Oppression and Embodiment

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Lisa Guenther has defined critical phenomenology in this way: “By critical phenomenology I mean a method that is rooted in first-person accounts of experience but also critical of classical phenomenology’s claim that the first person singular is absolutely prior to intersubjectivity and to the complex textures of social life.” In this course, we will use this method of critical phenomenology in order to examine the relationship between social oppression and embodied experience. In particular, we will explore how bodily behavior can perpetuate oppression, how marginalized individuals experience oppression at the level of embodiment, and how bodies can be used to resist oppression. Through this examination, we will uncover the various ways that theorists offer a critique of classic phenomenology through their critical phenomenological analyses of oppression.