EUROPEAN 304
Images of Men in Europe, 18th - 21st Century
Please note: this is archived course information from 2024 for EUROPEAN 304.
Description
Course Outline and Aims: The purpose of this course is to understand the construction of European gendered identities by examining, in a historical and anthropological perspective, the changes in the images of men and masculinity in the contemporary period, in a time span and specific topics that that may vary but will stay limited to the time frame beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, and ending nowadays.
Such an inquiry will, nevertheless, need to be grounded in the oldest models on which masculinity was originally founded in the European world. This is why this course will put a major emphasis in understanding and deconstructing the idea of “manliness”, or “virility”, which has unquestionably provided over the centuries a stable and dominant archaic model which defined and prescribed what a “real man” is, or at least should be. It will do so by examining the changing representations of masculinity in European visual culture, mainly through sports, war, consumption, medicine and sexuality.
The class aims at providing a deeper and more complex understanding of European gendered identities, and beyond, of the construction of masculinities in the Western world. But it also focuses on visual culture and the interpretation of images, in a methodological perspective; how can we “read” images? What is “real” about the images of “real” men?
For full course information see the Digital Course Outline for EUROPEAN 304.
Digital Course Outlines are refreshed in November for the following year. Digital Course Outlines for courses to be offered for the first time may be published slightly later.
Availability 2024
Not taught in 2024
Lecturer(s)
TBA
Assessment
Coursework: 2 essays, 20% (1500) and 30% (2500 words)
Exam: 1 two-hour final written exam (50%)
Points
EUROPEAN 304: 15 points
Prerequisites
30 points at Stage II in BA courses
Restrictions
EUROPEAN 208
