysis of – mainly,
but not exclusively – British literature and culture (including visual, media,
and “pop” culture). The following issues will be analysed in depth:- Gender and sex: real and imaginary (dis)symmetries.
Gender inequalities and biological differences between
men and women.
- Symbolic, social, cultural, and historical construal
of difference.
- Gendered apprehension of otherness.
- The body and signification.
- Eros and desire.
- Sexual orientation and identity.
- Feminist studies.
- Gender as a social power relation.
- History of feminist political struggles.
- The different forms of gendered violence.
- The representation of the body in culture, literature,
the arts, and the discourses of science and philosophy.
- Gender
as rhetorical device in literature, philosophy, the social sciences and new
technologies.
The course methodology is based on a multi- and interdisciplinary
approach with contributions from several trends of feminist criticism combined
with additional analytical tools from diverse disciplines and theories such as
Marxism, New Historicism, Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis,
poststructuralism, postcolonial studies, lesbian and gay studies, queer
theories, sexuality studies, body and embodiment theories, etc.
Textbook Information
Module 2. The Invention of Gender: Masculinity, Femininity
and Their Others1) J. Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the
Performative, Routledge, New York and London, 1997 (available as ebook, 1st ed. 2013), 200
pages.
2) J. Pilcher, I. Whelehan, eds, 50 Key Concepts in Gender
Studies, London:
Sage 2004, only
the following entries: Androcentrism
(1-2); Dichotomy (24-26); Domestic Division of Labour (pp. 30-34); Double
Standard (34-37); Family (43-47); Feminisms (48-51); First Wave Feminism
(52-55); Gender (56-58); Masculinities (2-85); The Other (90-92); Patriarchy
(93-96); Pornography (96-101); Power (115-119); Public/Private (124-128);
Representation (135-139); Second Wave Feminism (144-147); Third Wave Feminism (169-172);
Violence (172-175).
Out-of-print material will be made available
through the platform Studium UniCT.
Please remember that in compliance with art 171
L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or
journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.
For
further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please
refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti
d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di
Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References |
1 | A) Investigating motivations and expectations about
Gender Studies.B) Presentation of course contents, textbooks,
classwork and homework assignments.C) LECTURE 1: Either/And. Sex / gender – Nature / culture
binaries problematised through etymology
+ analysis of excerpt from Woolf’s Orlando. | 1) ASSIGNMENT 1: Gender before modernity (Home reading of
First Handout on gendered figures of
Greek philosophy and the disavowal of its Other)2) ASSIGNMENT 2: Home reading
of first part of J: Butler’s Excitable
Speech with reading aid worksheet for private study (“Introduction: On
Linguistic Vulnerability”, pp. 1-41. Class discussion due in two weeks’ time). |
2 | A) CLASS DISCUSSION OF
ASSIGNMENT 1: Gender before modernity.B) LECTURE 2: Essential difference? From pre-modernity to
early modernity (presentation of anatomical plates read through the lens of
Butler’s matrix of intelligibility). | 1) ASSIGNMENT 3: Genders before modernity: (Home reading
of Second Handout on the androgyne
myth and the nature of desire). |
3 | A) LECTURE 3: General bio-bibliographical
presentation of Judith Butler. Focus on textbook Excitable SpeechB) CLASS DISCUSSION OF
ASSIGNMENT 2 (first part of Butler’s Excitable
Speech. “Introduction: On Linguistic Vulnerability”, pp. 1-41). | 1) ASSIGNMENT 4: The materiality of gender difference and attendant
political hierarchies from pre-modernity to early modernity (Home reading
of Third Handout on the gender of
reason; sex preceding gender. Protofeminism:
gender equality and women’s forgotten intellectual achievements).2) ASSIGNMENT 5: Home
reading of second part of Butler’s Excitable
Speech with reading aid worksheet for private study (chaps 1 & 2
“Burning Acts, Injurious Speech”; pp. 43-69; “Sovereign performatives”, pp.
71-102). Class discussion due in two weeks’ time. |
Learning Assessment
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
How is gender
represented?
What are the metaphysical implications of the sex/gender, nature/culture
binarisms?
What
social relations are implied in gender representations in any given literary/cinematic/televised text?
How was the notion of gender understood in pre-modern times?
What is the difference between “Woman” and “women” in feminist political
theory?
What
are the most influential theories of sexed corporeality from pre- to
post-modernity?
Versione in italiano