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ASIAN 505

THE PERFECTIBLE BODY IN RELIGIONS, MEDICINES, AND POLITICS

3 credits.

Looking at the cultural institutions of politics, medicine, and religion in multiple cultures and historical times, students will explore ideas about what constitutes a perfect body, how and why different parts of the body are privileged over others, and how and why the notion of bodily perfectibility differs for men and women, children and adults, and humans and gods. Readings encourage such questions as: Is the perfect body attainable and, if so, how? And, who benefits from bodily perfection (or the rhetoric of the bodily perfection)? We will ask these questions with comparative intent: we want both to learn about cultures other than our own and, in the process of understanding the other, we will ask how this new knowledge might empower us to be more observant and critical of the role(s) and treatment of the body in our own society historically and today.

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: Junior standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities Level - Advanced L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Spring 2025 Learning Outcomes: 1. Summarize discourses in the cultural institutions of politics, medicine, and religion that provide the public with ideas about what constitutes a perfect body. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Clarify why different bodies (and different parts of the body) are privileged over others in social institutions in the past and in the present. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Explore why the notion of "bodily perfectibility" differs cross-culturally, as well as across social divisions of age, gender, sex, and socioeconomics. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Investigate the relationship between ideals of bodily perfectibility and the practical attainability of those ideals. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Analyze expressions of embodiment and perfectibility in diverse historical and cultural contexts to determine the relevance of the seminar's core principles to UW–Madison research projects. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Summarize discourses in the cultural institutions of politics, medicine, and religion that provide the public with ideas about what constitutes a perfect body. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Clarify why different bodies (and different parts of the body) are privileged over others in social institutions in the past and in the present. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Explore why the notion of "bodily perfectibility" differs cross-culturally, as well as across social divisions of age, gender, sex, and socioeconomics. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Investigate the relationship between ideals of bodily perfectibility and the practical attainability of those ideals. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Analyze expressions of embodiment and perfectibility in diverse historical and cultural contexts to determine the relevance of the seminar's core principles to UW–Madison research projects. Audience: Graduate

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