Interdisciplinary Arts 0108 - Writing the Body: Materiality, Power and Pleasure

Audre Lorde argues that all knowledge is mediated through the body. We all have bodies, but what does it actually mean to exist in a body? Is the body a vessel, a discursive construction, our essential self? And how can we capture this complexity in our writing? This course will explore writing about the body as a means of critical reflection on the self and the world. We will read and discuss published work-history, critical theory, personal essays, fiction, poetry (maybe even some science!)-that engages the complexities of inhabiting a body marked by discourses of race, class, gender, age, ability, ethnicity, etc., in our modern world. And we will explore, through a variety of different types of writing, how bodies as political sites both enable and limit our ability to navigate public and private spaces; how they function as sources of pain as well as pleasure; and how they can serve as contradictory sites of oppression and liberation. This Writing Program course is open to both new and experienced writers in all genres.

Art and Politics Students should expect to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time