COML 4946 - Aesthetics and Politics of Nakedness

(crosslisted)
(also ENGL 4966, FGSS 4946) (CA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

N. Diabate.

This course explores representations of the use of nakedness as a form of resistance– protest nudity, genital cursing, and sex strike– in a broad range of cultural products from ancient Greece to 21 century Africa. Topics include nakedness as symbolic injury, nakedness and queerness, naked protest fatigue, and the work of shame. As we reflect on the differing meanings of nakedness across time and cultures, we will also be attentive to the variables of race, gender, and bodily abilities and how they complicate protest nudity. Primary texts include Devi’s “Draupadi,” Disney’s Pray the Devil back to Hell, Echewa’s I Saw the Sky Catch Fire, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, images and videos from the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the “Arab Spring,” and gay parades in San Francisco. Through an examination of theoretical texts by Kristeva, Barcan, Ableman, Halperin, Tomkins, and Beaudrillard, students will reflect on the constructedness of sexuality, nakedness, and resistance.