GEH 101
Cultural History of the Body
Introduction to the Course
Guiding Assumptions for the Course:
Our experiences in the body have meanings that exceed the purely physical, and how we imagine the body shapes these meanings and experiences.
Literature, medical theory, art, and all other aspects of human culture produce messages about the body that collaborate to shape how we imagine embodied experience.
How we imagine the body changes across time, space, and cultures.
Guiding Questions for the Course:
How have literature, medicine, and art given meanings to the human body, the visual and functional diversity of humans, and universal experiences like health and illness?
How is what literature tells us about these questions different from what medicine or art narrates?
What can the exploration of ancient/classical, Medieval, and Renaissance culture offer to our understandings of the body, health and illness in our own time?
Potential questions beyond the course…
What do non-Western cultures throughout history have to say about the same questions and issues?
What more do I want to know about the cultural history of the body and how might I go about exploring this interest?
Literary Texts for Fall include:
The Book of Job, Hebrew Bible
(c.a. 500 BCE)
Philoctetes, Sophocles
(409 BCE)
Boccaccio, The Decameron
(1351-53)
Shakespeare, Richard III
(c1594)
--and essays by Michel de Montaigne (late 1500s) and Francis Bacon (1625)
The Book of Job
Philoctetes
The Decameron
Medical Texts by:
Hippocrates (the Hippocratic Corpus - ~300 BCE)
Galen (~170 AD)
Paracelsus (1530s)
Vesalius (1543)
Harvey (1600s)
Galen
Vesalius
Course Overview:
Combination of lecture, guided analysis, and discussion
Preparation and Attendance:
Essential to success in this course
Review the course website today
e-texts, announcements, basic course materials
http://courses.csusm.edu/geh101msUser name: student Password: body
Course Overview, continued
Participation will be measured by attendance in this class, ATTENDANCE AT SI sessions, short quizzes, and short analytical homework exercises to help you do the reading. 20%
Four short (1-2) page essays will be due over the semester, responding to prompts based on readings and class sessions. 40%
Mid-term and final will be in-class, cumulative, closed book (identification, short-answer, and essay questions). 20% each, total of 40%
Other Course Policies
Come on time, stay for the whole class, do not leave the classroom unless EMERGENCY
No cell phones unless you want me to answer your calls!
Bring text we’re discussing TO CLASS
(print out e-texts)
I will give detailed instructions on homework (only) during class
Basic courtesy please, especially in listening
Academic honesty a requirement.
Additional Crucial Info
SI attendance will have a significant impact on how well you do in the course.
Please come say hello during my office hours and tell me how the course is going for you.
Make an appointment during office hours (or other, if needed) if you have specific business that needs attention.
Office Hours MW 1-2 pm and by appt.
Craven Hall 6242 (6th floor: Literature and Writing Studies)
Email best way to reach me! mstoddar@csusm.edu