The Body as a Cultural Archive
Code: 107005 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Sociocultural Gender Studies | OP | 3 |
| Sociocultural Gender Studies | OP | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Maria Angeles Torras Frances
- Email:
- meri.torras@uab.cat
Teachers
- Constanza Andrea Ternicier Espinosa
- Alicia Fernández Gallego Casilda
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
None.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The body features as a key element in proposed objects of analysis from a gender perspective (and its intersectionalities), and, as such, has played a central role in some of the most radical inflections in feminist genealogies. The aim of this course is to examine the body as a cultural text-archive in threefold sense of the term ‘archive’: a) as that which regulates what can be said/understood (Foucault); b) ‘somateca’, i.e. the place where biolopolitical regimes are inscribed. (Preciado); and c) more generally, archive as a storage room where one can track and document a memory from the past made present and, in the case of the body, presence.
Learning Outcomes
- CM30 (Competence) Develop the learning skills necessary to undertake subsequent studies with a high degree of autonomy.
- KM56 (Knowledge) Identify the transformations of gender relations in the history of culture.
- KM57 (Knowledge) Analyse discourses with a critical eye by emphasising the ideology and ethnocentric and sexist biases present in different forms of cultural expression.
- SM02 (Knowledge) Use technical and interpretative vocabulary specific to the disciplines required in a given project, presentation or assignment, making use of inclusive language.
- SM35 (Skill) Produce an organised and politically correct speech, orally and in writing, in the relevant language.
- SM46 (Skill) Conduct an intersectional analysis of how the body has been represented throughout history in cultural and artistic productions.
- SM47 (Skill) Interpret cultural objects that promote sexed bodies and their gendered manifestations.
- SM50 (Skill) Work autonomously to systematise information, both among structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialised journals) and from information published on the internet.
Content
UNIT I: BODY, TEXT, AND ARCHIVE
1. Body and textuality
2. Textual corpuses
3. The embodied archive
UNIT II: CORPOREAL ARCHIVES. CASE STUDIES
1. Genealogies of (re)vision: from the gaze to the eye
2. The discipline of sexual terror upon feminised bodies
3. The body as exceptional power
4. Transhuman and posthuman bodies: dissolution and metamorphosis
5. Hybridity as resistance: borderline bodies
6. (Post)colonial fantasies: the body as racial inheritance
7. The wrinkled body: anti-aging rhetoric
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lecture with ICT support and in-class participation and discussion. | 25 | 1 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50, CM30 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Oral presentations, papers, reviews or course work (individual or in group) will be carried out based on a guideline. Tutoring sessions. | 48 | 1.92 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50, CM30 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Comprehensive and critical reading of literary and theoretical texts. Making outlines, conceptual maps and summaries. | 64 | 2.56 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50, CM30 |
The learning for this course is distributed as follows:
- Instructor-directed activities (30%). Lecture with ICT support and in-class participation & discussion.
- Instructor-supervised activities (25%). Oral presentations, reviews, or papers (individual or in group) will be made following a specific set of guidelines given by the instructor.
- Indepedent activities (45%). Comprehensive and critical reading of literary and theoretical texts. Making outlines and concept maps, and writing summaries.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COMMENTARY AND DEBATE IN CLASS | 25% | 7 | 0.28 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50 |
| IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT 1 | 25% | 2 | 0.08 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50 |
| IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT 2 | 25% | 2 | 0.08 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50 |
| IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT 3 | 25% | 2 | 0.08 | CM30, KM56, KM57, SM02, SM35, SM46, SM47, SM50 |
The student’s assessment will be made as follows:
a) Throughout the course, each student will have to carry out a critical reading of texts for each class in order to briefly share their views during debate sessions. This task will take place in small groups and it will correspond to 25% of the student's final grade. Retakes for this activity are not allowed.
b) Along the second block, and according to the calender set by the professors, each student will individually carry out three written in-class assignments, each of which is worth 25%. The three assignments together correspond to 75% of the student's final grade. These assignments are compulsory. If one of them is failed or not taken, students will be required re-take it.
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (the original weighing will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Instructors will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives. Students who fail or fail to submit one of these assignments, will be required to take a make-up exam.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to anassessment activity, the studentwill be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary processthat may take place. In the eventof several irregularities in assessment activities, the student will receive a zero as the final grade for theclass.
Single assessment
Students who choose single assessment will be submitted to
- a written exam (50%)
- an oral exam (50%)
Reassessment
Each student will have to carry out and submit at least 2 of the 3 in-class assignements to opt for reassessment through a make-up exam.
Non evaluable
If a student does not provide sufficient evaluation evidence (at least 30% of assessable activities), they will be marked as non evaluable and will not receive a grade for this module.
***
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Bibliography
Recommended bibliography:
Ahmed, Sara, y Javier Sáez. Fenomenologia Queer : orientaciones, objetos, otros / Sara Ahmed ; traducción de Javier Sáez del Álamo. Primera edición. Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2019.
Foucault, Michel. Descipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Pérez, Aina y Meri Torras (eds.) (2013) “Saberes e poderes do corpo” (dossier monográfico), Revista Interfaces, 19/II [ISSN: 1516-0033]
Puar, Jasbir K. “Homonacionalismo Como Mosaico: Viagens Virais, Sexualidades Afetivas.” Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais 3.1 (2015).
___________. Terrorist Assemblages : Homonationalism in Queer Times / Jasbir K. Puar. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
Pérez, Aina y Meri Torras (eds.) (2013) “Saberes e poderes do corpo” (dossier monográfico), Revista Interfaces, 19/II [ISSN: 1516-0033]
Torras, Meri (2020) “Fragilidades del queer-po. Ese torcido amor, de Txus García”, a eHumanista / IVITRA, 17, 42-61 [https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/ivitra/volume/17]
___________(2019) “Cuando el cuerpo de la autora traza la poética emocional del corpus. Un ojo de cristal, de Miren Agur Meabe”, Extremas. Figuras de la felicidad y la furia en la producción cultural ibérica y ibericoamericana del siglo XXI (Roland Spiller, Aránzazu Calderón Puerta, Katarzyna Moszczyńska-Dürst, eds., Berlin: Peter Lang, 27-46[ISBN: 978-3-631-80621-0]
___________ (2017). “Embodiment (Embodimén)”, a Barbarismos queer y otras esdrújulas R. Lucas Platero, María Rosón y Esther Ortega (eds.), Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra, 161-167[ISBN: 978-84-7290-829-1]
Torras, Meri, ed. (2009). El poder del cuerpo. Antología de poesía femenina contemporánea, Madrid: Castalia [ISBN 978-84-9740-294-1]
Torras, Meri i Noemí Acedo, eds. (2008). Encarna(c)ciones. Teoría(s) de los cuerpos, Barcelona: EdiUOC [ISBN 978-84-9788-727-4]
Torras, Meri, ed. (2007) Cuerpo e identidad. Estudios de género y sexualidad I, Bellaterra, Edicions UAB.
_______ (2006) Corporizar el pensamiento. Escrituras y lecturas del cuerpo en la cultura occidental. Vilagarcía de Aroúsa, Mirabel [ISBN-10: 84-934841-4-8 y ISBN-13: 978-84-934841-4-9]
_______ (2004) Monográfico “Cuerpos, géneros y tecnologías”Lectora. Revista de mujeres y textualidad [https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/lectora/issue/view/625]
Specific bibliography will be given for each subject of the course.
Software
MOODLE
Word processing (with the possibility of conversion to Word and pdfs).
Pdf reader
Power point or similar.
TEAMS
Free software is welcome, as long as the documents can be delivered in the required format.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |