INQ-270 | Gender & Literature-Global

Full Title: Gender in Early World Literature

Topic Description:

What is gender? How can it be used to help us understand human experience in early societies? In this class 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 study literature (and some visual art) from the Near East, China, Japan, India, Greece, and England (ranging from 1000 BCE to the 12th Century CE), in order to observe a wide range of gender constructions and norms. We will also examine the role artistic expressions have played in communicating, reinforcing, rejecting, or modifying understandings of gender, and gain some insight into the construction of gender in our own time and place.

Counts as Global? Yes

Topic Approved: April 2010