HNRS-270 | Gender Across Cultures-Global

Full Title: Gender Across Cultures

Topic Description:

What is gender? How can it be used to help us understand life in early societies? We will explore how gender roles were articulated and reinforced, how sexuality was related to gender or social position, and how deviations from the norm were regarded. Using a global perspective, we will analyze literature and visual art from China, Japan, India, Greece, and England (ranging from 1000 BCE to the 12th Century CE), in order to observe and compare a wide range of gender constructions and norms. A humanistic approach asks how ideas about gender were presented in literature and art in a particular time and place, and analyzes the reception of those ideas. We will examine the role artistic expressions played in communicating, reinforcing, rejecting, or modifying understandings of gender, and how historical ideas about gender have played a role in our own era

Counts as Global? Yes

Topic Approved: April 2015